Texts, Risks, and Revolution: Holding Up a Mirror to the Arab World

Thursday, March 13

Time: 6:15pm

Location: Sulzberger Parlor, Barnard Hall

Internationally acclaimed writer and director Sulayman Al Bassam in conversation with his collaborator Georgina Van Welie on making theatre across the cultural divide. Political by definition, performed in both English and Arabic with actors and a creative team from across the Arab world and the West, their projects have revisited Western texts from an Arab perspective and challenged Western perceptions of the Arab world. They will discuss their ten year Arab Shakespeare project, a recent production for The Comedie Francaise in Paris and Sulayman's new play The Petrol Station. The new play follows the lives of a pair of half-brothers as they vie for the loyalty and favors of their aging father, all against the backdrop of a vicious civil war of a neighboring country.

The Petrol Station will play at The Kennedy Center in the 2014-2015 season.

This event is sponsored by the Barnard International Artists Series and Heyman Center for the Humanities.