Makram Ayache is a queer Arab Canadian playwright, director, performer and educator who was born in Lebanon, raised in rural Alberta. He now divides his time between Edmonton and Toronto. He received the 2020 Tom Hendry RBC Emerging Playwright Award and is the winner of the 2021/2022 Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play. Ayache earned a B.Ed. from the University of Alberta.
Drama
The Green Line
Translated by Hiba Sleiman.
Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2024.
e-book (Access restricted to members of the community)
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
A poetic, heartbreaking story of intergenerational queer history in Lebanon, The Green Line weaves together civil war Beirut with a contemporary nightclub, following one family’s journey to discover their past.
In the present day, Rami, a twentysomething queer Lebanese Canadian, has returned to the Lebanese mountains to bury his father. To cope with the weight of his grief, Rami, carrying a necklace in the shape of a phoenix left to him by his father, finds himself in a queer Beirut nightclub, where he catches the attention of a powerful drag queen named Fifi, who just so happens to be dressed as a phoenix.
In 1978, in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, Naseeb is attempting to get himself and his sister Mona out of Beirut and into the safety of the mountains. Mona, however, is secretly in love with her classmate, a woman named Yara, and refuses to leave the city. When Naseeb becomes swept up with the descending political culture of the war around him, he creates a rift between himself and Mona greater than the line that divides the country itself.
Awards and Honours
2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards–Drama, English (Finalist)
2025 Lambda Literary Awards–LGBTQ+ Drama (Finalist)
Drama
The Hooves Belonged to the Deer
Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2025.
forthcoming October 2025
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
When the impressionable young Izzy immigrates with his Arab family to rural Alberta, he becomes the salvation pet project for Pastor Isaac, a local Christian youth leader eager to mould him. Torn between his sexual desires for his friend Will and Isaac’s persuasive indoctrination, Izzy must find a way to reconcile his internalized shame and deep spiritual faith before it consumes him. Meanwhile, in a surreal reimagining of Eden/A’den, Aadam and Hawa—the first couple of the Qur’an—find their relationship turned upside down when Aadam is tempted by the proverbial white-skinned man, Steve, from the north.
With the gravitas of a Greek tragedy, The Hooves Belonged to the Deer is a bold and blistering indictment of white Christian imperialism. Makram Ayache’s daring play confronts the painful intersections of homophobia, Islamophobia, and colonialism, refusing to offer easy resolutions. Erotically charged and panoramic in scope, this cautionary tale illuminates the lingering scars of religious trauma while offering a profound reckoning and prayer for rebirth.