Jogging

When the audience enters, Hanane Hajj Ali is already onstage. Dressed all in black, she stretches, warms up, gets her voice ready for a one-woman show… and starts running. A hilarious and sometimes very dark performance, this iconoclast Jogging follows the stories of four women: Hanane herself, but also Medea, in both an ancient and contemporary versions, either killing her own children or sacrificing them to the altar of the wars that plague the Middle East. It’s just a question of point of view. A work inspired by the life of the director herself as “woman, mother, actress, citizen,” as she runs every day through the alleys of Beirut to ward of stress, depression, and osteoporosis… A health exercise she transforms into a dive into the depths of her most intimate dreams and fears. A radical challenge to the stereotypes and prejudices that afflict the women of the Arab world.

With Hanane Hajj Ali

Text, conception Hanane Hajj Ali
Dramaturgy Abdullah Alkafri
Artistic direction, set design Éric Deniaud
Lights Sarmad Louis, Rayyan Nihawi
Sound Wael Kodeih
Costumes Kalabsha, Louloua Abdel-Baki

Co-production Arab Funds For Arts and Culture
With the support of Heinrich Böll Stiftung – MENA Office (Beyrouth), the French Embassy in Lebanon, the French Institute in Lebanon, The British Council, SHAMS Association, Collectif Kahraba, Al Mawred Athaqafy (Cultural Ressource), Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre (Brussels), Zoukak – Focus Liban 2016, Artas Foundation, Vatech, Khalil Wardé SAL, Orient Productions
In partnership with France Médias Monde