Description
Youth Track Performances
Venue: Circular Theater / Mahmoud Abu Ghrib Theater, Fakhriya Zaid Hall
Daily Schedule:
- First Show: 5:30 PM
- Second Show: 6:30 PM
- Third Show: 9:00 PM
Sunday, June 30, 2024
- 5:30 PM: “Them” (Youth Track)
- Director: Doaa Aladwan
- Country: Jordan
- Synopsis: In complete silence, the half-dead students begin to raise their hands as if they want to answer a question that was not asked at all, then they are about to leave their seats in fear… They retreat backwards in an unnatural mechanical movement that indicates a return in time until their trace disappears in the darkness, then they reappear again, each of them surrounded by a traditional doll of a young student (the past) that accompanies him in a circular movement around the wooden seats, in which many actions are repeated that seem illogical at first glance, but are later explained by the rest of the scenes of the play, which raise in each scene an issue related to the other, such as violence, extremism, the usurpation of land, and the stifling social determinants that led to the metaphorical death of the characters. The show deals with the social fears that the individual goes through within the geographical constraints that they are forced to live in general, and the individual fears of each character of death and old age in particular. We find the characters trying to shed light on their lost past and the causes that led them to this dead class through puppets and using the style of director Antonin Artaud – the theater of cruelty – so spoken words are replaced by body language and scenography as a means of expression and communication.
- 6:30 PM: “Time” (Youth Track)
- Director: Ahmad Ismaeel
- Country: Jordan
- Show summary: Questions about love, existence and the self, questions about the homeland, children and souls, about Ghassan and struggle, about men in the sun, and about dreams, about all the years of love that Bilal and Buthaina lived, about their memories at home, in the cinema, in the airport and in exile, about life and death… All of that happened at some point in time.
Monday, July 1, 2024
- 5:30 PM: “Pedro and the Captain” (International Track)
- Director: Ihab Zahedah
- Country: Palestine
- Synopsis: Two men, two beings of flesh and blood, each with weaknesses and points of resistance. The distance between the first and the second is first and foremost ideological, and there perhaps lies the key to other differences including morality, the soul, sensitivity to human pain, the complex path that mediates courage and cowardice, the ability to sacrifice, little or much, and the gap between betrayal and loyalty.
- Naam Theater Group – Hebron – Palestine
- 6:30 PM: “Eastern Dreams” (Youth Track)
- Director: Nagham Batarseh
- Country: Jordan
- Show Summary: The show “Eastern Dreams” talks about childhood complexes that haunt a person and turn him into something similar to humans, where love and hatred intertwine and we become attached to those who destroyed our lives with a pathological attachment. This is through presenting the stories of two different families that are united by the illusion called Bashir. Ghada becomes attached to Bashir, believing that he is her brother who left her, and Maryam becomes attached to Bashir, thinking that he is her son whom she did not give birth to. This illusion is supported by Faris, the man who feared that his wife would become as bad as his mother whom he hates, and Kazem, who feared that he was a human being, how would the story of his father’s assault on him not be repeated? In this way, the stories intertwine, making it difficult to believe the truth, and even sympathy becomes a necessity that is not related to good and evil.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
- 5:30 PM: “Meeting with Zahi Wehbe”
- Venue: Fakhriya Zaid Hall
- Moderator: Samar Gharaibeh
- Creative Testimonial: Hazza Al Barari
- 6:30 PM: “Yellow Memory” (International Track)
- Director: Hassan Al-Ali
- Written by: Abbas Al-Haik
- Country: Saudi Arabia
- Show summary: In an unspecified time and place, Yellow Memory tells us the story of Ansi, that young painter who lived through a war in his country and suffered facial disfigurements, so he fled to another country and remained there without any relationship with anyone, in response to his father’s will that he remain unmarried.
- 9:00 PM: “Memory Vault” (Youth Track)
- Director: Fares Marji
- Country: Jordan
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
- 5:30 PM: “Earthquake” (Youth Track)
- Director: Mayes Alzoubi
- Country: Jordan
- Summary of the show: Man surpasses the jinn in his evils, while the play deals with the state of moral deterioration that contemporary man has reached in his concepts and behaviors. Tales of the other world play a role that is easy to match our ages since childhood, until a person grows up to find himself fascinated by those tales that have grown like a flower since his childhood, and have become, due to their mystery, an obsession that arouses confusion whenever a thread appears in the needle of the world; so that the weaving of the story dances until it reaches a plot that the mind may accept, or even attribute to the stimuli that find their refuge in an environment shrouded in mystery, and the doors of interpretation are opened for it that fall within the many guesses that are its windows. From here stems the story of the play “Earthquake”, which is an exposure of the social ills that man lives in the present; this hero of the play “Anas” is a young man like the youth in our present life; surrounded by an environment whose characteristics do not push the noble in it except towards destruction; Because of its extreme cruelty, and the raging sea of its storms that overflow with misery and suffering, perhaps death with its terrifying secrets is more merciful to those upon whom it casts the cloak of its terror. And because the whip of the world is a blazing flame, a harsh earthquake occurred in this young man’s city, terrifying in its horrors; it plunged him into a deep underground depth, to begin a terrifying journey of wonders, in which he meets the heroes of the stories he used to hear about when he was young; and suddenly he finds them in front of him, “members of the world of the jinn” looking at him while he is terrified by what he sees! Astonished, he hopes that it is nothing but a dream; so that he can escape from those who stare at him with terror that tears his heart out. Three of them, with their terrifying forms, “Shamharoush, Zangoura, and Shaitoun”, gather around him and stare at him with eyes that he was not accustomed to seeing before; so he knew then that the levels of evil that a person might reach in this world; Sometimes it may be a lifeline that everyone who is on the verge of destruction clings to. How many days have there been when those who have evil intentions in their souls have become sacrifices offered by those who are more tyrannical and commit the brutality that characterizes the two worlds, “humans and jinn.” Both have a history full of bloodshed, brutality, and being carried away by power, and the love of robbery; for the purposes of possession, and for the matter to be before and after for whoever is more arrogant! Thus, the “jinn” exploited that human; to be obedient in implementing their evil goal, out of their desire to take revenge for things that the play reveals as soon as they are present by the recipient. Here, this human “Anas” is faced with a fateful decision, which is a choice between committing evil that may reach his mother herself, and triumphing for the “good” human soul by nature. The play Earthquake; is messages that express the strength and weakness of man, his love of revenge and his ability to forgive; And how evil and greed can blind him and lead him to destruction; it is a resounding cry against pain and suffering, and lines of a sacred message in which he reads that forgiveness, mercy and justice are the true path to happiness… How beautiful is the peace that is chanted in the form of actions for humanity!
- 6:30 PM: “Rebel on the Bed of Isolation” (Youth Track)
- Director: Salah Adden
- Country: Jordan
Thursday, July 4, 2024
- 9:00 PM: “Closing Ceremony and Festival Awards”
English 
Arabic