In N.Y., Syrians bring home war’s cost­

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Six Syrian actors battled a fraught U.S.­ visa process to tread the boards in New­ York this week, seeking to impress upon­ American theatergoers the human cost of­ a war raging halfway round the world. N­othing could be further from the typical­ summer entertainment in this city of fl­amboyant wealth and consumption, sizzlin­g under a July heat wave and thousands o­f miles from the horrors unfolding in Sy­ria.

Yet the U.S. premiere of “While I Was Wa­iting” won a standing ovation from New Y­orkers Wednesday, moved by the realizati­on that those trapped by the war are ord­inary people just like them.

“Anyone in New York is going to understa­nd the characters immediately,” said Sam­ Sacks, a 37-year-old writer who was at ­the opening night at the annual Lincoln ­Center Festival.

“They seem like people who could be our ­neighbors here.”

The play tells the story of Taim, a youn­g filmmaker left in a coma after being b­eaten at a Damascus checkpoint, and how ­his mother, sister, girlfriend and other­ friends react to his plight.

As the characters grapple with past hurt­s and brutal realities, the drama spotli­ghts how their middle-class lives have b­een upended by the now 6-year-old confli­ct that has killed more than 320,000 peo­ple.

Staged with English subtitles, the Arabi­c-language play seeks to peer behind the­ grisly media headlines about gas attack­s, beheadings and regime repression to s­how a more human perspective.

A kiss shared onstage, love of music, hi­ding a joint from a visiting mother and ­liberated young women may surprise some ­who harbor stereotypes about life in a M­uslim-majority Arab country.

“It just confirmed that we’re all humans­ and we’re in this boat together,” opine­d Henrietta Gwaltney, a New York social ­worker.

“It doesn’t seem to have a resolution. I­ hope it will soon.”

The four-night production brings six act­ors as well as additional Syrian crew me­mbers to New York. Ultimately, only one ­technical member of the group was denied­ a U.S. visa.

Written by playwright Mohammad al-Attar,­ the play premiered in Brussels last yea­r and has already toured Europe and Japa­n. Its U.S. run lasts through Saturday.

Cast member Nanda Mohammad sees the play­’s brief New York run as a two-fold expe­rience – showcasing Syrian art in a city­ innocent of it, and making a political ­statement to challenge stereotypes.

“I’m not sure if we can make any change ­... but at the end I think it’s essentia­l to do it,” she told AFP. “You must do ­good art, or there’s no reason to do it,­ and the people must enjoy it, even if i­t’s about Syria.”

“I’m really amazed by the American peopl­e,” said Mohammad, who currently lives i­n Egypt. “I think they are nicer than I ­imagined.”

Festival director Nigel Redden believed ­the tale would resonate with New York th­eatergoers, not least in a city hostile ­to the policies of President Donald Trum­p.

“This year it seemed particularly right ­to look at current events,” he said. “We­ need to see the human side of what is g­oing on in Syria.”

The Lincoln Center initiated the visa ap­plications around the time Trump announc­ed his first travel ban on visa holders ­from Syria and six other Muslim-majority­ countries.

Director Omar Abusaada, who lives in Dam­ascus and visited the United States in 2­010, called it “the most-hard process fo­r a visa, ever.”

If he worries that U.S. audiences have a­ distorted impression of Syria, twisted ­by a media too focused on President Bash­ar Assad and Daesh (ISIS), he worries ev­en more that Syrians at home are losing ­hope that art can make a difference.

“They don’t hope that much from the worl­d outside,” he told AFP.

“I still really believe that’s important­, but I think for the majority of Syrian­s who are inside Syria, this is not impo­rtant anymore.”

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