Rabih Mroué

Rabih Mroué

How Nancy wished that everything was an April Fool’s joke

Archive 2007
Theatre
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How Nancy wished that everything was an April fool’s joke
Directed by Rabih Mroué
Text: Fadi Toufic and Rabih Mroué
Stage design and graphics: Samar Maakaroun
Animation: Ghassan Halwani
Gathering of posters and research: Ziena Maasri
With Lina Saneh, Hatem El-Imam, Ziad Antar, Rabih Mroué

Co-produced by the Tokyo International Arts Festival, Ashkal Alwan/Beirout 2007, Temps d'images / La Ferme du Buisson-Scène nationale de
Marne La Vallée and the Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from the Fondation d’Entreprise CMA CGM and Zaza and Philippe Jabre
Thanks to Service de Coopération et d’Action Culturelle de l'Ambassade de France au Liban

Using irreverence and pretence, Rabih Mroué and his collaborator Lina Saneh create productions which blend theatre, documentary and performance; and their independent stance, expressed keenly and boldly, is not to everyone’s liking in Lebanon. Their most recent show is brimming with fratricidal clashes, and highlights with dark irony the absurdity of the endless conflicts that continue to tear apart the Near and Middle East.

See also

Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation Galeries Lafayette
septembersept 20

Rabih Mroué
Make Me Stop Smoking

ConferenceTheatre Portrait

Rabih Mroué's objective with his “non-academic conferences” is to subvert, via the perspective of performance, the principle of the conference. He does so by imitating the mechanisms at work within the conference format. He does not set out to make fun of the principle of the conference itself, but rather to exploit the power of the exercise as a form of public address. This is achieved by operating a shift of a voluntarily ambiguous nature, passing from presentation to representation and from reality to the imagination. The illusion it sets up is a disturbing one: the tone is neutral, the expertise seems well proven, and the documents supporting the speech suggest authenticity. This, of course, is precisely the aim of the whole mischievous, moving and intellectually stimulating operation.

Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation Galeries Lafayette
septembersept 21

Rabih Mroué
The Inhabitants of Images

ConferenceTheatre Portrait

Rabih Mroué's objective with his “non-academic conferences” is to subvert, via the perspective of performance, the principle of the conference. He does so by imitating the mechanisms at work within the conference format. He does not set out to make fun of the principle of the conference itself, but rather to exploit the power of the exercise as a form of public address. This is achieved by operating a shift of a voluntarily ambiguous nature, passing from presentation to representation and from reality to the imagination. The illusion it sets up is a disturbing one: the tone is neutral, the expertise seems well proven, and the documents supporting the speech suggest authenticity. This, of course, is precisely the aim of the whole mischievous, moving and intellectually stimulating operation.

Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation Galeries Lafayette
septembersept 22

Rabih Mroué
Sand in the Eyes

ConferenceTheatre Portrait

Rabih Mroué's objective with his “non-academic conferences” is to subvert, via the perspective of performance, the principle of the conference. He does so by imitating the mechanisms at work within the conference format. He does not set out to make fun of the principle of the conference itself, but rather to exploit the power of the exercise as a form of public address. This is achieved by operating a shift of a voluntarily ambiguous nature, passing from presentation to representation and from reality to the imagination. The illusion it sets up is a disturbing one: the tone is neutral, the expertise seems well proven, and the documents supporting the speech suggest authenticity. This, of course, is precisely the aim of the whole mischievous, moving and intellectually stimulating operation.

Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt
septembersept 23 – 28

Rabih Mroué
Who’s Afraid of Representation?

Theatre Portrait

We find ourselves in the company of major figures of European Body Art (Joseph Beuys, Orlan, Marina Abramović, to name a few) via their accounts of exhibitions and public scarifications dating back to the 1970s. In parallel with this runs the true story of a killing spree carried out by a Lebanese office at his workplace, and the fluctuating motivations for his acts.

Théâtre Silvia Monfort
octoberoct 16 – 18

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué, Mazen Kerbaj
Borborygmus

Theatre Portrait
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Set to a complex score of sound and light, a trio sets about uttering phrases of a visceral nature, creating an outlandish, chorus-like effect. Each sequence emerges, bouncing off an impromptu connection, thereby developing a new theme - ranging from distraught observations, memories, tributes, apocalyptic visions, and intimate observations, to unspeakable experiences.

Théâtre de la Cité internationale
octoberoct 22 – 25

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
Photo-Romance

Theatre Portrait
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How do we go about presenting the adaptation of a famous film to the Lebanese authorities in charge of censorship? We come to realize that it is about a film which recounts the improbable encounter between two very dissimilar individuals both of whom are experiencing social alienation in fascist Italy in 1938. The adaptation is set in Beirut in 2007, shortly after an Israeli attack on Lebanon.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
novembernov 13 – 16

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
Biokhraphia

Theatre Portrait
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These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia et Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
novembernov 13 – 16

Rabih Mroué
Riding on a cloud

Theatre Portrait
Buy tickets

These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia and Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
novembernov 18

Rabih Mroué
Before Falling Seek the Assistance of Your Cane

ConferencePerformance Portrait

The Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué duo presents two “non-academic conferences” and a concert-performance in collaboration with Rima Khcheich.

Théâtre du Rond-Point
novembernov 22 – 24

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
33 tours et quelques secondes

Theatre Portrait
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Who is Diyaa Yamout, the Lebanese human rights activist, artist and blogger whose suicide shook the nation? We will never really know and this is not what matters. Indeed, what is far more fascinating here is the profusion of assorted reactions on Facebook, the television, and in the form of SMS and answering machine messages

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
novembernov 25

Rabih Mroué, Rima Khcheich
N'importe où

Music Portrait

The Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué duo presents two “non-academic conferences” and a concert-performance in collaboration with Rima Khcheich.

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
decemberdec 2

Lina Majdalanie
Appendice

ConferencePerformance Portrait
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The Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué duo presents two “non-academic conferences” and a concert-performance in collaboration with Rima Khcheich.

CENTQUATRE-PARIS
decemberdec 4 – 8

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
Quatre murs et un toit

Theatre Portrait
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In 1947, the trial of German playwright Bertolt Brecht took place in the United States in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), responsible for combating communist activism. It was here that Brecht wrote a declaration which he was forbidden to read out. The minutes of the trial, as well as this declaration, constitute one of the axes of this exuberant show.

Fondation Fiminco
decemberdec 16 – 20

Rabih Mroué, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
A little bit of the moon

DancePerformance Portrait

As part of a special invitation by the Festival d'Automne, choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and director Rabih Mroué shared, over the course of ten months, their thoughts, concerns, doubts, and questions regarding politics, art and life. After numerous exchanges by videoconference, the two artists now come together on the site of the former industrial complex, the new home of the Fiminco Foundation. Together, for the duration of a performance, they will be drawing up the plans for a new world for all.

In the same place

Théâtre de la Cité internationale
octoberoct 4 – 6

Steven Cohen
Boudoir

RépertoireVisual arts

If, up until now, the performances of the South African artist have consisted of exposing himself onstage or in public spaces, in his latest piece Steven Cohen plays host to audiences from within the confines of an intimate, private space, the boudoir. The latter, a chapel or refuge, becomes a place in which he gathers up his memories of his past - as well as those of the last century, gruesome though they may be.

Théâtre de la Cité internationale
octoberoct 22 – 25

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
Photo-Romance

Theatre Portrait
Buy tickets

How do we go about presenting the adaptation of a famous film to the Lebanese authorities in charge of censorship? We come to realize that it is about a film which recounts the improbable encounter between two very dissimilar individuals both of whom are experiencing social alienation in fascist Italy in 1938. The adaptation is set in Beirut in 2007, shortly after an Israeli attack on Lebanon.

Points communs – Théâtre des Louvrais
novembernov 14 – 16
Scène nationale de l'Essonne – Théâtre de l’Agora
novembernov 19 – 20
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 29 - december – dec 29
La Merise
decemberdec 12 – 14
La Ferme du Buisson, Scène nationale – cinéma – centre d’art contemporain
decemberdec 18 – 19

Joël Pommerat
Marius

Theatre

Inspired by the work of Marcel Pagnol, this show explores the theme of escape. Some of the actors had their first experience of theatre at the Maison centrale d'Arles prison. Marius provides audiences with a unique opportunity to discover a little-known but crucial dimension of Joël Pommerat's art.