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EL-HAKAWATI
Memory for forgetfulness

Text: Mahmoud Darwish
Direction: Amer Khalil and Francois Abou-Salem

Francois Abou Salem is the son of a palestinian man and a french woman. Author, director and actor, he was one of the founders of el-Hakawati Theatre, important and almost solitary figure of palestinian theatre. After working during 15 years in France, he made the political choice to go back to Palestine in order to be closer to his people and try to offer words and create new connections.

In Memory for Forgetfulness, Mahmoud Darwish, considered as one of the most important contemporary arab poet, reveals a less known aspect of his work.

August 1982, israeli troops invade Lebanon and fiercely go at Beyrouth, in state of siege. The palestinian resistance has established its headquarter in the city and tries to hold out. In that amok atmosphere and under a sky saturated with missiles, a poet exiled from Palestine and living on the 8th floor of an old building writes the diary of a town caught by games of Love and Death.

A new chapter of the palestinian history opens today and Darwich's text takes a new resonance. The show created in April 2007 in Ramallah is carried on a fine string by Francois Abou Salem, going like a tight rope walker across a text that twists the tangled threads of the individual, the heaviness of everyday life and the pain of a nation.

"The poet is entrenched between two walls, in a no exit corridor. Almost buried in what's left of bookshelves, he's swimming in a sea of books. To escape from panic or madness, he's dreaming of a 5 minutes truce, which would allow him to reach the kitchen and make some coffee... arab coffee... a long ritual coffee.
He tells us about his anxieties and learns to live with them, to adopt them at the same time. His senses are awaken by the idea of coffe which he can only make in his mind. He examines microscopic matter, water, flames, coffee powder and stands back through laughters, compassion, sympathy for the other individuals, even his ennemies. However he remains the same, and he's the lonely, quiet and lucid witness of that apocalyptic day without any dove on the horizon. He's the witness of an indisputable defeat." - Francois Abou-Salem

With: François Abou-Salem.
Adaptation: Amir Nizar Zuabi and François Abou-Salem.
Direction: Amer Khalil and François Abou-Salem.
Scenography: Amiz Nizar Zuabi.

With the support of Jerusalem French cultural centre and A.M Qattan Foundation (Ramallah).

TECHNICAL DATAS

Length of the show: 60 mn
Minimum performance space: 7 m wide x 5.50 m deep x 4 m high
Sound: 2 CD players
Set up in 1 day

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