This fall Ahmed Moneka marks a professional milestone by playing a major role at a Toronto theatre. He believes the play “is really honouring the Iraqi people, and that’s why as an Iraqi, I was so eager to do this.”
Iraqi actor Ahmed Moneka first came to Toronto in September 2015 for a brief visit. A short film he cocreated and starred in,
In “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” at Crow’s Theatre, Moneka plays an Iraqi man who works as a translator for American troops during the Iraq War. “The reality there is not like reality here. It’s abstract reality,” he said. “I don’t know if you could say it’s spiritual or psychedelic, but it’s really mixed.”
“Ahmed and I both knew within 10 to 15 minutes that we were really excited by each other and that this could be a really interesting pairing,” said Smith. Moneka became a Driftwood artistic associate, worked as a crew member on one of their shows and in the summer of 2019 played Puck in its production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Moneka is now married with a daughter. Recently, his parents and two sisters moved to Toronto. His older sister, Israa Abdul JaLeel, is working as a vocal coach on “Bengal Tiger,” helping the actors with the particular Iraqi pronunciation of the Arabic passages that appear in the otherwise English-language script. “She’s succeeded to transfer the Iraqi spirit to each one of them,” said Moneka. “I’m so proud of her.
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