Kenza Berrada

"Machi hada swab": "It’s not swab". In the upper reaches of Moroccan society, this phrase acts as a sentence. Swab means good manners, politeness, and being well brought-up. Any attempts at going against are deeply frowned upon. In Morocco, a whole panoply of families, their origins in Fès, and with a shared nostalgia for former splendours, vow their allegiance to this code of conduct. This is the society in which Kenza Berrada grew up. In Paradis plage (une vie comme dans du miel), the director takes the traditional Moroccan living-room and turns it into an arena. Via interplay of a subtle nature, French and Moroccan Arabic blend with each other and bring to the surface the different frames of mind, as well as the domination-based relationships that prevail. Onstage, portraits of children evoke feelings of nostalgia for happy times gone by. From out of the house’s fountain, usually cool and refreshing, begins to flow a viscous liquid, which spreads to all corners and ends up contaminating language itself. This all-consuming substance symbolises that of the unsaid. In this instance, it is that of an elder brother who commits incest on his younger sister. To embody the different characters, Kenza Berrada invites the performers from Casablanca’s Kabareh Cheikhats, no strangers to the art of travesty and cross-dressing. To mirror-like effect, Paradis plage overturns male-dominated order and prompts spectators to question gender representations, both here as elsewhere.