Tokyo: Theatre Performance From Iraq And Tunisia



Kimberly Hughes posted this:

While living in Tokyo for nearly the past decade as a community peace activist, I have had several opportunities to interact with people from Iraq (human rights journalists, pediatricians, and visual artists, to be precise) during their visits to Japan on grassroots-level exchanges organized by local peace groups. Each time, I came away from the experience with marvelous memories and new friendships.

Last week, a fellow member of the Iraq Hope Network alerted members to two short theater acts taking place at Tiny Alice, a cozy theater in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. The only available information was a short blurb including the names of the performers and the titles of their pieces: “Abu Ghraib Prison” from the Mustaheel-Alice theater troupe in Baghdad, Iraq; and “Woman Sindyan” from SINDYANA in Tunisia. Knowing from experience that this could be an opportunity for another interesting encounter, I headed together with one of my most engaged university students to check out the shows.

We also learned—as I had begun to suspect—that the Tunisian woman, Zahira Ben Ammar, was a well-respected, world famous performer.

“As actors, we serve as mirrors of society, expressing what is often left unsaid,” she told the audience. “As a female actor, I have the privilege of being able to express myself in ways that are normally not possible for women in other Arab countries. In addition, my show also tries to give voice to the profound pain that has touched all colonized peoples—whether in Tunisia, Gaza or Iraq. I suspect that some of these themes may also resonate with Japanese people, due for example to your painful history in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

The Iraq Hope Network is a Japan-based network of NGOs, aid workers, journalists, lawyers, university professors and volunteers who together sponsor projects in Iraq focused on humanitarian aid, reconstruction and human rights.

Read more over at Ten Thousand Things, by Kimberly Hughes.

Performance photo: Tsukasa Aoki

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War

Image
A unique three-day international conference is being held at Makuhari near Tokyo, a day after the 61st anniversary of the enforcement of Japan's Constitution. It is organized by nongovernmental groups, including Japan-based Peace Boat . Organizers said the meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss the significance of the constitutional article that endorses demilitarization and what people can do to promote its spirit, notes The Japan Times . While the constitution stipulates that Japan renounces war as a sovereign right and that it will not maintain land, sea and air forces, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been keen to make amendments. "The war in Iraq has shown that even the strongest, biggest army in the world can not keep peace in a single city. It proves that aggression never instates peace," Tatsuya Yoshioka, director of Peace Boat and a representative of the event's organizing committee, said during the opening remarks. "Article 9 is a treasu
Read more

マーティンの鵜の目鷹の目 -世界の消費者運動の旅から

Image
  My new book has been published! マーティン・フリッド (著)   世界中の消費者が同じ課題を抱え、悩み、たたかっている。スウェーデンに生まれ、ヨーロッパ、そして日本の消費者運動の現場を歩いてきた著者が、人びとの日常によりそいながら軽妙なユーモアを交えて食、環境、エネルギー、社会のあり方、政治、経済を考えます。   https://nishoren.net/new-information/14177 Consumers all over the world are facing similar problems, worries, and struggles. In this book, the author, who was born in Sweden and has walked the frontlines of consumer movements in Europe and Japan, con
Read more

Salvador Dali, Hiroshima and Okinawa

Image
Spanish artist Salvador Dali was deeply terrified by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , and his exact, detailed style was very much suited to show the horror of the A-bomb, which America tried to keep a secret by classifying photos and descriptions until the end of the occupation of Japan in 1952. The Bureau of Atomic Tourism has more details if you want to know more about the legacy of nuclear weapons in the U.S. Even today, do people understand the real horror of atomic bombs? If not, then, why not ? Dali's paintings are on display in Fukushima prefecture, where you can view Melancholy Atomic and Uranium Idyll and The Three Sphinxes of Bikini at the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art . Long YouTube video from the Nihon University (Nichidai) channel with an interview featuring Morohashi Eiji, the son of the founder of the unique museum, and scenes from the Morohashi Museum (29:20): #271美術館への誘い ダリの世界 Is there a hidden message in Dali's Bikini hydrogen bomb painting
Read more