You Gotta Have Wasta "Of Dignity and Stubborn Folk" Written and Directed by Ziad Rahbani
ACT I: BEIRUT, 1998.
Syrian and Israeli troops have withdrawn from Lebanon, and the country can determine its own fate. But greed is ascendant, and mayhem is at hand. In kaleidoscopic scenes, belly dancers alternate with news flashes and fake TV commercials, while people boast of their "wasta" (connections). When an old Armenian is electrocuted trying to repair a generator that is the only power source, an announcement is made: " He was the last Armenian in Lebanon - nothing technical will work again . "

ACT II: BEIRUT, 2003.
Though the country is in its death throes, sectarianism has not expired. Animals join the few surviving Lebanese, and an orangutan wants to vote. "What is your religion?" the humans demand. Cannibals garbed in animal skin- and holding walkie-talkies - proclaim a new credo:" We only eat our friends."

In this bleak, gallows-humor play, Ziad Rahbani parodies Lebanese society and evokes the pessimism of Orwell's 1984. The daily "Hayat" notes that "Rahbani is like those animals that feel the earthquake before it happens."