Foreword The European Union in Lebanon is happy to launch this year the very first European Theatre Festival in Beirut. Europe and Lebanon have in common a long theatre tradition. The origin of theatre in Lebanon is strongly linked to Europe. The first recognised theatre production in Lebanon was performed in 1846, after Lebanese theatre promoters were exposed to theatres in one of the European Union’s founding Member States, Italy. The Lebanese diaspora have contributed significantly to the expansion and the development of theatre in Lebanon, combining both local and foreign elements, with Europe as major source of foreign inspiration. The European Union has a proud history of promoting cultural events in Lebanon, the most prominent one, so far, being the 25 editions of the European Film Festival. We hope that the European Theatre Festival will become as much a landmark in Beirut’s cultural calendar as the film festival! Theatre is a space and a platform for dialogue, exchange and public engagement. It is an artistic expression but also a powerful tool to engage citizens on key issues relevant to society, opening minds and new horizons of thinking and action. Freedom of expression is a critical backbone in theatre. Since very ancient times theatre plays and actors have had a key role in raising awareness of social questions and problems and defending human rights, at times in a subtle while others in a more provocative way. For the European Union freedom of expression is a key human right. The seven plays coming from six different European Union Member States and Lebanon that will be performed in this festival express different views and opinions, including on very contemporary issues Lebanon and the European Union are faced with. We hope you will enjoy them! Christina Lassen EU Ambassador Welcome The European Union and Al Madina Theatre are proud to present the 1st Edition of Lebanon’s European Theatre Festival this October 2018, in Beirut. These are—to say the least—difficult times that the region is going through. Yet Lebanon stands with its head held high, trying to keep the surrounding crises at bay, though sensitive to their causes and repercussions. However modest a response to such tumultuous neighboring problems, the need to express ourselves is nonetheless an essential one, perhaps even more than in periods of stability, as it is the very fabric of imagination and expression that conflict threatens to rend. We have all experienced war and fanaticism, and continue to; so why not exchange balms, elixirs, flying carpets, songs? Why not exchange the tools we’ve come by, that allow us to conquer fear? Or try to, at least. Or forget it for a minute, at least, that fear, what it’s like to live with it, when the sheer creative energy of what we’re witnessing transports, transposes, transforms us. Al Madina Theatre prides itself on being able to draw the greatest regional talents to its stage; how great an oversight would it then be if it were to fail to draw the greatest international talents as well? European theatre cannot but be a part of Al Madina’s history, any less than theatre itself can be a part of European history. In these bleakly binary times, where everyone seems set on building walls rather than tearing them down, when birthplaces and backgrounds and borders seem so important, let us aspire rather to embrace the more elusive and perhaps more valuable, elements of our identity, those things that make us belong to a world and not only to a country. Let theatre buoy us, let its vibrant energy push us past these narrow times and narrower ambitions. We welcome you all and the gust of imagination you bring. Nidal Al Achkar Director and founder of Al Madina Theatre Country Language Duration Date Time United Kingdom English 80 min 4-5 Oct 8:30pm PERFORMANCES My Name is Rachel Corrie Taken from the writings of Rachel Corrie. Edited by Katharine Viner and Alan Rickman Director/Choreographer Rachel Valentine Smith MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE is edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner (now Editor-in-Chief of the Guardian newspaper in London) from the diaries and emails of Rachel Corrie, a US citizen and activist with the International Solidarity Movement who was killed by an Israeli Defence Force bulldozer whilst protesting the demolition of homes in Gaza. The production asks “What can one person do?” in the face of political upheaval and personal belief. The Faction is an award-winning theatre ensemble based in London with a critically acclaimed reputation. They won the Peter Brook Award for their productions of Schiller’s complete works and the Off West End Award as Best Ensemble for their annual rep seasons. Clare Latham joined The Faction in 2015 appearing in many productions including the title role in ROMEO AND JULIET. She has developed worked at the Old Vic, the National Theatre and English Touring Theatre and also appeared in DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Off West End Award nomination for Best Female) DON’T SMOKE IN BED (Finborough Theatre) and DOUBT (Southwark Playhouse) Rachel Valentine Smith is a director, producer, award-nominated filmmaker and co- Artistic Director of The Faction. Her international work includes KING LEAR (Masrah al-Madina, Beirut), MARY STUART (Katara Drama Theater, Doha) devising projects with Themba (Johannesburg) supporting early-career Balkan playwrights through Intent New Theatre (Unicorn Theatre), and directed work for the stage from female Afghan journalists through the Sahar Speaks initiative (Theatre503). Country Language Duration Date Time Country Language Duration Date Time Denmark English 30 min 8-9 Oct 8:30pm Germany Arabic 1 hr 12-13 Oct 8:30pm STRANGER The Metamorphosis After Franz Kafka Co-Directors Lama Amine and Victoria Lupton | Set design Ghida Hashisho Participants Ahmed Asfar, Abed el Jalil Dahshe, Farah Hendawi, Hanan Hendawi, Playwright Basir Khurrami & Manilla Ghafuri Rania Jamal, Mohamed Kaw, Fatima Naiim, Ahmed Takreti, Samer Zaher, Amina Director/Choreographer Nadezhda Klimenko Sahloul, Ahmed Daifallah, Baneen Sahloul, Tasneem Rajoub, Sara Sahloul STRANGER is a storytelling show created by the non-profit Danish organization Waking up one morning, Kafka’s protagonist Gregor Samsa finds himself transformed RAPOLITICS, where two young refugees tell their personal story of how it is to live into an unfamiliar creature. Unable to leave his room or get to work, his perspective like a refugee in Denmark. The two stories are very different but they both touch the is forever changed. What does Gregor’s story of metamorphosis mean in Lebanon in overall theme of feeling different or feeling like a stranger, and with an artistic twist 2018? A group of Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian young people between 15 and 20 they make an emotional and informative performance. Our two storytellers will one years old interprets Kafka’s novella for their time, in their place, in their words. Every at the time tell their personal story. member of this group either grew up with refugee status or grew up without parents: the group is united in their sense of living in a place where they do not fit. They came Basir will tell about how it is to be an Afghan boy in Denmark and how the media together for the first time to build a production from scratch over 10 weeks, with the gives a picture of his home country which is very brutal versus how reality is. It is a choice of The Metamorphosis coming from their stories. Co-directed by Lama Amine story about finding peace and pride in who you are and where you come from. and Victoria Lupton of Seenaryo, the production seeks to unlock the urgent voices of young people too often silenced. Manilla’s story is very poetic and tells how it was to flee from Afghanistan when she was a child. She tells about how the choices she made on the way defined her future, A project of Goethe-Institut Libanon in cooperation with Seenaryo, with the support and how the fact that she Is a refugee will not define her as a person. of Intersos, Social Welfare Institutions - Dar al Aytam al Islamiya, UNHCR, and Yaabad Scout Troupe. Country Language Duration Date Time Country Language Duration Date Time France French 45 min 14 Oct 8:30pm Lebanon Arabic 65 min 19-20 Oct 8:30pm 15 Oct 7 & 9pm Voices in the Dark Not Long Ago Puppetry by Collectif Kahraba Playwright Matei Visniec Written and Directed by Nidal Al Achkar Puppets, scenography and performance Éric Deniaud With the collaboration of musician and singer Khaled Al Abdallah Artistic collaboration Aurélien Zouki and Mohamad Akil | Nabil al Ahmar | Ibrahim Akil Visniec’s texts are cruel and poetic.They offer a range of characters that resemble, to Not long ago, my village, the village of my father and my ancestors, may have been the extent of confusion, our neighbor or that woman that you run into at work on a my very first theatre with its real and fantasy characters, each of which had their daily basis. A dazzled crowd taken by the absurdity of our societies comes to life in a own secrets. Stories of politicians, patriots escaping from the French at some times minimal set: a window frame open to the world and its contradictions. and escaping others at other times. And men undercover. Maybe these were the characters which made my imagination a fertile place for tales and legends that sway between reality and fantasy, between poeticism and daily rawness. Yet, all these characters yearned for absolute freedom; freedom of the body, freedom of thought and of expression.