Books by Betty Shamieh

"Plenty of glamorous backstabbing, diva dissing and sexual double-crossing…has every right to claim the name Dynasty for itself. But the title character in Betty Shamieh's bouncy, bumpy comic melodrama is the real thing. A queen, I mean, and not just of the self-dramatizing type. Scratch that. She's more than a queen. She's a pharaoh, one Hatshepsut, who reigned over Egypt for 20 odd years in the 15th-century B C, and the distinction is important in a time when women rarely ruled, at least not officially. (Ancient days, huh?) A subversive speculation on the nature of power!"Ben Brantley, The New York Times "Funny, both witty-Shamieh's sharp-tongued women lacerate one another and their shared opponents-and farcical! FIT FOR A QUEEN may have attracted attention due to its election-season parallels…but it's Senenmut who is [Shamieh's] favorite kind of antihero: the oppressed subject who refuses to play angel, the recipient of horrors who manages to deliver some horrors of her own. She's bundled contradictions, as the best-written characters always are: power-hungry but empathetic; hardened through experience but naive enough to be betrayed; often the smartest person in the room, so always surprised when she's outwitted." Harvard Magazine "If the premise sounds like a history lesson, this play delivers a hilarious, beautifully written tale of what it takes to be a woman in power and how absolute power does inevitably corrupt absolutely…the writing is both poetic and powerful and the comedy is intelligent and sharp. The wily Senenmut has an evil streak that rivals many a Shakespearean villain."Tribeca Trib "FIT FOR A QUEEN reveals the life and reign of Hatshepsut in a way never before explored, thus ensuring Hatshepsut's name is not lost to the ages."Huffington Post

"The murdered Algerian in Albert Camus's The Stranger isn't even worthy of a name. We know the killer is a Frenchman who goes by Meursault, but the victim is anonymous. Now THE STRANGEST, by Betty Shamieh (ROAR, FIT FOR A QUEEN), reframes the point of view once again: from a criminal Frenchman to an Algerian woman, from the colonizer to the colonized. Umm belongs to a storytelling family, and she attempts to join their traditionally male ranks by turning her drama into a suspenseful riddle. A mix of Arabic storytelling flourishes and Ionesco-like absurdum!" The New York Times "Shamieh structured THE STRANGEST as a murder mystery where one of three brothers will be shot in the end. In the play, Abu, the father of the young man who is shot, was known as a powerful storyteller. Nevertheless, the most powerful voice is Umm, Abu's wife. Reminiscent of commedia del arte…the play not only mitigates the colonial deletion of native voices in Camus's novel, but also challenges the general silencing of women." Arab Stages "THE STRANGEST, suggested by the classic novel, turns the tale inside out, exploring the mysterious murder through the device of a traditional Arab storytelling café in which the audience is immersed." New York Magazine