Alek Baylee Toumi, an assistant professor of foreign languages at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has published a new French play called "Taxieur: La liberation miracu(l/ri)euse de J.P. Sartre," with Marsa editions, in Paris. The second part of a trilogy in which Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir return to life, the play is an absurd tragic-comedy.

In the first part of the trilogy, "Madah-Sartre: The kidnapping, trial, conver(sat/s)ion of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir as staged by terrorists of the GIA," Sartre and his companion come back to life to attend the funeral of a friend, a journalist assassinated in Algeria. On their way to the airport, they get car jacked by terrorists who tell them, "Sartre, you must convert and Simone must wear the tchador or we kill you." Sartre replies, "There is a major problem. We are already dead. But I will give you a chance. Convince me with �reason,� not violence and I'll convert." The comedy is a confrontation between two logics, Sartre, the existentialist philosopher who embodies ultimate Reason, versus Madah, the religious fanatic whose faith pushes him to "kill for God."

In the recently published "Taxieur" (Taxi-rider), an airport cab driver gives Sartre a tour of the city torn by civil war between a corrupt authoritarian military regime and mad religious fanatics. He shows him some of the "actors" of the tragedy, who do remain backstage yet pull all the strings behind the curtain. He also shows him that in order to understand tragedies of third world countries, one needs a different logic, "a logic of contradictions" some form of "irrational reasoning" that even the almighty Sartre finds difficult to understand. The driver also explains to him that in extreme hopeless situations, humor, "the politeness of despair," is sometimes the most effective weapon against hate and madness.

The author is working on the third part of the trilogy, dealing with women's struggles for basic human rights. About the mother of French feminism, it will be called "De beauvoir a beau voile."

Toumi, who holds degrees from UW-Madison, came to UWSP last fall. He specializes in French civilization and film, Francophone studies, theater and the teaching of language and culture. He is the author of "Academie-Academia," a satire of his former life as a graduate student, and a bilingual French-English play.

"Taxieur" is his fourth play and third publication.

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