Raed Yassin
The Theatricality of a Postponed Death (2022)

Performance / Commissioned work

Dates
22.9.2022

Details
From Hauptplatz to Joanneumsviertel

Location
Hauptplatz
Graz

Series
A War in the Distance: Exhibition

Production specifics
Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ’22

Artistic defiance against all odds, including those of war, is the subject of Raed Yassin’s performance for the festival opening. Representing a significant new development in his practice as an artist and musician, it takes the form of a funeral procession with a marching band and revisits a theatrical puppet parade held in Beirut in the 1980s, when the Lebanese Civil War was raging.

Not only did the parade, organized by director Raif Karam, protest the dire situation of the war, it also questioned the restrictions of theater itself. One of the larger puppets depicted Shoushou, a well-known actor and comedian who rooted his practice in issues of class and poverty, a novel subject that no one else approached in popular culture at the time.

As the war approached, Shoushou fell upon hard times and was forced to shut down his theater, dying a few months before full-fledged fighting broke out. In a way, his life and person represented the unity of a country that was now destroyed, and the failure of the artist who cannot overcome the immense chaos war begets.

Performers: Bujar Brahimi, Raoul Eisele, Fatah Farzam, Julian Gypser, Benjamin Klug, Josef Koller, Katrin Leinfellner, Lisa Loigge, Lina Marangattil, Maggie Midea, Irene Polt, Nina Rienessel, Peter Roll, Julia Spreitzer

Eddie Luís SEPTEMBER BRASS 2022
Trumpet: Markus Pechmann, Klemens Kollmann
Trombone: Matyas Papp, Matthias Bernsteiner
Alto saxophone: Karton Papp
Clarinet: Miloš Milojević
Tuba: Eddie Luís
Snare drum, hi-hat: Karlo Zulic
Bass drum, cymbals: Elmar Berger

Concept and direction: Raed Yassin
Text: Rana Issa
Masks: Said Baalbaki  
Musical arrangements: Tarek Yamani
Inflatables: Ursula Klein (schulteswien.com)

Mediathek

Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective