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The Return of Danton by Mudar Alhaggi

Collective Ma’louba in residence at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim, Germany, 2021
Director: Omar Elerian
Lighting: Jackie Shemesh
Sound: Khaled Kurbeh
Associate Designer: Maryam Samaan
English translation: Hassan Abdulrazzak
German translation: Sandra Hetzl
Producer: Immanuel Bartz
Photography: Franziska Götzen
Cast includes: Amal Omran, Mohamed Alrashi, Mohammad Dibo, Kinan Hmeidan

A  collective of German-based Syrian actors are rehearsing a contemporary adaptation of Georg Büchner’s Danton’s Death. A shattering, political drama, at its centre is a conflict between two giant figures of the French Revolution, Danton and Robespierre. Between catastrophic line runs and overlong cigarette breaks, the four lock horns about their conflicted views on the Syrian revolution and their roles as artists in exile.

Written and performed in Arabic, the play is a contemporary exploration of how the dynamics of political revolutions – from the French Revolution to the Arab Spring – can be reflected within the politics of the rehearsal room.