HELP TOURING AL AADILOUN_Les Justes, Albert Camus_directed by Caroline Hatem

Why? We think it's necessary nowadays to perform throughout Lebanon a play that speaks to the young and less young, a play about owning our freedom and dignity. It is necessary that our young artists work and tour in their country, to practice their art and gain sustainability. We need our young actors, technicians, designers, to stay in the country, believe in it, and work where they can soar and develop as artists. What do we need? Means to tour. Our people and country are going through hard times. We need extra resources for transportation. Our performances must be a free entrance event, while our team and actors must be fairly retributed. Budget: an average of 1350 USD per city/town/ agglomeration of small towns. We are aiming at 10 shows per year! The higher our budget, the merrier. We are starting in the Bekaa in August (Zahlé, Baalbeck). Al Aadiloun is about a radical revolutionary cell that is planning the assassination of a corrupt leader. The young members are committed to do what needs to be done, and still are subjected to doubt, love and ultimate faith in their cause. Caroline Hatem (Al Beyt, Al Zifaf) is adapting Camus' play to our local context, situating the plot on Mar Mikhael's street, where music from bars and cars slowed down by valets hardly interferes with the group's ascetic lifestyle. She chose to work on this play with young actors, designers, technicians, graduates from the Lebanese University, while offering paid internships and an intensive, hands-on training through the YAZAN Professional Artist Training program (YPAT). The play opened end of May 2022 at the Monnot theatre (Beirut), before touring throughout the country. A team of 12 actors, designers and technicians are committed to recreate in the Bekaa, North Lebanon, South Lebanon, Metn and Kesserouane a theatre experience with great intensity, feverish music and conflicting principles and emotions. Camus' great text is embodied by amazing actors and their own impersonation of a cry for freedom and a better tomorrow. This project is part of a dream: creating a performing arts group that can work constantly (work opportunities throughout the year), within quality productions that tour the country, the region and the world. Our young talented artists should be given an opportunity to work and live in our country with passion and pride. “If this play is a play of hope, it is because it asserts that there is another race of people who in the worst darkness try to maintain intelligence and equity. Their tradition survives the war and the camps, while wars and camps won’t survive anything. Between the folly of those who want nothing but what is and the folly of those who want everything that should be, those who really want something, and are determined to pay the price, will be the only ones to get it. That’s what I’m certain of." Albert Camus, about THE RIGHTEOUS (Les Justes), 1950. A minimal set design with contemporary lines by Layla Haoui (supervised by mentors Marc Lainé and Stefan Zimmerli from France), Slightly stylised ascetic costumes (Nour Domloje, Lebanon). TEAM ACTORS: Josef Akiki, Sara Abdo, Hamzeh Yazbeck, Ibrahim Ajami, Rabih Abdo, Maria Douaihy. DIRECTOR, ADAPTATION Caroline Hatem SCENOGRAPHY: Layla Haoui COSTUME DESIGN: Nour Domloje MAKE UP & ASSISTANT COSTUMES: Roy Ayoub SOUND : Kevin Chehab STAGE MANAGER : Lynne Saadeddine Production :YAZAN Play duration: 90 Minutes Language: Lebanese dialect The director's bio Caroline Hatem (Lebanon) is a theatre director, actor and dancer. She studied Philosophy (Masters, Paris 8), theatre (University of Arizona, Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute) and specialized in dance in the United States, in France and Lebanon. Apart from performing in movies and on stage (among which Rech Mayya, a dance work by choreographer Alice Massabki in 2010), she has created a few dance solos among which the solo in Critère de Griffith (2015), directed by Danielle Labaky, and choreographed the installation for the Lebanese pavilion at the World Expo Dubai 2021. Her directorial debut in theatre was AL BEYT, a play by Arzé Khodr that was performed in Beirut and in a few cities in Lebanon and Tunisia and was awarded Best actresses and Best script at the Lebanese National Theatre Festival, 2018. Her second work, AL ZIFAF, an adaptation of Brecht’s A Respectable Wedding, represented Germany at the European Theatre Festival in Beirut 2019, a few days before the uprising. She’s presently working on an adaptation of LES JUSTES by Albert Camus, a story of a revolutionary group who plan the assassination of a criminal leader, as well as on TRANSIT TRIPOLI, adapted from Anna Seghers’ novel, opening in November 2022 at the Akademie der Künste, with the support of the Schaubühne in Berlin. Caroline is a proud Global Fellow of The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (Georgetown University, 2021-2023) and a Global Fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA, 2021-2022). What is YAZAN? We are a group of artists, a cultural association, a theatre company... We support and produce We train and capacitate We create networks and work opportunities in the field of performing arts. We are based in Beirut and work on the Lebanese territory. Check us out! PRESS INTERVIEW CAROLINE HATEM (L'Orient Littéraire) "J’en fait une sorte de moines, austères, puisqu’ils renoncent d’un commun accord à partager les plaisirs des jeunes de leur âge. Quand d’autres boivent, rient et font l’amour, ceux-là pratiquent l’abstinence. Comment être heureux quand d’autres souffrent, disent-ils. Et pour la scénographie, j’ai voulu des colonnes, celles de la justice. « Toi et moi sommes deux colonnes… », dit Sara (notre Dora) à Nasri. Une référence aussi à la légende juive des 36 Justes, des piliers sans lesquels le monde s’effondrerait. Finalement, j’ai vu assez grand (la fameuse cathédrale), mais c’était aussi pour servir mon équipe elle-même, acteurs et créateurs lumière, costumes, scénographie, ces jeunes tellement beaux (auxquels s’ajoute la lumineuse Maria Douaihy, épouse du leader assassiné). J’ai envie d’imaginer pour eux l’éventualité d’une compagnie théâtrale qui tourne le pays et le monde, pratiquant notre langue, déployant nos corps et idiosyncrasies, et posant un regard singulier et vivant sur les textes et les auteurs que l’on connaît". ARTICLE L'ORIENT LE JOUR. “Magnifiquement servis par des acteurs prometteurs et principalement par Sara Abdo qui dans l’acte cinq, troublante de véracité et de naturel, laisse le public désarçonné tant l’émotion est à son paroxysme ; et par Joseph Akiki bluffant dans son rôle de révolutionnaire avide de meurtre, mais néanmoins fidèle à ses convictions et à ses croyances et épris d’absolu et d’humanité. Nous entendons par contre la voix de Camus pour ce que nous lui connaissons de sincérité, d’engagement et de clairvoyance, son écriture stylée, limpide et profonde, immédiatement théâtrale...” Danny Mallat, 28 Mai 2022 "L’important, c’est que l’on voit la force, l’engagement des corps sur scène. Je veux que la jeunesse soit pleine de vitalité, révoltée, insolente. Notre système hyper embourgeoisé a la fâcheuse conséquence de l’écraser, de l’enfermer", conclut Caroline. Pièce après pièce, c’est d’abord un hymne à la liberté qui jaillit. De la sœur révoltée d’Al-Beyt, à la mariée qui se met à voler dans Al-Zifaf, telle une toile de Chagall, à Nasri dans Les Justes (incarné par Josef Akiki), passant d’un amour fou de la vie à un amour infini dans le sacrifice, les personnages échappent résolument à l’absurdité d’une absence d’horizon. Nada Ghosn, ICI Beyrouth, 26 Mai 2022 (Al Afkar Newspaper)