I asked whether friends and readers in Lebanon have seen the play about Che that is being performed in Beirut. My friend Rania Masri sent me her reaction:
"It was a history lesson – with some inaccuracies – from the time che met fidel to his death. No depth. None whatsoever. The music was 70s Lebanese music. The lyrics were bland and overly melodramatic The dance team was armenian – and every now and then they would actually include armenian dance steps. Their salsa was quite bad too. The music was forced, btw. I started to fret every time the music started. Every now and then, che would sing about his sadness, and the sadness of revolution, and the sadness of tomorrow, and how lonely and lost he feels, and haram The stage was unbelievable. Screen background – with moving stars in the background, or jungle in the background, but that was all fine until a comrade was killed and then the background became of Saturn and Jupiter. Terrible Want more? Che was presented more like Jesus – than like a secular revolutionary But the cake goes to the audience, most of whom looked in rapture and in awe. And every time anything remotely cliché – ic (the revolution from the people, for example), the audience would applause. he got half a standing ovation I stood up too – but to escape Oh – and it was dreadfully long – from 9 (started late) to almost midnight, with an intermission in which you get to choose if you want to drink coca cola or nestle products. The only semi-decent thing presented was che talking about how the US and USSR are both imperialist and we should resist them too – how working with them would result in the cost being Cuba. The symbolism to Lebanon was clear. Well, maybe not for this audience."