"Jabra" Monodrama

In this one actor play, we follow the evolution of one entity, "Jabra" from the age of five until the age of twelve, in parallel to the development of his consciousness, intellect, and his passion. We progress with him through the different characters that made a difference in his life and between the streets and alleys in which he lived, ran, and played between the cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Upon writing his first script on daydreaming and memory, Jabra relied on the depiction of childhood as a mixture of existential intensity and poetic coma; a combination of logic and illogic. Childhood, as Jabra described it, is not originally a single story. It is rather different stories that are often difficult to connect, despite the frequency of their characters, except with some narrative trick. "I tried to come back to relive this period of childhood without a burning desire for analysis and without meddling or adding onto what really happened.”

Staff Members:

Directed by: Emil Saba

Acted by: Khalid Massou
Prepared by: Tarek El Sayed- Emil Saba- Khalid Massou                    
Scenography: Jeries Abu Jaber
Lighting Design & Management: Mohammad Rawashdeh
Implementation of set: Mohammad Rawashdeh and Jeries Abu Jaber
Sound and Music Design: Ameer Zabaneh
Dramaturgy: Khalid Massou- Emil Saba
Execution of clothing: Nadia Rizqallah
Production Manager: Samia Abu Hmoud
 

Director’s Words

Jabra is considered to be one of the most important Palestinian and Arab writers and thinkers, and creating a play based on his autobiography isn’t an easy job, especially that there are a lot of readers and followers who love and appreciate his art and literature. Therefore, I had to find a formula that reflects the spirit and the voice of the text and transform that into a play with one actor. We worked as a team in picking the most important characters and events which played a big role and was a milestone in his childhood, preserving along the way the sense of humor, innocence and hope which the book is rich of. Jabra didn’t surrender to his tough life and to the challenges he faced growing up. He spontaneously, challenged his reality, and manipulated it to his advantage.  As he transformed from a unit that searched for its reflection in its surrounding, into an entity that found the reflection of its environment within.