In Farsi, the translation for “wish you were here” is ”your place is empty.” The Persian expression captures the absence of the person once there. In Sanaz Toossi’s introduction to the play she includes W.S. Merwin’s poem “Separation” that reads:
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
The play follows five friends and the inextricable ties that bind them together. Toossi’s deft ability to weave humor and heartbreak throughout the play allow us to experience the deep affection these women have for one another. Wish You Were Here reminds us that where we are from is rooted as much in people as it is in place.
When my mother gave birth to her only daughter, thousands of miles from her homeland, without hesitation she named me Azar. When I was old enough to ask why she had chosen that particular name, she explained that I was named after her best friend in Iran. For many years they had lost touch over the oceans that separated them. I imagine that by naming me after her, my mother was attempting to fill the empty place where Azar once was. To say her friend’s name again with a sense of hope and possibility. To root her firmly in who I would one day become.
I dedicate this production to them, to the one who left and even more to the one who stayed. Jat Khali.
