Italian Premières
WAITING / BODY REVOLUTION
WAITING > 25 min
Mokhallad Rasem > concept and direction
Bassim Mohsen, Mokhallad Rasem, Lore Uyttendaele, Jessa Wildemeersch > creation and performance
Saad Ibraheem > video editing
Moussem, in collaboration with Toneelhuis, Association Kulturanova > production
Toneelhuis > executive producer
With the support of the European Union, within the framework of the moussem.eu project
“Rasem dives into the metropolis of Antwerp to find out what ‘waiting’ means for its inhabitants. And he lets them speak in their own language. From romantically waiting for that special person to resignedly waiting for the tram and heartlessly being forced to wait for papers, for a place to call home. Like modern incarnations of Vladimir and Estragon, the testimonies of the asylum-seekers, projected onto frayed pieces of linen, hover between absolute despondency and unremitting hope.” (Charlotte de Somviele in De Morgen, 10 June 2013)
How does an Arab theatre director view the world situation? What does “waiting” mean? Toneelhuis theatre-maker Mokhallad Rasem takes a modern-day look at Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and creates a 20-minute show.
Does your background play a role in what waiting means for you? Does waiting mean the same the world over? Does who or what you are waiting for make a difference? Under what circumstances do you wait? There are numerous forms of waiting: waiting for papers, waiting for insight, waiting for the pain to pass, waiting for a letter, waiting for the return of the one you love, waiting for death, for God, for better times.… Wachten: a play in word and image.
Waiting was selected for the Fringe Madrid Festival and won third prize at the BE Festival in Birmingham in 2014.
In addition to making an extensive tour through Belgian schools, social organizations and refugee centres, the production has been presented in Uganda, Morocco, India, the United Kingdom, Spain, Egypt, Belgrade and the Netherlands. Among other places this season, Wachten will be playing at Fedasil in Brussels, at Gastvrij Boechout, a refugee initiative in Boechout and at Leren Ondernemen, a community centre for the poor in Leuven.
BODY REVOLUTION > 23 min
Mokhallad Rasem > concept and direction
Paul Van Caudenberg > video editing
Mostafa Benkerroum, Ehsan Hemat and Bassim Mohsen > dancers/actors
Toneelhuis > production
Artefact Festival STUK Leuven > coproduction
On December 17th 2010 a young Tunisian street vendor called Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself in protest against the regime. What followed was an extraordinary year of uprisings which broke out pretty much all over the Middle East, a wave of protest which was soon rather over-optimistically dubbed the “Arab Spring”. Almost every country in the region had its version of this Arab Spring These (r)evolutions – which, sadly, rarely brought solace – have been given widespread coverage by the media in recent years.
What effect have all these images on other theatre directors and performers who live here in Belgium but have their roots in Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Syria, etc. How does it feel? How as an expat do you process all the information that comes to you from family and friends who stayed behind? What does that information do to your body? How does the body react to violence and fear?
Together with three performers, Mokhallad Rasem looks for an answer to these questions through dance. Body Revolution is a guerrilla version of a show: made and performed in a short space of time for a limited public.
As well as touring Belgian schools, social organizations and refugee centres, the production has been staged in Uganda, Morocco, India, the United Kingdom, Spain, Egypt, Belgrade and the Netherlands.
“When the place you know and love becomes unstable, you have to follow suit. Perhaps that is the power of change: not your own desire to score ever better, but a physical confrontation between your inner space and the big outside world. Mokhallad Rasem cleverly represents the clash in Body Revolution, a performance installation in which three mummified men move in and out of projections of trashed Arab cities. Their memory draws them back, but their need to survive pushes them away again. Thus Artefact does what you expect all art to do: it focuses our minds on a social issue by complicating it.” (Wouter Hillaert in De Standaard, 18th of February 2015)