From Fringe Debut to the Governor General’s Shortlist

When it debuted at Fringe in 2019, Makram Ayache’s play The Green Line was already buzzworthy. After his first play Harun debuted at the Festival in 2018, The Green Line was selected for a holdover spot the following summer out of 258 shows in the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival’s most record-breaking year.

Soon after, the play picked up a Betty Mitchell Award for Award for Outstanding New Play in a co-production with Calgary’s Downstage Theatre and Chromatic Theatre. And, just a few weeks ago, Ayache was woken with a flurry of congratulatory texts: The Green Line had been named a Finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards.  

“It was entirely unexpected and hugely moving,” he says. “I feel encouraged that my community read my work and said it is worthy of this merit. To land in this way feels really galvanizing.” 

A poetic examination of intergenerational queer identities in Beirut, The Green Line has since been published by Playwrights Canada Press. Looking back on how the play initially took shape, Ayache recalls catching himself in the mirror during an acting exercise, surprised by his resemblance to his father.  

“I was at a point in my understanding of identity where I kept asking ‘how close is my Arab identity to my spine?’” He began researching the 15-year civil war that his parents lived through in Lebanon and learned about the political “green line” – a physical path of demarcation that split east and west Beirut.  

“Because of how long the war lasted, the line became a literal green line, with the natural earth breaking through the city. It was tremendous and terrifying.” 

Departing from the tumult of Lebanon in the 1990s, Ayache’s parents eventually landed in the very small town of Oyen, Alberta, where he spent his youth before moving to Edmonton to complete his B.Ed in Drama at the University of Alberta. 

“I kept thinking, what does this war have anything to do with my rural Alberta upbringing? That’s what the exploration [in The Green Line] ultimately was. I was not a person who experienced the fears of war. How ironic it all seems to me now given what is taking place in Lebanon and Palestine right now.” 

Fringe audiences may recall The Hooves Belonged to the Deer, which played the Westbury Theatre in 2023 after its initial release in audio format with the Alberta Queer Calendar Project and Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times’ streamed series Queer, Far, Wherever You Are. The play’s theatrical world premiere at Tarragon Theatre saw Ayache walk away with high accolades from The Globe and Mail and a Dora Award nomination. The show’s indie run at the Arts Barns resulted in four Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards statues, including Outstanding Independent Production of a Play.

A forever Fringer, Ayache offers a few pointers for hopefuls wanting to follow the success of his trajectory, and it’s all about embracing a sense of community — one that Fringe fosters in its own way.  

“Go to the beer gardens, even if you don’t drink, and hang out, make friends, watch other artists’ shows. Enjoy promoting your show on the Fringe grounds, chatting with all sorts of people. And really embrace how rare and unique the Edmonton Fringe Festival is. We’re very lucky to have it in our backyard.”

“Find your people, the ones you love to work with, and find the art that galvanizes your spirit, even if no one watches it. Find the purpose in your work beyond the applause. Root it in something sublime. I know, that sounds sooo dramatic,” he nods playfully, “but we’re literally drama artists.” 

Set to revisit The Green Line again in the 2025/2026 theatre season in Toronto, Ayache notes that the play has helped him recognize a spiritual full-circle.  

“When I wrote the play, it all felt like a theoretical exploration. Rami returns to Lebanon to bury his father, and he needs to reckon with a war that didn’t feel like it belongs to him. I was 27 when I wrote it, and it continues to give me a promise of something.”  

After his father’s passing in 2022, revisiting the play took on new meaning. 

“It was as if my 27-year-old self was giving me that promise again. And this time, I understood it as a sense of hope. He taught me that reckoning with a hard past is a necessary part of a hopeful future.” Now, Ayache is again in the planning stages of a production of the show in Toronto.  

“Again, this play returns to me and reminds me of that insistent sense of hope as I watch Lebanon engulfed in a war,” he adds, “it feels spiritual that this play keeps coming back to me. I feel grateful for it.”

The Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks) celebrate literature and inspire people to read books by creators from Canada. They provide finalists and winners with valuable recognition from peers and readers across the country. Learn more about the 2024 drama finalists and winners here.