ARLINGTON, Mass. — Nora Armani performed in the one-person play “Mercedes and Zaruhi” at the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) on April 28, with the cosponsorship of the Tekeyan Cultural Association Boston Chapter, the Armenian Women’s Welfare Association, and the Armenian International Women’s Association. The play, written by Anush Aslibekyan, was translated from Armenian and adapted into an English version by Armani.
ACF Curator Ara Ghazarians introduced the topic of the play to the audience of some 60 people. It is the story of two sisters from the diaspora whose parents had settled in Greece after the Armenian Genocide. One of them, Zaruhi, “repatriates” to Soviet Armenia, and reveals the difficulties of her life through letters to her sister and first-person narration all the way through the period of modern Armenian independence.
Original soundtrack compositions for the play were prepared by Armenian composer Vahan Artsruni, while art director Ared Spendjian played sound cues. David Medzorian of Daval Video Production set up the lights and speakers, and ran the sound mixer.
Prior to the Boston area performance, the play was performed in Providence, RI, at the Egavian Cultural Hall in Sts. Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Church, sponsored by the church’s Cultural Committee with the Armenian Martyrs’ Memorial Committee of Rhode Island, on April 26.
Armani last performed this solo play in New York City at the United Solo Theater Festival in November 2022. Before that, she noted, in 2015 and 2019 in Armenia she performed the full play version, in which other actors performed various characters along with her Zaruhi, who still had most of the lines. In Armenia, she performed in Western Armenian.
Afterward the performance, Armani noted for the Mirror-Spectator: “Each time is different because you have a different audience with different experiences and different expectations. I loved the audience here [in Arlington] and also the space was amazing, with the focus and the lights. In Providence, the space was a bit wider and larger, so it was a bit difficult to focus and concentrate, but everything still went great.” Her English adaptation includes some additional information to allow non-Armenian viewers, or people without sufficient context, to be able to understand the story, as well as the bit about photographs which she had heard through her own family, she said.
