- 09
- June
- 2024
When ‘Mute’ Echoes at the Beirut Spring Festival
modified on 13 June 2024 à 02:28 Read : 3 minute(s) A A A
©Hala Omran in 'Mute.'
The Beirut Spring Festival hosts Mute, a multi-award-winning play by Sulayman Al Bassam that delves into the devastating explosion at the Beirut port. Driven by the masterful performance of Hala Omran and enhanced by the music of Abed Kobeissi and Ali Hout, this poignant work is sold out for two consecutive nights, June 9 and 10 at 9 PM at the Théâtre Tournesol. A must-see theatrical event that promises to move and provoke thought, demonstrating the festival’s strength in presenting impactful and stirring creations.
The 2024 Beirut Spring Festival is in full swing until June 20, paying a vibrant tribute to the eternal voice of Samir Kassir and honoring the festival’s founder, Gisèle Khoury. At the heart of this edition, the play Mute by Théâtre Sabab, written and directed by Sulayman Al Bassam, stands out for its poetic and political exploration of resistance forms in the face of escalating violence and media misinformation. The play is set against the seismic event of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020.
After a critically acclaimed world premiere at the Carthage Theatre Days (JTC) in Tunis, Mute continues its tour in Lebanon. Théâtre Sabab, an independent company led by Sulayman Al-Bassam, brings together an international troupe of pan-Arab and European theater practitioners, musicians and visual artists, all dedicated to creating innovative contemporary political theater.
Beyond its context, Mute is also a personal metaphor for the artist, who chooses absolute silence as a sovereign form of expression. In the face of the dissolution of traditional political concepts and the geopolitical upheavals in the Arab world, Sulayman Al-Bassam questions, “How do we define artistic resistance today? What would happen if we abandoned traditional forms of narrative critique and posed silence as a tool of resistance?”
True to his artistic approach, Sulayman Al Bassam questions the very essence of being through his theatrical creations. Drawing from ancient texts, he intertwines them with the current socio-political context, addressing Arab and foreign interactions, juggling languages, and highlighting the human condition. Théâtre Sabab notably presented I, Medea in Paris, a duet performance with Hala Omran, offering a unique and timeless reinterpretation of the Medea myth.
Randa Asmar, director of the Beirut Spring Festival, attests, “The Beirut Spring Festival is honored to host the play Mute, performed in Arabic with French surtitles. The great Kuwaiti author Sulayman Al Bassam, along with Hala Omran, Ali Hout, and Abd Kobeïssi, will perform at the Théâtre Tournesol for two evenings that have been sold out for three days already. And for good reason: this play won the Best Actress Award, Best Text Award, and Best Show Award at the last edition of the Carthage Theatre Days in December 2023. Additionally, the Festival is also happy to welcome this loyal audience who never misses an opportunity to be there.”
[gallery size="full" link="none" ids="262274,262275"]
The Beirut Spring Festival, offering a wide range of artistic and cultural events, will conclude with its highlight: a tribute to Gisèle Khoury on Thursday, June 20, 2024, at 9:00 PM at the Théâtre Tournesol.
For more information and to get the full program: Beirut Spring Festival
The 2024 Beirut Spring Festival is in full swing until June 20, paying a vibrant tribute to the eternal voice of Samir Kassir and honoring the festival’s founder, Gisèle Khoury. At the heart of this edition, the play Mute by Théâtre Sabab, written and directed by Sulayman Al Bassam, stands out for its poetic and political exploration of resistance forms in the face of escalating violence and media misinformation. The play is set against the seismic event of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020.
After a critically acclaimed world premiere at the Carthage Theatre Days (JTC) in Tunis, Mute continues its tour in Lebanon. Théâtre Sabab, an independent company led by Sulayman Al-Bassam, brings together an international troupe of pan-Arab and European theater practitioners, musicians and visual artists, all dedicated to creating innovative contemporary political theater.
Beyond its context, Mute is also a personal metaphor for the artist, who chooses absolute silence as a sovereign form of expression. In the face of the dissolution of traditional political concepts and the geopolitical upheavals in the Arab world, Sulayman Al-Bassam questions, “How do we define artistic resistance today? What would happen if we abandoned traditional forms of narrative critique and posed silence as a tool of resistance?”
True to his artistic approach, Sulayman Al Bassam questions the very essence of being through his theatrical creations. Drawing from ancient texts, he intertwines them with the current socio-political context, addressing Arab and foreign interactions, juggling languages, and highlighting the human condition. Théâtre Sabab notably presented I, Medea in Paris, a duet performance with Hala Omran, offering a unique and timeless reinterpretation of the Medea myth.
Randa Asmar, director of the Beirut Spring Festival, attests, “The Beirut Spring Festival is honored to host the play Mute, performed in Arabic with French surtitles. The great Kuwaiti author Sulayman Al Bassam, along with Hala Omran, Ali Hout, and Abd Kobeïssi, will perform at the Théâtre Tournesol for two evenings that have been sold out for three days already. And for good reason: this play won the Best Actress Award, Best Text Award, and Best Show Award at the last edition of the Carthage Theatre Days in December 2023. Additionally, the Festival is also happy to welcome this loyal audience who never misses an opportunity to be there.”
[gallery size="full" link="none" ids="262274,262275"]
The Beirut Spring Festival, offering a wide range of artistic and cultural events, will conclude with its highlight: a tribute to Gisèle Khoury on Thursday, June 20, 2024, at 9:00 PM at the Théâtre Tournesol.
For more information and to get the full program: Beirut Spring Festival
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