Ahmed El Attar

Mama

Archive 2018
Theatre
Théâtre Cinéma de Choisy-le-Roi – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national art et création pour la diversité linguistique
octoberoct 9
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
octoberoct 11 – 14

© Mama © Mostafa Abdel Aty ©

© Mama © Mostafa Abdel Aty ©

© Mama © Mostafa Abdel Aty ©

© Mama © Mostafa Abdel Atty ©

1/4

Written and directed by Ahmed El Attar
With Abdelrahman Magdy, Dalia Ramzi, Hadeer Moustafa, Heba Rifaat, Menha El Batrawy, Menna El Touny, Mohamed Hatem, Mona Soliman, Moustafa Abdullah, Nanda Mohammad, Noha El Kholy, Ramsi Lehner, and Teymour El Attar
Music, Hassan Khan
Set and costume design, Hussein Baydoun
Lighting, Charlie Alstrom

An Orient Productions production ; Temple Independent Theater Company
A coproduction with Tamasi Performing Arts Network ; Festival d’Avignon ; Le Liberté, scène nationale Toulon ; Maison de la Culture de Bourges ; Sida – Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency ; SEE – Studio Emad Eddin ; MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bobigny) ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
In association with MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bobigny) ; Théâtre de Choisy-le-Roi ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from Onda
First performed on 1st July 2018 at Théâtre Falaki (Cairo)

In a bourgeois family in Cairo, a mother and daughter are engaged in a hushed battle with each other over the running of the house, and how interaction with its male inhabitants should handled. This rivalry gives rise to a delightful mixture of every day goings on which are dramatic and comical in equal measure.

The question that Ahmed El Attar poses is never highlighted: is everyday family life, and all that it entails, the domestic machine responsible for breeding macho neurosis? Let us not forget that all machos have a mother. Is it possible that man’s oppressive tendencies might be the result of collateral damage caused by feminine power struggles in the household? Could it be said that mothers are implicitly responsible for the tendency towards male supremacy by perpetuating the established order of the patriarchy? Imbued with good intentions, it could be said that all the attention given to male offspring is a custom passed on automatically from one generation to another, regardless of the many questions it poses. Is this custom the breeding ground for the social elaboration of the male dominant type? And for his misogynistic ways? The hypothesis is a potentially hazardous one, but there is actually nothing new about it. Evoked, here, in the context of Egyptian society, it does not, however, unburden men of their own responsibilities in the matter. Not at all. El Attar excels in creating group portraits the cruelty of which we delight in. The satirical tract adopts the allure of a comedy focussing on the mores of Egyptian society, whilst Hussein Baydoun’s stage design places the driving force of the piece in an altogether contemporary setting. Stirred by the author’s intimate reflections, audience members are left to make up their own minds regarding the many sociological questions that the play brings up. Without a doubt, western spectators will be able to pick up on certain, all too familiar, elements extending far beyond the geographical context.
––––––
Estimated running time : 1h15
Performed in Arabic, with French subtitles

In the same place

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
septembersept 18 – 22

Soa Ratsifandrihana
Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna

Dance

Committing moving bodies to a contemporary form of orality, Soa Ratsifandrihana, the guitarist Joël Rabesolo and performers Audrey Mérilus and Stanley Ollivier draw on their diasporic narratives and origins to tell a story they would have liked to hear or see. The three Malagasy words Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna, meaning comparison, transmission and rivalry, form variations in which the performers slide in and out of different states and seem to follow a movement in perpetual metamorphosis.
Théâtre de la Ville – Les Abbesses
septembersept 12 – 26
Espace 1789, scène conventionnée danse – Saint-Ouen
octoberoct 8 – 9
Théâtre Cinéma de Choisy-le-Roi – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national art et création pour la diversité linguistique
octoberoct 11
Points communs – Théâtre 95
decemberdec 18 – 20

Mohamed El Khatib
La vie secrète des vieux

Theatre
Buy tickets

Mohamed El Khatib furthers his passion for documentary theatre by tackling a subject that he brings from out of the shadows, namely that of eroticism and the love lives of “oldies”. Put together in a daring yet tender way, his new piece explores this theme from the perspective of desire, thereby going against the usual connotations associated with old age. 
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
octoberoct 13

Jeanne Balibar
Les Historiennes

RépertoireTheatre

Three women return from the past thanks to three female contemporary historians who bring them back to life via three separate accounts. Here, the actress Jeanne Balibar uses them as the basis for a staged reading. Four women from today’s world take a particularly eloquent and incisive look at three emblematic female destinies.
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 5 – 8

Nacera Belaza
La Nuée

Dance
Buy tickets

With a reputation for minimalist and captivating choreographies, Nacera Belaza continues the exploration of the circle and rhythm she initiated with Le Cercle (2019) and L'Onde (2021), both landmarks in her choreographic language. Following on from an initial period of creation in Brussels in May 2024, the choreographer then enlarged the creative process of La Nuée by inviting ten new performers to the stage.
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 14 – 17

Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll)
This is not an embassy (Made in Taiwan)

TheatrePerformance
Buy tickets

Rimini Protokoll's roving director Stefan Kaegi takes us, in the company of three native performers and residents, to the island of Taiwan. The fictional element of this show, in which the onstage action filmed live takes us through the twists and turns of a miniature décor, points to a somewhat grotesque geopolitical reality.
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 22 – 30

Rosana Cade, Ivor MacAskill
The Making of Pinocchio

Theatre
Buy tickets

Drawing upon Collodi's tale, the Cade-MacAskill duo uses theatre to investigate the little- explored realms of queer love and affection. In doing so, they tell the story of gender transition and its repercussions on the couple. The piece itself, The Making of Pinocchio, becomes a burlesque-inspired manifesto for different forms currently under construction.
Points communs – Théâtre des Louvrais
novembernov 14 – 16
Scène nationale de l'Essonne – Théâtre de l’Agora
novembernov 19 – 20
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 29 - december – dec 29
La Merise
decemberdec 12 – 14
La Ferme du Buisson, Scène nationale – cinéma – centre d’art contemporain
decemberdec 18 – 19

Joël Pommerat
Marius

Theatre

Inspired by the work of Marcel Pagnol, this show explores the theme of escape. Some of the actors had their first experience of theatre at the Maison centrale d'Arles prison. Marius provides audiences with a unique opportunity to discover a little-known but crucial dimension of Joël Pommerat's art.