Zoukak Theatre Company’s HEAVENS   Monday 20 July 2020
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2020-07-21

Glod: Political Theatre as a Civil Right presented Zoukak Theatre Company’s HEAVENS (audio version) livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 20 July 2020 at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 6 p.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 8 p.m. EEST (Cluj, UTC +3).

GLOD
Romanian noun

Wet earth (soaked by rain water or melted snow)
Mud
Clay
From the Hungarian galád or the Russian глуда (gluda)

GLOD: Political Theatre as a Civil Right returns Monday 20 July 2020 with Zoukak Theatre Company’s HEAVENS.

Heavens is a play by Zoukak theatre company, performed by a chorus of 3 women, tackling the subject of collective and individual memory of the Lebanese civil war. The play revisits themes such as Lebanon's missing and forcibly disappeared and the general amnesty law of 1991, as the 3 women delve into their memories to give us a glimpse of how it was like to grow up as a girl/woman in war torn Beirut.

Heavens closes the chapter of historical research that Zoukak started in 2012 with Perform-Autopsy. Through this research, we gained insight into the private-public relationship with history. It revealed our incomplete historical empire: the curse of repetition and echoes, our fragile reality and selves, the breath-constricting anxiety when we attempt to bury the rubble of the past in denial and reconstruction, the fear, hatred and self-loathing at the thought of our murderers and reality silencers - and our victims, anxiousness over our struggles, actions and betrayals, nostalgia that sinks us in past events somehow linked to us.

In this work, we come to a self-realization as individuals. We have become what we lost and we have lost what we have become. Our history has reduced us to numbers that fuel a destructive controversy. We challenge that which paralyses us and denies us a future. Between the here and the there, the now and the then, recollecting our memories and our losses. On stage, we stand up so we can see, we speak out so that we may hear, we tell our stories so we can realize ourselves.

The performance is in Arabic with English subtitles. Post show discussion between Junaid Sarieddeen and Maya Zbib of Zoukak Theatre, Chris Thorpe and contributions from Legal Agenda via pre -recorded material will be conducted in English.

#GlodSessions

Heavens was performed for the first time in 2014 at Zoukak Studio. It was later performed more than 20 times in Lebanon and in 2016 in India. Directed by Junaid Sariedden and Omar Abi Azar, performed by Lamia Abi Azar, Danya Hammoud and Maya Zbib, devised and written collectively with the participation of Hashem Adnan. The group collaborated with Abraham Zeitoun on Scenography and Rayya Morcos on costume design, as well as Maya Chami on poster design.
This audio version of Heavens was recorded by Jawad Chaaban a One Hertz Studio.

Hosted by HowlRound Theatre Commons

Coordinated by BÉZNĂ Theatre

A British Romanian theatre company making work that investigates societal inequalities & confronts institutional & normalised violences. Pivotal to our work are close collaborations with activists & academics during field research, inclusion of communities in our process & emancipatory actions to enact lasting change.

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us.