The curtain was raised Tuesday on a two-week run of the play Sinbad Abban Aan Jad, directed by Swiss legend Patrick Moher and scripted by the Lebanese actor, director and playwright Paul Mattar, according to the Lebanese daily Al Nahar.
Moher and his Geneva-based troupe, Theater Spiral, got involved with the play after he had expressed admiration for the play and his wish to cooperate with an Arab Lebanese troupe. He described this as cooperation between completely different civilizations and cultures.
The Swiss director said he came to Lebanon to lead this project in collaboration with musicians from Algeria and a representative from Indonesia.
“The play is inspired by the ancient Eastern legends including the Arabic legend of Sinbad, based on the tales of Alf Lailah Wa Lailah (One Thousand and One Nights), the Greek legend Odysseus, Ulysses, Gilgamesh from the Sumarian novels and legends, and some ancient Arab Moroccan folk legends. This is in addition to inspirations from modern topics such as the discovery of oil,” Mattar told the daily.
He added, “I have chosen Sinbad as the play's core because Sinbad is the character of the traveler, who travels seeking money, fame, power, knowledge or perhaps wisdom. All travelers in the ancient legends mostly sought immortality, which actually does not exist in human life. There is another type of immortality which humans may acquire, which is learning lessons from legends, the transferral of memory from generation to generation.”
“I read a novel which said that whoever has no name, does not exist. When the human being passes, away his name remains in the memory of his relatives, lovers and family tree. Our play is about an old traveler called Sinbad who travels seven times. After he wraps up his seventh journey he returns home and tells his grandson about his seven journeys as a preparation for the child to do the same when he gets older, just like his grandfather. The grandfather sets a condition that the child, once older, should have a son by a genetic operation,” said Mattar.
He added, “I took from Sinbad the nature of the trip and inspiration from Arabic poetry - how the nomads aspire to avoid staying in one place, rather than to proceed towards life, which doesn’t come to you. Not only Sinbad, but also prominent Arab travelers such as Eben Battoutah, Eben Jubair, and others traveled seeking knowledge and wisdom, and most of them made pilgrimages. Although their aim was to be pilgrims, they explored and learned during the course of their trips. They completed journeys even after finishing pilgrimages, such as Eben Battoutah, who continued his journey to the Gulf, Iran and India exploring life after he had finished his pilgrimage rituals." – Albawaba.com
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