While all the actors deserve unrestrained praise, Mariam Habib merits honorable mention for her commanding climactic scene. Habib’s emotional state percolates throughout the play, suggesting the promise of a payoff later in the story. She does not disappoint and it is the anticipation of just this sort of catharsis which audibly moved several audience members to hanky-damping.

Jack Wernick "The Mecca Tales" in New York

In telling Maya’s tragic story of a love that was born, consummated, and lost in three hours, Mariam Habib takes over and transforms the entire play into an epic worthy of Martha Graham. There is one particular moment – during which Habib is on the verge of collapsing with tears. Instead, she seizes her grief in a high contraction – imagine a knot of sorrow constricting your heart – and stands stone still as tears stream slowly down her face. Habib does not have to work herself into a frenzy or “make” herself cry; she simply stands and emits a pulse of empathy that reduces the audience to a chorus of naked sobs.

Juan Michael Porter II BWW Review: THE MECCA TALES is a Heartbreaking Work of Healing Genius