Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué

Photo-Romance

Theatre Portrait
Théâtre de la Cité internationale
octoberoct 22 – 25

1h15

Prices € 8 to € 24
Subscribers € 8 to € 16

Théâtre de la Cité internationale

Tuesday october 22

20h

Wednesday october 23

20h

Thursday october 24

19h

Friday october 25

19h

Concept, written and directed by Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué. Set design Samar Maakaroun. Music compositions Charbel Haber. Translation Masha Refka. With Lina Majdalanie, Charbel Haber, Rabih Mroué. Direction of the “bande-image” Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué, Sarmad Louis. Director of photography Sarmad Louis. Assistant director and Executive producer Petra Serhal. Costumes Zeina Saab de Melero. Make-up Stéphanie Aznarez. Cast for the "bande-image" Rabih Mroué and Lina Saneh. Special guest Mona Mroué.

Delegated production The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan (Beyrouth)
Coproduction Festival d’Avignon ; Scène nationale de l’Essonne ; Festival delle Colline Torinesi Torino Creazione Contemporanea ; Festival/Tokyo ; La Villette ; HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin)
With the support of the Mission culturelle de l’Ambassade de France au Liban ; The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan 
Acknowledgements Ali Cherri, Mona Mroué, Abdo Nawwar et Alexandre Paulékévitch ; our partners, Sergio Ariotti, Monica Guillouet-Gélys, Isabella Lagattolla, Matthias Lilienthal, Frédéric Mazelly, Chiaki Soma, Christine Tohmé, Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudrillet ; Denis Gaillard and Jany Bourdais from the cooperation and cultural action department of the French Embassy in Lebanon, Fadi Abi Samra, Ziad Nawfal, Youmna Habbouch, Mona S’Eydoun, Bachir Yaghi, Stéphanie Aznarez, Assem Bazzi, Feiruz Serhal, Mariane Katra, Léa Kodeih, Hala El Masri, Zeina Saab de Melero and Walid Mroué ; Joana Hadjithomas, Lamia Joreige, Khalil Joreige, Lynn Kodeih, Souad and Ahmad Mroué, Yasser Mroué, Francesca Spinazzi, Pierre Sarraf (festival born in Beirut), Claire Verlet

In partnership with L'Orient Le Jour

The Théâtre de la Cité internationale and the Festival d'Automne à Paris are presenting this show in co-realisation. 

In partnership with

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.

In a humorous way, the confrontation with the judge who must decide on the merits of the choices made in the adaptation process enables the Majdalanie-Mroué duo to defend concepts of stage representation that are dear to them. In the adaptation, the protagonists, which we discover in the form of a photo comic, are a divorced housewife who devotes her entire life to household chores, and a journalist who has been banned because of his free- thinking. Neither of them attended the two demonstrations simultaneously taking place that day in Beirut. Indeed, their first encounter was as neighbors during this suspended moment in time in their daily lives. What emerges is an ironic portrait of Lebanese society, split into two irreconcilable parts, and in which a host of undying prejudices thrive. Aside from the various essentially folkloric details, the play brings to the forefront the universality and contemporary nature of the divisions that are exacerbated through racism, sexism, patriarchy, and communitarianism.

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 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.

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
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
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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
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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.