#Ramsey Nasr

[kurdistania]

Do Palestinian children have dreams?

— Ramsey Nasr, Dutch writer

[my-dark-happy-place]

Please take 4 minutes and watch this!

This man, Ramsey Nasr, has perfectly put into words one of the huge things that are wrong with the news reports and attitudes of a lot of people here in the west.

I wish I could force everyone who is on Israel's side, saying they are just defending themselves, and are showing now compassion or empathy whatsoever towards the people of Gaza, to sit down and watch this in it entirety. Because if they're numb or indifferent to the horrible pictures and videos and stories coming out of Gaza, maybe this will get through to them, maybe this will make them think and find their damn humanity and empathy.

[pjshermann]

Een klein leven is just four hours of

Every other actor: *beautiful monologues, walking around the stage waxing poetic*

Ramsey Nasr:

[belleandre-belle]

Ramsey Nasr, at Khalid & Sophie. Dutch writer and actor. Heartfelth emotional piece for the victims of Gaza🙏🏼🤲🏼✨💕🇵🇸🕊️

[kitchen-light]

Palestinian lives are generally referred to by numbers: 48 dead, 1,200 wounded. Not names but numbers. Something like 750 dead migrants. This is an indication of how we distribute our compassion and to what degree we recognize the other’s dignity. Because, just like Israelis, Palestinians too are burnt alive and Palestinian villages have known pogroms—carried out by Israelis. Palestinian children are tortured and imprisoned for years without charges or succor. This has been happening, generation upon generation, for more than 75 years. And maybe that has made us immune. To us they’re not people, they’re accumulated suffering: “Won’t it ever stop?” But to me, they’re family. And I too think, “Won’t it ever stop?”, but when I do I’m thinking about Western governments’ blind support for an apartheid system and ethnic cleansing. Israeli human rights organizations call their own government racist, even fascist. Even before the Hamas attack, Knesset members, ministers, and rabbis were openly making suggestions that flirted with genocide. Prime Minister Rutte revealed his bias when he declared, shortly after the attacks, “It’s not so very often we’ve experienced this conflict being directed at very ordinary people.” He clearly doesn’t see Palestinians as ordinary people.

Ramsey Nasr, from his essay "“Do Palestinian Lives Have the Same Value to Us?” Ramsey Nasr on Gaza, Migrant Drownings, and the Right to Dignity", translated from Dutch by David Colmer, published in Lit Hub, February 20, 2024

[roselungs]

The Subhuman and his Habitat

welcome to the land of milk and honey where figalmondapricots grow unmetaphorically on accommodating trees eat of them and be my guest today i’ll pay your taxi to the first roadblock

my father waits behind the second roadblock he’ll make you his guest of honour too with oil bread oregano sesame stars press down upon his roof sleep there and give him nadir’s love

the day to father is hard but essential try to find a kid with a barrow take donkeys or scramble on foot round the cliffs follow the others keep telling yourself now we are animals this is permissible

wheelchairs go bouncing through dust back from the city where they cure the sick diabetic with cancer in blazing sun many old, many sick, many sweating animals but that’s the whole idea

in the day we are sweating climbing animals because that’s the whole idea they beat and kick the animals to an end that one day we will give milk and honey one day manna will rain from human hands

if this seems insane to you habibi just think that miles down the road real girls and boys are sitting nervously outside starbucks as an act of resistance uproarious in fear of their lives

— Ramsey Nasr, tr. David Colmer

[saint-starflicker]

New destiel meme?

[atevegter]

2824 Verzamelen tot je erbij neervalt

Ik kijk naar Ramsey Nasr, die met zijn Wunderkammer een serie prachtige programma’s heeft gemaakt, waarvan dit alweer het laatste is, over de tragiek van het verzamelen. Sinds de glorie en de val van zijn voorganger met de witte handschoentjes, onze geliefde Boudewijn Büch, weten we het wel: verzamelen is een leuke hobby, maar het kan je ook te gronde richten. Ramsey geeft een paar mooie…

[moonlattae]

yes a little life in cinemas now BUT WHO WAS THERE when ramsey nasr gave us the performance of a lifetime interpreting jude st. francis? when hans kesting was brother luke AND caleb AND dr. traylor? at the ivo van hove's stage adaptation at the international theater amsterdam on september 30th? the streaming walked on thin ice the whole time, the english subtitles were ON but there was no need to read them because the acting was so good it exceeded the need of words. we were all understanding dutch that night.

[wishesbythesea]

Building a life after trauma

Li-Young Lee Hymn to Childhood | Czeslaw Milosz After Enduring | Louise Gluck Inferno | Lora Mathis If There’s a Way Out I’ll Take It | anonymous quote | Fariha Róisín How to Cure a Ghost | Sylvia Plath | Mysterious Skin by Gregg Araki | Hieu Minh Nguyen Outbound | anonymous quote | Ramsey Nasr as Jude St Francis in A Little Life | Jonathan Cuchacovich The Intimate Story of Isabel Allende | Callista Buchen Taking Care

[homoerotisch]

Ramsey Nasr, bij Khalid en Sophie

[pjshermann]

i will literally never shut up about Een Klein Leven but I'm doing a rewatch (again) and holy shit I will also never shut up about Ramsey Nasr's acting. The face he makes when Brother Puke tells him they're a couple now (yall know what i mean) is absolutely HEARTBREAKING

that is an EERILY childlike expression holy shit I'm about to throw something. he said 🥺

AND THEN THE FACE OF HEART SHATTERING ACCEPTANCE OF THE INEVITABLE

RAMSEY NASR WHEN I GET YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kitchen-light]

I can sometimes think “not right now,” but that’s looking away. It’s a temporary physical escape—because you never get used to the picture. I find that normal and human. Everyone has a right to a short holiday from their conscience. Especially when it’s something you can no longer do anything about. Whether you put it out of sight or not—it’s already happened. You can’t save the girl from the napalm, you can’t undo the concentration camps. But what if the disasters being described, the horrors being shown, are happening as we speak? While you read, families are drowning. Can you keep sending your conscience on holiday when the two things are happening simultaneously? Of course, looking away can be an expression of impotence, of desperation. “What on Earth should we do?” Politicians, on the other hand, have power. They have the means to intervene, to actually do something. That makes it all the more remarkable that our political discussions so rarely mention individuals, persons, humans. A minister is responsible for “a dossier”—migration, for instance. In itself, that’s a necessity: just as an ordinary citizen would go mad if every gruesome news item or incident forced its way into their living room, it would be too much for a minister, policy advisor, or responsible official to know and deal with all these separate cases. But it becomes a problem when all the people disappear out of consideration and only dossiers are left.

Ramsey Nasr, from his essay ""Do Palestinian Lives Have the Same Value to Us?” Ramsey Nasr on Gaza, Migrant Drownings, and the Right to Dignity", translated from Dutch by David Colmer published in Lit Hub, February 20, 2024

[huariqueje]

Kennen we de naam van elk Palestijns slachtoffer? | Khalid & Sophie | BN...

Ramsey Nasr is a Dutch poet, writer, essayist, actor, director, librettist and translator.

Translated video on youtube

[fan-of-glitter]

"Do we know the name of every Palestinian victim?" Ramsey Nasr- actor, writer and son of a Palestinian father and Dutch mother- recites an powerful piece about the fate of the people of Gaza.

Watch on youtube with English subtitles

[eenkleinleven]

cant wait to hear your thoughts about the play!! know i am living vicariously through you and i hope your emotional recovery is going well!

Oh, I won't ever be okay again. It was great. A woman in the audience had an episode of vasovagal syncope in the first hour of the play because of the blood. She almost staggered onto the stage and they had to pause to get her medical attention. Majd got to ask "is there a doctor in the audience?" And the luckiest man alive got to get up, and say "I am". I was so tickled by that. Is this not the sort of thing doctors aspire to do?

Because my brain is rotted like wooden support beams after a decade of flooding, I thought "he's certainly going to be comfortably situated in his Andy oats for the rest of the night".

Here's some other things that struck me, though.

In no particular order:

Ramsey Nasr does a great job of capturing the fact that Jude is sort of adorable. There were moments where I was caught off guard by it and thought to myself: "ah, that's cute." In the adoption scene, when he hugs Willem, he actually like... really wrapped himself around him. Like, a real leap of a hug.

The little kisses everyone gives Jude on his head! Oh, my heart!

Hans Kesting is so good at what he does. A terrifying presence on stage. Particularly as Dr. Traylor, but there is a palpable cruelty to the way he plays Caleb. Like a housecat batting around a baby bird.

Another thing: during the car scene, he tilted the light at each rotation to make sure everyone in the audience was momentarily blinded.

Oh, god! The Greene St scene with Caleb was a real shock! The whole room was bathed in this horrible (good horrible) white light. Even I felt a little exposed.

Another "oh, god" moment was during the moment with Caleb showing up at Greene St and forcing Jude to undress and Jude calls out to Ana and asks her to take his watch. Something about that made me sob.

There was a moment where Ana was watching--I believe--Willem and Jude having sex, if memory serves. And while, you know, I could say more important things about that, the only thing that came to mind was this:

JB was so... Flamboyant. Sort of this:

I noted that they changed his dialogue to deprive me of something I thought was funny which is that they made him Syrian, which makes sense! But White JB is funnier.

They had someone other than Steven van Watermeulen playing Harold. I'll say this: highly effective. Absolute law professor energy. The long strides, pacing around the stage, the tone of voice, the expressions! All perfect. I felt the urge to prepare myself to think about the commerce clause and standing, and if that doesn't speak to his performance, then what does?

The ending of the play really got to me, because Harold walks out into the audience and looks at the stage with us before it goes dark. I wept!

I may just be a sucker for string accompaniments, but they managed to make the air thick with tension at times.

When Jude cut himself and the screens would dissolve into a bright, hazy static, I found that really immersive.

The burning scene was an interesting one for the audience. When he lit the match, people *gasped*. To see that bright light flickering, almost imperceptible, from inside of the sink as Jude recites these rapid-fire free association memories, it is just *devastating*.

I might be a softie, but it really tugged at my heartstrings to see Jude crying. I really felt for him. All throughout, really, I often found that I could only think: it's difficult, isn't it? It's difficult to know what to do, and even harder to do it.

Certain instances of the blocking (i.e. where everyone is standing on a stage) were downright electric. Moments where, say, Jude, Harold, and Brother Luke would be standing like points on a diagonal line struck me as genius. The staging of past-present was just so neat. Lots of spatial triangulation.

I forgot that Ramsey Nasr was in the opera adaptation of Death in Venice (also ITA), so the clarity of tone in his singing was unexpected, and thus, all the more beautiful.

Oh, and one last thing: in the scene where Willem dies, there's this instant where Jude is hugging him, and as he pulls away, Jude held onto his cardigan for just long enough before letting go.