14

Country: Egypt Director: Ahmed El Attar Genre: Theater Duration: 75mins Language: Arabic with subtitles

About:

While men are only passing through, it is the women who remain. In this bourgeois living room in Cairo, men take up all the space, however. A room that serves at once to protect family intimacy and to welcome visitors from outside, this seemingly ordinary location provides countless creative possibilities for expressing the symbolic and physical imprisonment of the Arab woman and her children. With Mama, El Attar paints an unforgiving portrait of the mother, rendered monstrous by her limitless love. The thirteen characters and the living room are deployed in a way that exposes the audience to a miniature society made up of alternating power relationships. Every character is at the service of an other, which allows him- or herself to be buried under things left unsaid. With this play – the last in a trilogy about family – the director dares to challenge and transform our conventional idea of the mother, a figure all too often considered an untouchable object to honor and cherish. In Mama, the mother is rendered a mistress of her own destiny. More broadly, the play explores and dramatizes her responsibility in this current time of crisis. Because loving too much or in a toxic way has never led to more freedom... **Co-produced at the 72nd edition of Festival D’Avignon where it premiere in July 2018.

Cast and credits:

• Text and direction: Ahmed El Attar
• Performers: Belal Mostafa, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Dalia Ramzi, Hadeer Moustafa, Heba Rifaat, Menha El Batrawy, Menna El Touny, Mohamed Hatem, Mona Soliman, Nanda Mohammad, Noha El Kholy, Ramsi Lehner, Seif Safwat , Teymour El Attar
• Music: Hassan Khan
• Stage design and costumes: Hussein Baydoun
• Lights: Charlie Alström
• Producer: Henri Jules Julien
• Assistant Director / Touring Manager: Nadeen Lotayef
• Production & Stage Manager: Mram AbdelMaqsoud
• Assistant Light Designer & Operator: Saber El Sayed
• Assistant Set & Costume Designer / Sound Operator: Ahmed Ashmawy
• Production Team: Mohamed Bonga, Sayed Naggar, Mazen Abo El Nagga, Medo AbdelMaqsoud, Mohamed Fares, and Islam Tarek
• Prompter: Nevine El Ibiary
• Vocal Coach: Sherif El Dabaa
• Finance Manager: Ahmed Nagy
• Marketing Manager: Sarah Fahmi
• PR Manager: Basma Hamed
• Graphic Designer: Enas Abdelrahman
• Social Media Coordinator: Seham Sultan
• Photography: Mostafa Abdel Aty
• Videography: Sally Kandil
• Special Thanks to: Ahmed Adel
• English Translator: Lara El Gibaly French Translator: Mireille Mikhail French Editor: Shadi El Hosseini and Taymour El Attar

Previous Tours:

2018

• 1-7 July: AUC Falaki Theatre and Gallery, Cairo, Egypt 
• 18-19, 21-23 July: Festival d’Avignon, France
•  9 Oct.: Théâtre Paul Éluard, Choisy-le-Roy, France
• 11-14 Oct: MC93 Bobigny / Festival d’Automne à Paris, France
• 16-17 of Oct: MCB Bourges, France 
• 10 Nov: Festival Les rencontres à l’échelle, Marseille, France, 
• 15-6 Nov: Festival TNB Rennes, France

2019

• 14-15 May: Le Quartz, Scène nationale, Brest, France
• 18 May: Le Liberté, Scène nationale de Toulon, France
• 11 -22 Sep: Falaki Theater, Tahrir Cultural Center, Cairo, Egypt

Production Details:

• Number In Company: 19 on the road including 1 child
• Setup: 1 setup Day
• Stage dimensions and capacities:
• Width: 14m
• Depth: 8mini-15max
• Height under pipe: 7m