RIYADH — Same Script Different Cast, which opened on Mishal Samman's blog on Sunday, August 24, 2025, is a one-act confession of about 550 words with no interval and a subtitle that doubles as a stage direction: "Stop Playing Your Old Role."

The plot will be familiar to anyone who has sat through a long run. After a heartbreak in the 90s that left him "gutted," Mr. Samman kept picking the same kind of partner: "Different names. Different cities. Different reasons. But the same script." The co-star's role was recast. The lead's lines were not.

The best lines belong to the friends, who spot the reruns first. "She's sweet, man… but is she the one?" asks one. "Are you even in this, or are you just afraid to be alone?" asks another. "And they were right," the lead concedes.

Then the twist. Mr. Samman reviews his own performance: "I wasn't the nice guy. I was the coward. The soft-spoken villain in someone else's origin story." "Vader waited a whole sequel to say it," said Twyla Twiste, plot-twist critic. "This man spoils his own reveal, in writing, on a Sunday. In this paper, that is practically the masthead."

The closing scene is a dinner: "Years later, I called a few of them. Took them to dinner. Looked them in the eye." The line he came to say was "I'm sorry." Four stars. The next draft, the post suggests, goes "in your own handwriting." This reviewer has booked a seat.