To be hungry for representation means that you will seek to see yourself reflected anywhere, so you will enter (of your own accord) into what you know will be a house of mirrors, where distorted reflections will stare back at you, follow you, pretend to be you, make money in saying they really are you. … Continue reading Tariq Jordan’s “Ali and Dahlia” and the House of Mirrors
Category: Theatre
Land Without Jasmine is an adaptation of Wajdi al Ahdal's novel, which tells the story of a young woman who disappears from her university in Sana'a, Yemen. The play was put on by the new collective Sarha and billed as “the first ever Yemeni theatre production to be staged in the UK.” Sarha describe their … Continue reading Sarha Collective’s Adaptation of Land Without Jasmine
Yesterday I went to see Sarab by Palestinian Circus School, part of the CircusFest at Jackson Lane. The show is a piece of circus theatre that ”shares with us the plight of refugees worldwide. The seven Palestinian performers use Chinese pole, juggling and acrobatics to reflect on their own history and the repetition of it … Continue reading Sarab by the Palestinian Circus School
The Segal Centre's recently held an event on contemporary theatre in Lebanon. The centre has previously showcased readings of plays by Arab dramatists Rama Haydar and Bashar Murkus. On the 17th of October, to celebrate a new exchange partnership with the Theatre Initiative at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the Segal Centre invited Sahar Assaf, Assistant Professor … Continue reading Sahar Assaf on Theatre in Lebanon Today
As part of the 2017 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, The Segal Center is showcasing play readings by nine dramatists, including the following two plays by Rama Haydar and Bashar Murkus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHDZgDHjctM Desert of Light Written by Rama Haydar (Syria) Translated by Rama Haydar & Rebekah Maggor Directed by Rebekah Maggor … Continue reading Plays by Rama Haydar & Bashar Murkus
D-Caf (Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival) returns for its fifth edition on March 31 running until April 22. "Egypt’s only international multi-disciplinary contemporary arts festival," D-CAF has everything from literature readings to concerts, to film and theatre, comedy stand up and a puppet show. Dina El Wedidi and Khansa Batma open the show with a concert at Horreya Garden. … Continue reading Egyptian Arts Festival D-Caf (March 31- April 22)
A series of events under the title "New Frontiers: Innovations in the Middle East" investigate what is "new" in the cultural scene in the Middle East, in the context of recent political changes in the region: The dissolution of Arab States. The rise of a murderous ISIS state. The collapse of Israeli/Palestinian Negotiations. The third … Continue reading New Frontiers: Innovations in the Middle East
Lebanese American theater artist Andrea Assaf, founder of Art2Action, is spearheading a two year event series at The University of South Florida under the title THIS Bridge: Arab, Middle Eastern & Muslim Artists, a series "that speaks to what it means to be Arabic or Islamic in today’s society — with an emphasis on women who are either … Continue reading THIS Bridge: Arab, Middle Eastern & Muslim Artists
A few days ago, I came across this article, where Nabil Elouahabi criticises the 'real problem' of the stereotyped portrayal of Arabs in films and television, and scrolled down to the comments, which typically asserted that the stereotypes weren't stereotypes, but based on reality and probabibility, capped with that definitive line "No all Muslims are … Continue reading Acting the Arab
The Libyan Street Theatre project, the result of a partnership between the British Council in Libya, the Libyan National Theatre and the European Union, is putting on performances from 25 - 26 June at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as part of the the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) 2014. The project's aims are to … Continue reading Libyan Street Theatre
Gibran The Play, based on the life of Gibran Khalil Gibran and written by Nabil Sawalha, is coming to London on November 17. Details here or here. The play - "a mix of drama, comedy and profound self-discovery" - is apparently inspired by Gibran’s most famous book, The Prophet, a book of prose poetry essays … Continue reading Gibran’s The Prophet Adapted
Ghassan Kanafani's novella, Returning to Haifa (1969), tells the story of Said and Safeyya, who fled their home in Haifa during the 1948 Nakba. In the chaos and violence of their escape, their five-month old son Khaldun is left behind. Twenty years later when the Mandelbaum Gate is opened they return to Haifa, "to see" as … Continue reading Returning to Haifa
"Written in direct response to the ongoing revolution in Egypt, Ibrahim El-Husseini's Commedia Al-Ahzaan (Comedy of Sorrows) follows a young university-educated Egyptian woman through a series of encounters with different members of society. Through these encounters, she comes to realize how little she understands her own country." So Ibrahim El-Husseini's post-revolution play has been translated … Continue reading Comedy of Sorrows
Arab Hyphen 