Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué, Mazen Kerbaj

Borborygmus

Theatre Portrait
Théâtre Silvia Monfort
octoberoct 16 – 18

French premiere

1h15

In Arabic, with French and English surtitles

Prices € 8 to € 26
Subscribers € 8 to € 17

Théâtre Silvia Monfort

Wednesday october 16

20h

Thursday october 17

20h

Friday october 18

20h

Written, directed and performed by Mazen Kerbaj, Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué. Light designer, sound designer and technical director Thomas Köppel. Light design Arno Truschinski. English translation Ziad Nawfal. German translation Sandra Hertzl. Music of the first scene La Forza Del Destino – Ouverture by Giuseppe Verdi. Thanks to Samir Khaddaj, Kamal Boulata and Racha Gharbieh.

Commissioned by HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis)
Co-production Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm (Francfort) ; Wiener Festwochen – Freie Republik Wien
Funded by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Beirut)
Supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

In partnership with L'Orient Le Jour

The Silvia Monfort Theater and the Festival d’Automne à Paris are presenting this show in co-realisation.

Encounter
On Friday 18 October, after the performance, there will be a meeting with the artistic team.

In partnership with

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.

The Majdalanie-Mroué tandem takes on a new partner for the occasion, the musician and graphic artist Mazen Kerbaj. Together, they experiment with a writing process which bears a close resemblance to a series of madcap collective psychoanalysis sessions, accompanied by a phase during which these spontaneously hatched fragments are sorted and assembled. The work sessions that the trio set about doing are the continuation of an informal habit of theirs as Lebanese exiles and friends residing in Berlin. In an implicit way, this show, first performed in 2019, provides us with an unremittingly frank self-portrait of each of the protagonists, the absence of reserve of which is very rare in the performances of the Majdalanie-Mroué tandem. That said, what emerges is a cry of the sign of our times. Almost inevitably, the trio's mood swings - mental grumblings or the organic expressions of three living and feeling beings trying to digest various aspects of their respective experiences, past and present - resonate with our own ruminations.

Interview with Lina Majdalanie & Rabih Mroué

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 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.

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

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
Biokhraphia

Theatre Portrait
Buy tickets

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
Buy tickets

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
Buy tickets

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
Buy tickets

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.