A play that met with great acclaim at the Avignon Festival in July 2009, Photo-Romance is a comic and critical evocation of contemporary Lebanon presented in the form of an animated photo story. Born in the late 1960s, the artists Lina Saneh and Rabih Mroué grew up during the civil war. In this piece, which is making its North American début at the NAC, they are “both the same and not quite the same” as they find themselves in Beirut in 2006 shortly after the Israeli attack.

A Lebanese director submits to the political censor footage of her film, a movie freely inspired by Ettore Scola’s famous film A Special Day (1977). She shows him images of demonstrations and some black-and-white shots of the moment when Lina, a divorced housewife preoccupied by family, social and religious responsibilities, meets Rabih, a former leftist militant now living on the fringes of Lebanese society. As they question the war, the place of women in society and the Lebanese left, these two lonely individuals start to connect with each other.

With a subtle, playful nod and a wink toward the prohibitions and taboos encountered by the two artists, Photo-Romance uses parallel narratives to question the relationship between reality and fiction in art – after all, the censor and the director play the lead roles in the movie.

After studies in theatre, Lina Saneh and Rabih Mroué became actors and directors and their paths crossed on a regular basis. Saneh’s focus is on the Lebanese experience (social and political realities and their contradictions and conflicts), while Rabih Mroué is particularly interested in the notion of representation and the role of the spectator. “This time,” notes Antoine de Baecque, “they have not relied on a local news item or resorted to documents, but have borrowed instead from another medium, distant in time and space, telling a classic tale with fictional characters and realistic acting, the better to confront not only theatre itself but the realities and complexities of life in Lebanon.”

“Lina Saneh and Rabih Mroué have created a somewhat
dizzying device, deconstructing both film realism and theatrical illusion in delightful fashion, free of cold theory.”
Fabienne Darge, Le Monde

“Devoid of any didacticism and imbued with artistic liberty, there is real gravity here hidden behind a splendid, desperate humour.”
Emmanuelle Bouchez, Télérama

Conceived, written and directed by
LINA SANEH and RABIH MROUÉ

With
CHARBEL HABER
RABIH MROUÉ
LINA SANEH

Translation
MASHA REFKA

Set Design
SAMAR MAAKAROUN

Music
CHARBEL HABER

Photography
SARMAD LOUIS

On Film
RABIH MROUÉ
LINA SANEH
Special Guest
MONA MROUÉ

Assistant Director and Executive Producer
PETRA SERHAL

Costumes
ZEINA SAAB DE MELERO

Make-up
STÉPHANIE AZNAREZ

Produced by
ASHKAL ALWAN (Beirut)

Presented in collaboration with
RADIO-CANADA

Coproduced by
Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de l’Agora Scène nationale d’Evry et de l’Essonne, Festival/Tokyo, Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), L’Établissement public du Parc et de la Grande Halle de la Villette (Paris), Associazione Festival delle Colline (Turin), Association Libanaise pour les Arts Plastiques ASHKAL ALWAN (Beirut)

With the help of the Ambassade de France au Liban, Service de Coopération et d’Action Culturelle (SCAC)

Length
1 hour 15 minutes with no intermission

NAC STUDIO
53 Elgin, Ottawa

Tickets
Adults: $34.98
Students: $18.99
Live Rush: $12

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