Show finished
Els contrabandistes de llibres de Darayya
An act of collective resistance against the regime and censorship
Els contrabandistes de llibres de Darayya is a show that attests to the violence exercised by the power to stop the imagination and vitality of a people, by depriving them of reading and thinking.
In 2015, the journalist Delphine Minoui discovered, on "Humans of Syria" Facebook page, the photograph of a secret library in the heart of the city of Daraya in the midst of the Syrian war. A shelter of words with books collected from the streets after each bombing. The event struck her in such a way that she decided to research that group of young rebels who built a paper fortress in the heart of chaos.
Libraries are the gateway to knowledge, information, and culture. In these spaces, people can find meaning in many things—existence itself, for example. A library can also be a refuge: we isolate ourselves from reality and escape to other worlds through books.
In Darayya, a city on the outskirts of Damascus, in the midst of the Syrian civil war, the library became a refuge from the war. And the act of reading became a political act of opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime.
With the books they gathered from the rubble of homes destroyed by bombings, the young people of Darayya built a secret underground library. It was an act of collective resistance against the regime and censorship.
Author
Delphine Minoui
Directed by
Iban Beltran
Translated by
Albert Tola, Isabelle Bres
Version
Albert Tola, Iban Beltran
Cast
Ilyass El Ouahdani, Laura Rosel, Marwan Sabri, Jorge-Yamam Serrano
Based on The Book Smugglers of Daraya by Delphine Minoui
© Editions du Seuil, 2020
Stage design
Judit Colomer
Costume design and tailoring
Montse Figueras
Lighting
Alberto Rodríguez Vega (AAI)
Sound design
Damien Bazin
Video creation
Miquel Àngel Raió
*With images taken from the documentary Daraya: A Library Under Bombs by Delphine Minoui and Bruno Joucla, produced by Brother Films.
Assistant director and movement
Ana Pérez García
Video creation assistant
Martín Elena
Set construction
TM Disseny Industrial
Technical and management team of the company
Artistic direction
Mercè Managuerra
Executive production
Sylvie Lorente
Communication
Marta Cros
Production assistant
Aida Llop
Company technicians
Alex Romero
Carolina Durian
Technical support
Damià Plensa
Distribution
Cristina Ferrer (Tot Produccions)
Production
Cia. Dau al Sec, Teatre Nacional de Catalunya
In collaboration with
Fabra i Coats – Creative Factory
Special thanks
François Vila and Mathilde Mottier
Acknowledgements
Mariam Bahous Yalaoui, Ali El Aziz, Malika Guezmi, Abdila Ouled-Driss, Charaf Kbaweh Bouhaja, Mohamed Soulimane, Festival OUI!
Technical and management teams of the TNC
This performance includes images that may be disturbing to some viewers.
Prices
of €11 a €22General information
Theatre1 h 15 min
+ 14 years
Catalan
Show included in the season ticket
Schedules
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:00 PMSunday at 6:00 PM
Accessibility
Recommended age
+ 14 years
