When The Phone Rang… The Call of the Muse Was Answered: An Interview with Youssef Alaoui and Anton Bonnici

The subject matter of Youssef Alaoui and Anton Bonnici’s new release, When the Phone Rang, feels as timely now as it did at one of the heights of anti-Arab sentiments and policies: in the immediate years that followed 9/11. The Opiate took some time to discuss, among other topics, how the original short story, “When the Phone Rang,” came to be and why the resonance … Continue reading When The Phone Rang… The Call of the Muse Was Answered: An Interview with Youssef Alaoui and Anton Bonnici

Genna RivieccioJune 9, 2025Leave a comment

Play

Dialogue by Nour Gourdou

– Are you writing anything nowadays? – I don’t write. – Ever? – Ever.– Why so? – I just can’t. Every time a story pops up in my head, I try to lay it on paper, but as soon as I write the first sentence, I think it is the first thing ever written by humanity, and immediately stop. – Well, the good thing is, … Continue reading Dialogue by Nour Gourdou

Genna RivieccioJuly 28, 2024Leave a comment

Essay

The Horse and the Rhino: A Fatal Normality by Anton Bonnici

“The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eye—all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills—like a God.” -from Peter Shaffer’s Equus The first play that made me aware of the power of the stage was Peter Shaffer’s Equus. I must have been fourteen or fifteen years old when my father gave me his copy … Continue reading The Horse and the Rhino: A Fatal Normality by Anton Bonnici

Genna RivieccioMarch 12, 2024March 12, 2024Leave a comment