By Collective Ma’louba

Duration: 90 minutes (includes post show talk), 16+

Tickets: £0, £5, £15 (plus option to donate £5). Performed in Arabic with English subtitles

Booking for livestream 19.00 (UK time) on 20 June 

Part of Shubbak Festival 2021. Co-presented by Counterpoints Arts as part of this year’s Refugee Week programme.

A  collective of German-based Syrian actors is rehearsing a contemporary adaptation of Georg Büchner’s Danton’s Death. A shattering, political drama, at its centre is a conflict between two giant figures of the French Revolution, Danton and Robespierre.

It is considered to be one of the greatest revolutionary works of European theatre. It is also terribly complex and convoluted, and the translation into Arabic from the German isn’t particularly good.

The company’s director believes this adaptation of a German classic will secure them funding. But the playwright turned dramaturg was more keen on writing a new play about the everyday lives of Syrian refugees living abroad.

As the company wrestles with Büchner’s manically intense play, life mirrors art as the two lead actors are caught up in the arguments between the writer and director.

Between catastrophic line runs and overlong cigarette breaks, the four lock horns about their conflicted views on the Syrian revolution and their roles as artists in exile.

Rehearsals progress and the tensions and disagreements grow as the company – almost unknowingly – engage more deeply with the themes of the play: What is a revolution? When does it end? Ten years after the Syrian revolution, do they really understand what happened and how they can tell their story?

Return of Danton is a new play by Syrian playwright Mudar Alhaggi and directed by Omar Elerian. Written and performed in Arabic, the play is a contemporary exploration of how the dynamics of political revolutions – from the French Revolution to the Arab Spring – can be reflected within the politics of the rehearsal room.

Collective Ma’louba is an intercultural theatre lab currently in residence at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim. In its theatre productions, Collective Ma’louba questions the political and social conditions of the Arab world against the background of recent rebellions and penetrates the taboos of Arab and European society.

Co-presented by Shubbak Festival, Counterpoint Arts, The Lowry & Ettijahat Independent Culture. In cooperation with Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin. A co-production of Theater an der Ruhr and Shubbak Festival. Funded by The German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia.

#ReturnOfDanton  #Shubbak  #ShubbakFestival  #ArabCulture  #ArabFestival  #ContemporaryArabCulture

 

Important information about the event

• Please note that this event listing is for the livestream option and you will need to watch the content on the specified event date/time.
• If you miss the livestream, you will need to purchase a video on demand ticket if you would like to watch it back.
• If you would like to buy a ticket for the video on demand option you can buy them from here.
• Please note that the video on demand option will be without the panel discussion.
• The production will have English subtitles and the discussion will have BSL interpretation.

 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Collective Ma’louba

Collective Ma’louba is an intercultural theatre lab currently in residence at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim. In its theatre productions, Collective Ma’louba questions the political and social conditions of the Arab world against the background of recent rebellions and penetrates the taboos of Arab and European society. Further artistic projects of thematic relevance such as installations, exhibitions, concerts and workshop accompany the theatre productions. They work in NRW, Germany and across the world, thus creating transnational meeting places. Follow the Collective’s via Facebook  and Instagram.

Mudar Alhaggi (Author)

Mudar Alhaggi (*1981) studied theatre studies at The Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damaskus. Alhaggi works as an author and dramaturge, he writes for the radio and TV, pens scripts and leads writing workshops for refugees. He staged “Footfalls” by Samuel Beckett and the production “One Thousand and One Tents”, which was developed in a workshop with refugees in Lebanon. In 2013 the production “Now T-Here“, in which he was involved as author and director (in collaboration with Stella Cristofolini) was presented in Oberhausen and Berlin. Since 2015 he manages “Future Stages. A Creative Programme for Emerging Syrian Writers” in Lebanon together with Erik Altorfer. In 2015 and 2016 he developed “41 Stunden” with Kopp / Nauer / Praxmarer / Vittinghoff, a coproduction with Schlachthaus Theater Bern. With Erik Altorfer, he presented another work with adolescent refugees and young people from Graz at Schauspielhaus Graz. Mudar Alhaggi lives in Berlin since summer 2015. Since 2017 he is the artistic director of COLLECTIVE MA’LOUBA.

Omar Elerian (Director)

Omar Elerian is a freelance theatre director, writer and dramaturg. Of Italian/Palestinian descent, Omar trained in Italy and then graduated from Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris in 2005. He’s based in London since 2009. He was the resident Associate Director at the Bush Theatre from 2012 to 2019, where he commissioned and directed some of the theatre’s most successful shows. As sole director for the Bush, his credits include smash-hit Misty by Arinzé Kene (Bush and West End), NASSIM by Nassim Soleimanpour (Bush, Traverse Theatre and world tour), Going Through by Estelle Savasta and Islands by Caroline Horton. As Associate Director working alongside Madani Younis, his credits include The Royale by Marco Ramirez, Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock and Perseverance Drive by Robin Soans. Outside the Bush, he directed Olivier nominated show You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy by Caroline Horton and co-created acclaimed sitespecific show The Mill: City of Dreams with Madani Younis for Freedom Studios. In 2020 he co-created Autoreverse with Florencia Cordeu, which opened the Going Global season at Battersea Arts Centre in February. Omar is currently developing projects with the Almeida, National Theatre, Manchester HOME, Staatstheater Mainz, Collective Ma’louba and The Shed in New York.

 

Shubbak Festival is the UK’s premier festival of contemporary Arab arts and culture.

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