Still Life

Still life is a brilliant study of a writer struggling with general anxiety disorder. Severely shaken by a panic attack on her birthday, she is bewildered as to the cause—she seems afraid of fear itself! She tests herself as a live nude model and as a clinical subject for stress—but both bring on panic attacks. The thirty year old finds inspiration in the self-portraits of Nidaa Badwan, taken while shut up in a Gazan flat. The thirty year old envies the freedom the photographer found in nine square meters. She vows to leave her apartment only when the time is right. But her dark apartment betrays her every move. She feels like a rat in a maze. A candid look at anxiety, this feminist play criticizes performance-oriented culture. Still Life illustrates how society responds when one falls short of the accomplishments expected at life’s first major milestone. It proposes that art can heal the past and provide hopeful futures.