LEBANON-WAR STORIES Lebanese actors improvise war stories inspired by former combatants of civil war

Record ID: 135601

  • Title: LEBANON-WAR STORIES Lebanese actors improvise war stories inspired by former combatants of civil war
  • Date: 22nd October 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEBANESE FORMER COMBATANT, IBRAHIM NASSAR, SAYING: "I personally endured all the tragedies of the war and paid the price on a personal level. If I don't speak out and express myself, these tragedies will dig deep within me and destroy me. I should speak, I should express, I should tell, because the tragedies that our generation went through, our childr
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3OHW7ZCBXEBIZC7ILS7OP9G4V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Former combatants of the Lebanese 1975-1990 civil war -- from both sides of the conflict -- tell their stories and have them reinacted in an emotional theatre improvisations at Alt City, a venue on Hamra street in Beirut.
    'War Stories', located in an intimate setting in Lebanon's capital, sees people involved in the civil war telling a captive audience their stories of death and survival, weapons and fighting, family and love; some tragic and sad, some joyful and uplifting.
    Young Lebanese actors then reenact the stories into improvised theatre pieces on the spot.
    The event was made possible through the cooperation of Fighters For Peace (FFP) and Laban - the Live Lactic Culture organisation, set in the framework of a UNDP project called 'From civil war to civil peace: ex-combatants as change agents for peace building in post-conflict Lebanon.'
    Ziad Saab, the President of the FFP told Reuters that the idea behind the project was to break the taboos present around speaking about the 15 year-long civil war in Lebanon.
    "We wanted the ex-fighters and the audience to interact together and lead a dialogue in public, so they can start to address the subject of speaking of self-experience. This is one form of light therapy," he said.
    Over a period of four months, ten high school and university students between the ages of 17 and 24 have been trained by Laban in Playback Theatre techniques.
    The youth were chosen from different social and religious backgrounds.
    For Raffi Feghali, Artistic Director of Laban, the project was beneficial on a number of levels.
    "This generation is the one that came after the post-war generation. They are people whose parents don't feel the need to tell them about the civil war as they might consider it from the past," he said in an interview with Reuters Television.
    "These people, therefore, do not hear those stories, and as these stories are not present in our history books or any book around us - and if they are, it won't be an objective book - it is very important to hear these stories from the people who personally lived the war, the people who were on the ground, the people who made the war; from the source of the war," he continued.
    While some of the stories told in the hour and a half-long performance brought laughter, others left many -- including the audience, actors and story tellers -- in tears. The stories included memories of combat, kidnap, bullets dodged and even love affairs.
    For Ibrahim Nassar, 58, who fought during the civil war said a public recount of his experience was an important one.
    "I personally endured all the tragedies of the war and paid the price on a personal level. If I don't speak out and express myself, these tragedies will dig deep within me and destroy me," he said.
    "I should speak, I should express, I should tell, because the tragedies that our generation went through, our children should not live, nor think about," he added.
    Younes Abou Khzam, 23, a university student of telecommunication engineering said he had enjoyed his experience of Playback Theatre.
    "I first of all learned that war does not do any good, it is not something good and it does hurt. On another hand, we saw the war even though we did not really see it; we listened to it, we saw it in our eyes and it was very realistic.. no, I won't go to war, no no," he said.
    Bassel al Amine, a student attending the performance said he found the evening a very useful one.
    "The performance was great. This is very useful to introduce us to the civil war, some people did not know the civil war started in 1975, now they know. Now they also know that this war was very barbaric and we need to stop any possible war that may happen in the future," he said.
    One last 'War Stories' performance is scheduled for Saturday, October 24. The project is supported by UNDP with the financial aid of the Norwegian embassy in Lebanon.
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