For Syrian playwright Ahmad Meree, the refugee experience is the stuff of art and life

Ahmad Meree is the 28-year-old playwright and star of Suitcase, a new play that's currently running in Toronto. Originally from Aleppo, Syria, Meree arrived in Canada as a refugee in 2016. His play is about a young married couple who are fleeing their home country and leaving behind everything they know, except for whatever they can fit into a single suitcase. 

"It's a reflection on my own situation today, and a lot of Syrians and people who were displaced," he tells guest host Laurie Brown. "It reflects this situation of waiting and waiting and waiting ... for something or someone to let them through. We don't really know where they are, and they are waiting for the unknown. Today, this is the reality." 

Meree joined Brown in the q studio to tell us more about his work and his own experiences as a displaced person. His two plays, Suitcase and Adrenaline, are on now at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto until Saturday, Feb. 1. Suitcase will head to Berlin in April, in both Arabic and German, and the two plays are being published in Arabic and English later this year.

Download our podcast or click the 'Listen' link near the top of this page to hear the full conversation with Ahmad Meree.

— Produced by ​Jennifer Warren