Transit Tripoli

Lebanese theatre director Caroline Hatem is adapting Anna Seghers’ TRANSIT to the present Syrian context of displacement and emigration. Mirroring the situation in France in 1940, the play is set in Lebanon, where Syrians are impatiently waiting for visas or for occasions to flee, and where the narrator becomes a Syrian emigrant we follow in Tripoli’s streets and cafés. With one actor on stage and an extensive use of digital scenography to summon the fascinating plethora of secondary characters, but also the sea and the open city, TRANSIT TRIPOLI pays tribute to Seghers’ unique and lively voice, and its appeal to one’s inner space and freedom, ballads and gaze, while subjected to the implacability of History.

Author: Anna Seghers | Director, adaptation: Caroline Hatem | Translation: Caroline Hatem, Josef Akiki | Actor: Josef Akiki | Scenographer: Barbara Pfyffer | Sound design: Kinda Hassan | Video: Walid Abdelnour | Costume design: Nour Domloje | Production: YAZAN