Genre: Folk Comedy à la Rahbani school.
Length: 2:30 minutes, 1971.
A comment on the genre: this is the only place where readers will
find information on the Rahbani genre.

Sahriyé is vantage Ziad work in early impressions from his parents. Loyal to the Rahbani genre developed by his father Assi in the late fifties and sixties in collaboration with Fairuz (Ziad's mother) and the Lebanese Folk Troupe (al Firka al Sha'abia al Lubnania), Ziad has written, produced, directed, and composed the music and the songs for this funny play.
The Rahbani genre is based on a simple story line about country folks who are straightforward in their manners, whose talk is tongue-in-cheek proverbs from olden times, and who easily turn to music and dance. In a nutshell, the genre is entirely fictional and unrealistic, depicting a paradise - like Lebanese village where the plot of the show turns around (for example) the loss of a jar and who took it, and was he a gharib (a stranger from another village) etc.

The Plot Summary:
Nakhlé Al-Tannine is the owner (el muallem) of a coffee shop in the northern Beirut suburb of Antelias (in fact this was the vocation of Ziad's grandfather, an owner of a coffee shop in Antelias). Nakhlé (played by Joseph Sakr), not only manages the shop but has a nightly sahra (party) where he entertains the clients with song and music. The formula worked and customers kept coming back until Nakhlé starts losing his voice because of age. Business deteriorates and Nakhlé demonstrates his willingness to give up on singing if (a big if) the village comes up with a younger replacement who can sing better than he does.
In fact, Nakhlé's daughter Yasmeen (played by Georgette Sayegh) has a pretty voice and can sing, but apparently the all-male clientèle at the coffee shop wants a male performer to say the "auf" (a traditional Lebanese refrain).