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Jidariyya
Supported by Visiting Arts
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About the Performance
A barely conscious poet is haunted by memories and is forced to face up to his life, his art and his mortality. He muses on the poems he did not write, on his first love, his dreams, and all the experiences that make up his personality and his culture. A poignant, poetic and uplifting production, beautifully acted.
Jidariyya is adapted from a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, one of the most important contemporary Arab voices, who died on Saturday 9 August 2008. Darwish was born in a town in Galilee which was razed when he was a child. Jidariyya is a cry against his own personal obliteration as well as that of his culture.
Reviews
‘I realised that the ultimate death is the death of language. Under the influence of anaesthesia, I imagined that I still knew my words but could not pronounce them, so I used the doctors' forms to write on. I had the language when I had nothing left... yet it is our entire life that is in a state of collective struggle against insignificance and the death of our identity. The triumph of poetry over death signals the dawning of resurrection.'
‘lingers in the memory and in the heart.'
Naturally this production by the National Theatre of Palestine has been given added poignancy by the death last week of the poet Mahmoud Darwish. All the more so as the main protagonist is a man musing on life and death as he lies in hospital after heart surgery - very similar to the circumstances of Darwish's own death.
The thumping sound of a heart beating eerily fills the silences between episodes of live music, speech and song. The visual imagery is stunning and the silhouetted figures of refugees trudging up the hill with their suitcases will remain with me for a long time. A programme note by the author reveals that for him "death is the death of language", and language is an important, if unsatisfactorily represented to us non-Arabic speakers, component of this piece.
One senses that the poetry of the original is exquisitely beautiful, but the English in the supertitles is sometimes a little clunky. However, he central performance by Makram J. Koury is faultless and I found the whole thing deeply moving.
Supported by Visiting Arts
Photo: Fima Barablat
Performance Details
Palestinian National Theatre
Written by Mahmoud Darwish
Adapted by Khalifa Natour
Performed in Arabic with English supertitles
Cast: Makram J. Khoury, Khalifa Natour, Reem Talhami, Ruba Bilal, Jameel Khoury, Rimon Hadadd, Ramzi Maqdisi and Tamam Quanmbo
Amir Nizar Zuabi Director and designer
Habib Shehadeh Music
Philippe Andrieux Lighting design
Hamada Attalah Costume design
Abdel-Salam Abdo Masks
Booking Information
Performance Dates:
- Thu 14 Aug - 8:00 pm
- Fri 15 Aug - 8:00 pm
- Sat 16 Aug - 8:00 pm
- Sun 17 Aug - 8:00 pm
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- From £10Tickets:
- Approx 1 hourDuration:
- Royal Lyceum TheatreVenue:
