The Kuwaiti director has won first prize at the Journées Théâtrales de Carthage. The play looks back at the explosion in the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020. It plunges the audience into the reality of the horror from the very first minutes, questioning the spectator on "the role and necessity of militant theatre in the face of a catastrophe which, through its violence and the scale of its damage, destroys the very essence of language as a tool at the service of lived reality". (press release).
An unclassifiable work, a mixture of genres: vocal prowess, singing and dancing accompanied by live music by Abed Kobeissy and Ali Hout. "Mute" is disturbing because of the "bombardment" of text performed by Hala Omran. Sometimes a singer, sometimes an actress, sometimes in love, sometimes an activist, sometimes indifferent, Hala Omran takes the audience on an existentialist quest that asks the following questions: what is the role of the activist artist in a consumer society? What impact can the artist have in a society where money, appearance and image have taken over people's consciousness?
"I Medea", Sulayman Al-Bassam's latest play, won awards in Carthage and Cairo. But the play was less fortunate in Kuwait: cancelled in the spring of 2020, in the early days of the coronavirus, it was not subsequently allowed to be performed.
Returning to the JTC prize list, the Silver Tanit was awarded to "Chams" by Moroccan director Amine Boudrika. Performed by Hasna Tamtaoui, Hajar Chargui and Ismail Alaoui, the play looks at the societal issues facing Moroccan women in their daily lives.
The Bronze Tanit was awarded to the Tunisian play 'La ferme' (El Firma) by Ghazi Zaghbani. "We are in a cruel and desperate theatre, where the farm promised by the title turns out to be a stifling interior, with no greenery or horizon. The world is saturated with cries for help that no one hears, accompanied by the agonising electric guitar of a dreamy idiot who lives in the house on the farm in question. He is a musician who witnesses the ordeal of a human rights activist, kidnapped by her brother, the politician." - press release.