4000 years shifted: A English-Arabic theatrical production is on the search for the cultural heritage of the ancient city of Ur to today’s Palmyra. A conversation with the Director Sulayman Al Bassam.
The Kuwaiti writer and Director Sulayman Al Bassam is with his Arab Ensemble SABAB on the theatre of Europe stages. The choice of London is fighting in his pieces against political and cultural narrow-mindedness. Now he strikes at the Munich Residenz theatre with the German-Arab co-production “Ur” a bow from the ancient Mesopotamia to the present. It is a multi-layered plea for an open society – and full of hope. Deutsche Welle has made Sulayman Al Bassam on the day of the Premiere at the Munich Residenz theatre, and with him about his piece spoken.
Deutsche Welle: you have to do “Ur” by 4000 years of history. And to go even further into the future. Where do you see the red thread in your piece?
Sulayman Al-Bassam: There are different levels of history. Originally, it was the Mesopotamian city of “Ur”, 2000 BC, one of the oldest cities of humanity. The scenes are based on ancient Sumerian texts, the poetic “lamentations” over the destruction of Ur. An allegory to the recent destruction of Arab cities, in the last four, five years – Aleppo, Gaza, Benghazi, Sanaa, as a result of the crackdown of the Arab spring, the oppression and the fighting in different regions.
When it was clear that we would work together with the German actors, I knew the piece must change, must go beyond the Arab context. We observe in the presence of the great migration, millions of people are in motion, in all parts of the world, to Europe and Germany. The four actors in the piece are from Syria and Lebanon, and they are part of the Arab Diaspora. You live in Europe and work here as a professional actor. The young actress who plays the goddess and ruler of Ur, Nin-Gal,, belongs to the youngest refugee generation from Syria and lives in Germany. It is a concrete example of the current references in the piece.
Sulayman Al Bassam
Another scene takes place in the year 2015 in Palmyra. The IS wants to destroy the testimonies of the pre-Islamic period, their Keeper kill. In addition, I look to the future, to the Iraqi of Mosul in the year 2035. A futuristic city, completely rebuilt, thanks to the global capital. We see a Couple, there is no material, nothing, but beneath the surface of the abyss.
The goddess and ruler of “Ur” , Nin-Gal stands for a radical, utopian idea. You want to swap the weapons against poems. It stands for a kind of “soft Revolution”?
Nin-Gals revolt has two components. On the one hand, she insists on poetry instead of violence, on the other hand, she is liberated sexually, rebelled against the male-specific morality. The latter eventually leads to the civil war, worse still, a war of her own father against you. In the piece, there is a kind of female protest song that relates to the Arab spring, and through the piece. Depending on the Situation, he is misunderstood, reinterpreted, or tried to extinguish the protests.
Nin-Gal: The goddess and ruler of “Ur”
War, revolt, cultural heritage – are themes in the piece. But it is also in the narrower sense of the German history, to the colonial appropriation of the Orient by German archaeologists at the beginning of the 20th century. Century. What has prompted you to this?
The historical figures, the archaeologist, Friedrich Delitzsch, Robert Koldewey and Walter Andrae, the founder of the Pergamon Museum, for a certain period of colonial history. The French, the English and later the Germans are in the Middle East, the artifacts tell you something about the origin of Christianity, and therefore about themselves. What you find there, irritated, leading to a bitter ideological dispute about cultural roots and the supposed Aryan origins. This is a Situation where cultural identity is so overloaded, where tensions are inevitable, it is a good ground for the Theater that has captivated me as a substance.
This is their second co-production in Germany, at a big theatre house. You are working with a mixed Ensemble, in three languages. A quasi – “Babylon” feat. Why make it so hard?
Me the own self-understanding of the actor to ask interested always, in the Theater with language or with different languages. To bring certainties to falter, the limits of cultural exchange. It was really a pleasure to work with the German players. It is the first Time that I stage in a German state theater. I do theatre anywhere in the world, but most of the time I find it difficult to work at large institutions. That was a really good experience here. I’m happy that the piece is passed into the Repertoire of the Residenz theatre, which is class.