Barcelona Calling l’Orient Mitjà
Art as a necessity
Looking at creators from the Middle East in the current context helps us situate the stage as a space of real complexity, far from geopolitical simplifications or uniform approaches. They are artists who often work imbued by the tension between identity, memory and conflict, and who turn art into a place of resistance, but also of imagination.
After Barcelona Calling Palestine and Barcelona Calling Beirut, the third season broadens the focus to the entire Middle East in an opportunity to listen to stories that rarely reach our usual circuits and to have access to another way of seeing the world.
Barcelona Calling the Middle East pack: you can enjoy the entire festival program for just €20. Last tickets!
And if you only want to see one show, you can buy individual tickets for € 10.
Shows
السّيرة الهلاليّة
Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah (The Epic of Bani Hilal)
Bashar Murkus and Khulood Basel - Khashabi Theatre (Palestine)
Tuesday, November 10, and Wednesday, November 11, at 7 p.m. · Sala Petita
Running time: 3 h with intermission
Show in Arabic with Catalan subtitles
An attractive visual version of the legendary poem Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah (The Epic Bani Hilal), passed from generation to generation since the 14th century. The epic, of oral tradition and at risk of extinction, has been listed UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2008 and narrates the saga of the Bedouin tribe Bani Hilal. It is also the story of Abu Zayd al-Hilali, who went from being a refugee to become the most legendary Arab leader.
The Palestinian company Kashabi reinvents traditional theatre, and the pioneering viewpoint of Bashar Murkus endows it with physicality, impressive visuals and challenging performances. A carnival with seven performers, live electronic music, large-format puppets and shadow theatre.
The Child
Shieveh Theater Company (Iran)
Tuesday, November 10, and Wednesday, November 11, at 8 p.m. · Sala Tallers
Running time: 1 h 15 min
Show in Persian with subtitles in Catalan
Three women are arrested on the border with Europe and interrogated by the authorities. They come from Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon. They are fleeing a precarious violent reality together along with a newborn baby. None of the three women admits to being his mother, with the hope of protecting the baby from an uncertain dangerous future. In this way, in the event of being deported, the baby might be allowed to remain in Europe.
In The Child, the award-wining Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya plays all three women in a piece that poses some challenging questions: To what extent do immigrants retain the right to escape the predetermined fate of birthplace? Can nationality fatefully confine individuals? Does the cycle of violence between immigrants and natives ever cease? Wasn't everyone, at some point, an immigrant?
Record
Chrystèle Khodr & Nadim Deaibes (Lebanon)
Thursday, November 12, and Friday, November 13, at 7 p.m. · Sala Tallers
Running time: 1 h
Performance in Arabic with Catalan subtitles
Based on the real story of Eva Ståhl, a Swedish nurse and a survivor of the 1976 massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp of Tel al-Zaatar, Record tells the story of the siege of the camp and portrays its tragic circumstances.
Chrystèle Khodr, actress, writer and director, lives in Beirut, where she regularly works with Nadim Deaibes. Her work seeks to reconstruct a collective memory based on personal stories and fragments of archive. Here, they revisit a specific moment of the Palestinian people during the Lebanese Civil War. Alone on stage, Chrystèle Khodr voices a story that still resonates today.
Three Verses of Solitude
Zoukak (Lebanon)
Friday, November 13, and Saturday, November 14, at 9 p.m. · Sala Petita
Running time: 1 h
Performance in Arabic with Catalan subtitles
Inspired by the contemplative stillness of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, designed to host the monumental paintings of Mark Rothko, the piece offers a gentle space for reflection, connection, and quiet renewal. It traces the emotional spectrum from solitude to loneliness, carrying echoes of pandemic lockdown or the intimate quiet of early motherhood.
Written by the Lebanese director Maya Zbib, cofounder of the renowned theatre collective Zoukak, the Australian choreographer Lee Serle from Trisha Brown Company, and with music by Ben Frost, a key representative of experimental electronic music, the piece invites spectators to take a break and to see solitude not as an absence but as a possibility: a space for imagination and transformation.
Dressing Room
Bissane Al Charif (Syria)
Saturday, November 14, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, November 15, at 6 p.m. · Sala Tallers
Running time: 55 min
Performance in Arabic with Catalan subtitles
French-Syrian actress and singer Hala Omran makes a plant-based recipe to overcome "the age of despair". What does the menopause do to women’s bodies and lives?
Palestinian-Syrian artist and scenographer Bissane Al Charif opens up a space for discussion, part laboratory and part women’s circle, in which she combines singing and personal stories, and where women from Arab countries – friends and strangers from either side of the Mediterranean – share their secrets. Subtle and committed, but with humour, lightness and self-irony, the show reflects on the female body and the traces left on it by time, in a context of war and social violence. An exploration halfway between personal memory and political crises.
Free entry
The Meeting
Thursday, November 12, at 8:15 p.m. · Sala Tallers
Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes
A gathering bringing together the audience and the creators participating in the festival.
An opportunity to have close conversations with the companies, delve deeper into the performances, and share perspectives on the role of art in a context as complex as the Middle East—where culture becomes more essential than ever.
After the meeting, we will enjoy a drink together during DJ Yasmina Karrum’s set.
Free event, open to everyone.
Yasmina Karrum (DJ SET)
Thursday, November 12, at 10 p.m. · Vestíbul superior
Running time: 1 h 30 min
Karrum is an Amazigh DJ living in Barcelona. Her sound emerges from the dialogue between the intimate memory of her childhood and the global influences of the present. Rooted in the rhythms of Africa and the diaspora, she builds sets that highlight the music from its roots, merging North-African sounds with contemporary electronic music.
The result is a profoundly connected sound experience, capable of building community and transforming the ambiance into a journey where mixing, memory and the group come together.
Free admission with reservation.
Prices
Pack 20 €Individual tickets 10 €
General information
FestivalAges 16+
Performances in Arabic and Persian with Catalan subtitles