| ARNAB ARNAB ..... DO YOU READ ME? |
AFTER " LAPIN LAPIN" BY COLINE SERREAU TRANSLATED BY SAMEH HIJAZI DIRECTED BY PETER BRASCHLER A CO-PRODUCTION OF ASHTAR AND MARALAM.
Arnab Arnab ..... Do You Read ME? was our second summer production. Following the success of the previous summer’s "Beauty and the Beast", the summer production had become a tradition and this year we took it even further, becoming the largest production ever to be staged by a Palestinian theatre company. Also, of its 17 players, 11 were young women.
As the year before, professional actors and designers were an integral part of the team, giving the students the chance to experience working skilled artists on the creation, and performance, of a theatre piece.
The play is the story of a regular family, all be it with a rather unusual son, Arnab, who is convinced that he was sent from another planet, and even receives a ‘visitor’ - whom only he can see. Early one morning the doorbell rings, unfolding a chain of events, including the disappearance of Arnab, that threaten their very foundations, bringing the family to the verge of collapse:
With nothing more to lose, the family decide to liberate their imprisoned son. In the bizarre rescue, desperation turns to hope when Arnab reappears to work his magic: In one fell swoop he turns all the soldiers into women.
| Instead of repeating the "open-stage" approach we took with the previous year’s "Beauty and the Beast", we chose to adopt a Brechtian style for "Arnab..". Both because we wanted to give our trainees practice in playing with props as well as space, and, because we wanted to depict the harsh reality of the living conditions of the average Palestinian family. We had as many as 14 actors on stage at a time, forcing them to live, and act, on top of one another! |  |
The Secret police enter the house in order to interrogate Said.
Notice their bulging stomaches?
Their shirts are concealing the dresses that they find themselves wearing
when Arnab casts his spell.
The play seeks a new logic, one that challenges what we call reality. For both the actors and the audience, the designing, searching and sharing of the creative process, helps to form the new logic that " Arnab Arnab ..... Do You Read ME?", asks for.
