A Special Day in Beirut

Beirut, 2006, shortly after the Israeli attack on Lebanon. All the Lebanese are asked to take part in two large-scale demonstrations on one side or the other. The neighborhoods and buildings are empty, their inhabitants having gone to demonstrate. In a small alley in the Beirut suburbs, two isolated beings who run into each; a former left-wing militant who has trouble adapting to the social and political reality of the time of a Lebanon polarized between fundamentalist and ultra-capitalist extremes, and a housewife completely absorbed by family, social and religious concerns. In this show, Lina Saneh and Rabih Mroué continue their research, questioning on the ideas of performance, acting, fiction and reality, and the relationships of the last two in art. This time, they no longer use local news story or documents, but find inspiration in an existing movie with its fictional characters and its realistic acting, to better compare it to Lebanese reality and its complexities as well as to the theatre itself.