Zoukak Sidewalks 2018 - The Festival presents:
Illusions
Performance
Directed by Carlos Chahine
Saturday 10 of November 2018 at 9:00 p.m. at Zoukak Studio, Beirut
Entry: 25.000 L.L.
Tickets are available through ihjoz.com and at the door
Free Entry for students (upon presenting their Student ID), unemployed citizens, migrant domestic workers and people working in the artistic field (artists, technicians, administrators...). Those benefiting from the free entry are asked to show at the venue 30 minutes before the start of the event.
Synopsis
« Hello. I want to tell you about a married couple. These were wonderful human beings. They lived together for fifty-two years. Fifty-two years! Always together. Their life was complete. A fulfilling life! Extraordinarily beautiful love. Her name was Sandra, his was Denny… »
This is how the play Illusions begins. Four actors share the stories of two old couples, their love and eventually, their death. They tell us about a past they have never known as if it were their own, and as if they themselves had lived those love stories. Are they inventing it all? Are they imagining their own future? Are they sending hidden messages to each other? This is a play about love, desire, and loss. The « Illusions » that make us human and so fragile.
Credits
Writer: Ivan Viripaev
Director: Carlos Chahine
Assistant director: Joyce Abou Jaoudé
Light design: Pol Seif
Set design (scenography): Ghida Hachicho
Actors: Serena Chami, Wissam Fares, Carole Hajj, Joseph Zeitouny
Translation into Lebanese (Arabic): Joseph Zeitouny
Artist's Biography
Carlos Chahine left Lebanon for France in 1975 due to the civil war. He enlisted in the ENSAD acting session of the TNS (National Theater of Strasbourg), and worked under the direction of prestigious directors such as Matthias Langhoff, Sylviu Purcarete, Alain Françon, Michel Vinaver, Christian Rist, Philippe Adrien, Stuart Seide, Philippe Van Kessel, and others. In 2008 he came back to Lebanon to make his first film The North Road, which won a number of international awards. Since, Carlos often returns to Beirut to direct several plays, such as God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, and Dinner with friends by Donald Margulies. He has also directed a documentary/essay, Chekhov in Beirut, and recently completed a short film The Gambler’s Son coproduced by France 2.
Zoukak Sidewalks – The festival 2018 is supported by: Drosos Foundation, AFAC – Arab Fund for Art and Culture, the Sundance Institute, the Goethe Institute, the British Council, the French Institute – Paris, the French Institute – Lebanon, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Beirut Office, Salon Du Livre Francophone.
