Stefan Kaegi / Rimini Protokoll
Radio Muezzin

Theater / Austrian premiere

Dates
25.–27.9.2009

Details
Premiere:
25.09.2009
Wiederholungen:
26.09.2009
27.09.2009
In arabischer Sprache mit deutschen & englischen Untertiteln
Talk im Anschluss an die 1. Vorstellung

Location
Festivalzentrum im Orpheum
Graz

Production specifics
ÖE

Produktion HAU (Berlin) & Goethe-Institut Ägypten

Koproduktion steirischer herbst, Athens Festival, Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy, Festival d’Avignon & Zürcher Theater Spektakel

Gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Pro Helvetia Schweizer Kulturstiftung & Regierenden Bürgermeister von Berlin – Senatskanzlei – Kulturelle Angelegenheiten

In Zusammenarbeit mit El Sawy Culturewheel (Kairo)

Their life is usually anything but glamorous, they live far away from their families, and often they are not much more than the caretakers of their little mosque; in addition to calling the faithful to prayer, their job also often involves hoovering and changing light bulbs. While they are a central part of Islam, the muezzins’ everyday life is frugal.

Some thirty thousand muezzins try to out-call each other six times a day in Cairo alone – often relying more on volume than on virtuosity. But things are set to change: The Egyptian minister for religious affairs wants to introduce a centralised muezzin next year. Thirty selected callers will be broadcast simultaneously to all mosques by radio – thousands of muezzins will fall silent.

After Indian call centre employees, unemployed air traffic controllers, funeral speakers and Bulgarian long-distance lorry drivers, Rimini Protokoll, known for their documentary theatre, that always puts “real people” and their own stories on stage, now focuses on the people who never feature in the heated political debates on Islam: a blind Qur’an teacher who has a two-hour minibus drive to the mosque every day; an Upper Egyptian farmer’s son and former tank driver who hoovers the carpet in his mosque every day; an electrician who started learning the Qur’an by heart after a serious accident, and a bodybuilder and runner-up world champion in Qur’an recital whose tapes are extremely popular among taxi drivers. They are the protagonists in a reconstruction of their own life, self-exponents of a religious culture whose many faces are often reduced to simple negative stereotypes in Europe.

Regie: Stefan Kaegi
Konzept / Idee: Stefan Kaegi
Lichtregie: Sven Nichterlein
Bühnenbild, Ausstattung, Raumgestaltung: Mohamed Shoukry
Musik: Mohamed Shoukry
Video: Bruno Deville
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Abdelmoty Abdelsamia Ali Hindawy
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Hussein Gouda Hussein Bdawy
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Mansour Abdelsalam Mansour Namous
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Mohamed Ali Mohamoud Farag
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Sayed Abdellatif Mohamed Hammad
Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: Laila Soliman
Künstlerin / Künstler / Gruppe: Rimini Protokoll

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