Lecture on Lebanon at the Canadian War Museum

Lecture on Lebanon at the Canadian War Museum explores the history behind GCTC play

Dr. Habib’s lecture will set the scene for Helen’s Necklace, presented from April 17 to May 6, 2007 at the GCTC. The play is about a Canadian visitor to war-scarred Beirut who, while searching for her lost pearl necklace, encounters the city’s inhabitants and realizes her loss is insignificant compared to that of others. Previous lectures in the Canadian War Museum/GCTC series examined the legacy of the First World War in the Middle East for the GCTC’s presentation of The Oxford Roof Climber’s Rebellion, and presented, also in partnership with P.E.N. Canada, a panel of authors writing about conflict for the staging of Leo.

A well-respected scholar of Lebanese descent and an authority on Middle Eastern politics, Dr. Habib will discuss the roots of conflict in Lebanon, with a special focus on the civil war that tore the country apart from 1975 to 1990. The fighting was sparked by tensions between different Christian and Muslim factions, exacerbated by the presence of combatants from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and escalated by the intervention of both Israel and Syria. By the time it subsided, the political and religious strife had killed well over 100,000 people, displaced as many as 900,000, and left much of the country — and Beirut in particular — in ruins. Lasting peace remains elusive; last summer, violence erupted once again between Israel and Lebanon.

Dr. Habib established the Political Science department at Montreal’s Loyola College (now Concordia University), and was instrumental in founding the Global Forum for International Co-operation (GFIC). Now a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Concordia, he teaches courses there as well as at McGill University and at Carleton University in Ottawa.

WHAT: Dr. Henry Habib presents a lecture on Conflict in Lebanon
WHERE: Barney Danson Theatre, Canadian War Museum
WHEN: Thursday, April 12 at 7 p.m. (in English only)
COST: Free (limited seating ­— first come, first served)

Helen’s Necklace — Great Canadian Theatre Company
April 17 – May 6, 2007
Helen is a visitor from Canada. Determined to find her lost pearl necklace, she embarks on a wild taxi ride through the dusty streets of war-torn Beirut. When Helen comes face to face with the city’s residents — a construction worker, a mother, an angry man and a souvenir salesman — she must reconcile her own loss with the suffering of others. Helen’s Necklace, a transcendent play about things lost and found, is written by Carole Fréchette, translated by John Murrell, directed by Lise Ann Johnson, and presented in association with Quebec Scene. This will be the GCTC’s last production in its performance space at 910 Gladstone Ave. before it moves into the new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre in late summer.

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