Creators of „Damascus 2045”



Omar Abusaada




Omar Aabusaada is an independent Syrian director who lives in Damascus. After finishing his theatrical studies at the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts in Damascus, he starts to build his own vision of a politically and socially-conscious theatre. He co-founds the Studio Theatre in 2002, whose first show, „Insomnia”, premieres in 2004.

He spends years travelling the remotest regions of Syria, Egypt, and Yemen, to train young theater practitioners and perform shows on marketplaces that are often pretexts to talk with local students, workers and villagers, who sometimes join the actors on stage.

For almost the last 10 years, Abusaada works together with the Syrian author Mohammad Al Attar. Their performances take place on the boundary between dramatization and documentation. They condense the travails of war and show what it means to endure them. One of their recent collaborations „While I was Waiting”, premiered in Kunsten Festival, Brussels in 2016, and was selected for the official programme of the 70th edition of Festival D’Avignon.

Their most recent collaboration „The Factory”, a co-production of Ruhrtinnale Festival and Volksbünhe was premiered in August 2018.

 

 

 

 


Mohammad Al Attar



The Syrian playwright Mohammad Al Attar has been dealing with the Syrian Revolution and the resulting conflicts since 2011. Al Attar was born in Damascus. At university, he completed a degree in English literature, followed by degree in Theatrical Studies from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts, Damascus. He then completed a master’s degree in Applied Theatre at London’s Goldsmiths University. Today, he is considered an important chronicler of war-torn Syria. His plays like: „Withdrawal”, „Online”, „Look at the street...this is what hope looks like”, „Could You Please Look into the Camera?” and „While I was waiting” were staged at various international festivals and venues in around the world. For most of his plays he joined forces with the Syrian director Omar Abusaada. They have now completed their theatrical trilogy of adapting Greek tragedies dedicated to the lives of women seeking refuge from war. Following the adaptation „Trojan Women” (2013) in Jordan and „Antigone of Shatila” (2014) in Lebanon, „Iphigenia” was staged at Volksbühne, Berlin in September 2017. In 2017 and in Berlin, Al Attar has premiered „Aleppo, a Portrait of Absence” at HKW. His last play „The Factory”, a co-production of Ruhrtinnale Festival and Volksbünhe was premiered in August 2018. Beside his writings for stage, Al Attar has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, with a special focus on the Syrian Uprising.

 

 

 

 

 

Bisanne Al Sharif

 

 

Bissane Al Charif is a scenographer and independent visual artist. She studied Architecture at the University of Damascus, Set Design at the Nantes School of Architecture. She has worked as a scenographer at the Damascus Opera House and as a set designer within the field of film and theater.

She lives in France since 2013 and works as a stage designer and an independent artist. She is the set designer of several theater pieces of Mohammad Al Attar and Omar Abusaada such as: „While I Was Waiting” (2016), „Iphigenia” (2017), „The Factory” (2018), the last two were produced by Volksbühne, Berlin.

Her multimédia installation „Mémoire(s) des Femmes”, was awarded the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015. Her new artistic installation „I once entered a Garden” was presented in Beirut in March 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teatr Powszechny
im. Zygmunta Hübnera
ul. Jana Zamoyskiego 20
03-801 Warszawa
tickets 22 818 25 16
22 818 48 19