2024-04-03 00:12:37
“Welcome to the house of the Cro-Magnon.” A Lebanese family is similar to a number of other families that live in a daily struggle between bombs, storms, and power outages. But what we will see today is a special day: the eldest daughter is getting married and things must be perfectly arranged for the celebration. But where is the groom? We have to find him! Of course, we will find him in the audience. When feeling pressure, a person insults himself, laughs, quarrels with himself and then reconciles with himself. Thus, the content of the play “A Wedding Feast for the Cave Men” is known (acting by Fadi Abi Samra, Jean Destreme, Layal Al-Ghoussein, Ali Harqous, Bernadette Hadib, and Aida Sabra), which is supposed to be presented by Canadian-Lebanese playwright Wajdi Mouawad on April 30. ) current and next May 19, on the stage of the “Mono Theater”, where “The Coast” was previously shown in 2001 and “Alone” in 2013.
Doaa Al-Adl – Egypt
Today, Mouawad returns to direct the Arabic version of Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons with a Lebanese team, in what is his first experience within this project, and within the framework of a global tour in preparation. Note that the work was produced by the Parisian “La Colin” Theater (Mawad has been managing it since the fall of 2016 and his appointment was renewed a few days ago until 2027), in partnership with the Printemps des Comédiens Festival, and with the support of the “French Institute in Paris” and the “French Institute in Lebanon.” He is famous for his attempts at normalization in the name of culture, as happened in 2022 when the first session of the “Beirut Books” festival witnessed widespread confusion after the withdrawal of five printing writers with the Israeli enemy who were supposed to participate in announcing the short list for the prestigious “Goncourt” literary prize from Lebanon for the first time.
The organizers say that Wajdi wrote this play when he was 23 years old, and that it is like “the first manuscript of his theatre: longing for a lost world, the pain of exile, and the darkness of the Lebanese civil war,” likening it to the burden that parents pass on to their children: “But family tragedies must not be impossible.” The tragedies of her children.” In addition to the pleasure of watching, they provide an additional reason for people to watch the work, which is to support the “Al-Sabil Association” and the public libraries of the Beirut Municipality.
Immediately after the start of the promotional campaign, those excited about “Lebanon’s global achievements” began to applaud the play – an event that, for them, falls within the context of “conclusive” evidence that the people of the Land of the Cedars “love life” and reject the “culture of death.” However, it was “inadvertently” forgotten by these people and those who adopted the play, who had been trying for months to find a local space that would embrace it before they settled in Achrafieh, that Wagdy Moawad, whose artistic and literary talent we had previously applauded, decided, with premeditation and determination, years ago, to slide into the swamp of normalization, to bring this matter to a conclusion. To the point of humanizing the Israeli enemy and colluding with it. He does not hide the matter, especially since he took over the management of “La Coline,” when he began to hide behind the façade of “peace” and empty and naive titles, most notably “openness to the other.” All of this, of course, is aimed at ensuring the satisfaction of the dominant cultural and media system in France. His choice was to support the Zionist entity by receiving works coming from its theater, presenting Israeli productions, and concluding production partnerships with Zionist parties. Perhaps the clearest example of this is his play “All Birds,” which in 2019 received support and funding from the cultural section of the occupation embassy in France, and from the “Camiri Theater” in Tel Aviv.
War is ever-present in Wajdi Mouawad’s works, despite the question marks drawn around his narrative about it.
The organizers tried for months to find a Beiruti space to host the show
If we return to the date of November 9, 2023, the day Moawad explained his position on the Israeli war of genocide on the Gaza Strip in an article published in the French newspaper “Liberation” (see the article by our colleague Alma Abu Samra), the picture may become clearer. While Moawad admitted that he grew up hating the Palestinians, he finally declared his support for the killer. He saw in the “Hamas militias” a symbol of the “crazy forces of darkness” that are not content with “their atrocities of kidnapping and destruction, for which Palestinian civilians pay the price,” but also “feed the seed of anti-Semitism” in such a way that the coming days will become “fear, terror, exile, and diaspora.” Rather, it is a cemetery for every Jew! At a time when Lebanon is engaged in a major confrontation with the Israeli enemy, coinciding with the Gazan massacre approaching its seventh month, there are those who decided to host a person who sided with the Zionist narrative and shook hands with the killer at the height of genocide live on air. Meanwhile, the “Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon” began its communications today, Wednesday, with the aim of studying legal ways to stop the upcoming shows in the capital, especially since Mouawad is normalized according to Lebanese law. For its part, Al-Sabil confirmed to Al-Akhbar that it had stopped its new financing campaign through the pre-premiere showing of “A Wedding Feast for the Dwellers of the Cave” (April 30), which falls within the campaigns aimed at financing its activities through plays. The association noted that, “Given the current circumstances, we announce the suspension of the campaign, thanking everyone who took the initiative and purchased cards with the aim of supporting our activities.”
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