Spring Festival to breathe fresh life into Beirut's cultural scene
Daily Star Thursday, May 06, 2010

Preview

Simona Sikimic
Special to The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Beirut is thought of as a hub for young, up-and-coming artists and performers, a regional free space where expression is encouraged and ground-breaking experimentation commonplace.
For the last six years, the biannual Spring Festival has sought to build on this innovation. Hanane Hajali, general coordinator of the festival, aims to showcase some of the most exciting talent in the region, and the world.
The Spring Festival blends international names with local acts and engages youth through workshops with the aim of rejuvenating the existing arts scene and giving birth to a new generation of young urban artists.
Starting May 7, the month-long festival will take over the Sunflower Cultural Space in Tayouneh with a jamboree of contemporary creativity at a fee of LL10,000 a ticket.
Beirut events will be shared with Cairo, which serves as a second base for performances of the Spring Festival.
The highlights of this year’s festival include a rare performance by Benjamin Zephaniah, a British Jamaican writer and dub poet, who will perform on May 18.
Voted among The Times newspaper’s top 50 best post-Second World War writers in 2008, Zephaniah is renowned for his self-proclaimed mission to fight the dated image of poetry in academia, and to “take [it] everywhere,” especially to people who do not normally read books.
Having left school at 13 barely able to read and write, the dyslexic Rastafarian is living proof that willpower and talent can triumph over adversity. His inspirational life story and politicized lyrics have made him a hit with younger generation. During his visit, Zephaniah will conduct a youth workshop on May 17 incorporating poetry and improvisation.
A dramaturge – who takes charge of the research, development and composition of a play – can be instrumental in shaping the tone and message of a performance but does so in a more hands-off approach than a director.
Audiences might be able to detect the two roles in action with the performance of two plays from Syria. “The Last Tape,” a new version of Samuel Beckett’s famous play “Krapp’s Last Tape,” and “The Two Immigrants” were both spotted by organizers at the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture Festival in Damascus.
Syrian-born, French-trained Ousama Ghana serves as the dramaturge of “The Two Immigrants” and the director of “The Last Tape.”
“This interchange will be a wonderful opportunity for young artists in Lebanon to gain a first-hand understanding of how different roles can impact on a work,” said Hajali.
“There are not enough good dramaturges working in Lebanon and this role is relatively undeveloped. We hope that bringing in a master from abroad will serve as a real inspiration to build up this field.”
Both plays feature up and coming actor Mohammad al-Rachi, while Samer Omran will perform the duties of both actor and director in the “The Two Immigrants,” a work originally a written as a critique of Soviet totalitarianism
The two performances will take place on May 11 and May 13. Ghana will also host a week-long workshop on dramaturgy with members of Zoukak Theater Company, the young Lebanese troop, between May 14 and May 20.
The Spring Festival’s other delights will include puppetry, for children and adults, contemporary dance shows and music performances, which will give audiences a chance to listen to some of the world’s lesser-known instruments.
Festivities begin with a concert by Houmayoun Sakhi, an Afghani musician playing the traditional rubab lute and Nodira Primatova on the Uzbekistani dutar, a long-necked two-stringed instrument.

The Spring Festival will run at the Tayouneh’s Sunflower Cultural Space from May 7 to 27. For more information call +961 1 381 290.

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