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Loulou (Piccadilly/Damascus 1974)
The Plot:
Loulou is acquitted after spending fifteen years in prison for the charge of killing Younes. She tells the people who lied against her in court that since she already paid for the crime, she has the choice of killing someone. They go to the judge to find a way out. They suggest that the judge assign bodyguards to each one of them, or to frame Loulou in another crime. Finally, the judge's wife suggest to get Loulou sent to the lunatic asylum. Meanwhile, Loulou meets with an old friend, Alboyaji (Someone who cleans shoes on the road). She asks him about old times and then tells him to write a list that contains all the names of the people of the town. He asks for the reason and she tells him that from the list she will choose a name of the one she's going to kill. He writes it down and includes his own name as Loulou demands it. The judge meets with Loulou and tells her to keep within her house and then he sends a psychiatrist to write a report on her case. She mistakes him for a barber, he plays along but as he speaks she doubts that he's in fact a doctor.
Loulou finds from Gergi Alboyaji that her old lover has actually got married a long time ago. Then a man called Fares suggests to Loulou someone to kill. He's Fares' rival parliamentary candidate. Loulou adds both their names. Later, Nayf meets with Loulou, he tries to explain to her that he was forced into the marriage and that he is interested in reuniting with her again. But she doesn't believe his claims. Loulou meets with a bunch of bullies who each claim of a big crime. She asks them to protect her as she is the one who received the harshest sentence.
Gergi disappears and presumed killed by Loulou. They start congratulating each other for safety. They ask Loulou
about him and she tells them she sent him to a good place. But Gergi returns and says he went to Loulou's grandfather to bring her some money and that he was late because of traffic troubles near Darina. They all start worrying about their lives again. Gergi tells Loulou that her grandfather will be coming in two days so Loulou invites everyone for a party on her Grandfather's honor. When the judge receives his invitation, his wife together with Nayf conspires to kill Loulou. They hire Ra'ed, a habila/loony who calls himself Napoleon, to kill her.
Fares gets the bullies jailed for a couple of days each for their crimes which turned out to be just misdemeanors. They were claiming all that killing. Getting rid of the bullies has made Loulou a clear target, but in the party, Ra'ed escapes and they all turn against each other, blaming each other. Loulou leaves with her grandfather after realizing that justice and freedom were lies.

Quick Notes: This play was one of the few that were also performed in a television studio in order to be videotaped. I heard Mansour Rahbani saying in one interview that most of the plays were videotaped but none were being shown on television because no network was interested in paying all the sum he asked for. I don't know if the rest of the plays were done like this one, in a television studio or live. Actually it would be interesting to see all the plays released on videotapes/DVDs for sale.
Back to this recording, the audio capture of the play came from live performance not the television program. And even though this is a late play, you'd kind of expect that the technical quality would be at least as clear as the earlier plays, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. The quality of the dialogue is bad, comprehensible but still bad. As for the songs, they're okay. I guess this was because the songs were performed in playback. The Booklet has some information and an overview written by Rafik Khouri.

Credits:
Fairuz ... Loulou
Nasri Shamseddine ... Gergi Al Boyaji
William Haswani ... Alkadi
Hoda ... Mart Elkadi
Joesph Nassif ... Nayf Abou Der'a
Joseph Sakr ... Fares
Written by the Rahbani Brothers except for:
CD1 Track 6 Arrangement by Elias Rahbani
CD1 Track 10 Sung by Harout Elmiyan
CD1 Track 11 Music by Knipper, Arrangement by Rahbani Brothers
CD1 Track 18 Music by Philemon Wehbe
CD2 Track 1,14 and 20 Music by Elias Rahbani
CD2 Track 9 Lyrics and Music by Ziad Rahbani
CD2 Track 15 and 21 Lyrics and music by Elias Rahbani


Album Tracks:
CD1 (53'50")
1. First Introduction 2'13"
2. Addoukhoul 1'37"
3. Ahla Bi Loulou 2'33"
4. Insa? Keif? 2'25"
5. Fi Bayt El Kadi 4'14"
6. Fi Kahwa al Mafreq 2'42"
7. Loulou Wel Bouaji 2'35"
8. El Kadi We Loulou 2'58"
9. El Doctor We Loulou 2'25"
10. Santa Lucia 1'09"
11. Kanou Ya Habibi 4'33"
12. Hak El Chab 2'50"
13. El Boyaji We Martou 1'08"
14. Boya Boya 2'59"
15. Doukhoul Kabadayat 2'54"
16. El Boyaji we Nayef 1'19"
17. Fares We Loulou 2'15"
18. Min Ezz Elnawm 4'27"
19. Loulou We Nayef 3'
20. Allah Ma'ak 3'22"
CD2 (51'38")
1. Second Introduction 1'51"
2. Raji'in Ya Hawa 5'23"
3. Hayyi El Marajel 3'49"
4. Sayf El Marajel 1'34"
5. Mawal Dar El Layali 1'04"
6. Dabket Kabadayat 3'01"
7. Ikhtifa Al Boyaji 2'15"
8. Chou Bikon Ya Ammi 2'11"
9. Nattarouna Ktir 3'45"
10. Loulou Wel Doctor 1'25"
11. Elkadi, El Moufawad 48"
12. Ya Biya'a Khidini 2'56"
13. Mart Kadi We Moufawad 1'59"
14. Yalla Ya Ikhwan 1'35"
15. Al Hob El Hob 2'15"
16. Kif Lkitilli Halsofra 1'57"
17. Kabadayat We Moufawad 1'39"
18. Music 1'48"
19. E Viva 2'24"
20. Rakset Samia 1'47"
21. Kan Enna Tahoon 2'49"
22. Finale 3'09"


Total time 106'06" - VDLCD 591/2