Discretion
Oh the beautiful days! 2024
Musical reading
With Hakim Hamadouche (music and vocals), Sylvie Paz (music and vocals), Nadia Tighidet (percussion), Amal Kateb (actress), Meriem Medjkane (actress) and Shiraz Bazin-Moussi (photography and projection design).
A novel by Faïza Guène
Adapted by Faïza Guène and Sarah Ardizzone
Directed by Dina Mousawi
Show followed by a meeting with Faïza Guène.
Discretion is Yamina’s hallmark. Born in Algeria, which was still French, she now lives in Aubervilliers where, at almost 70, she leads a simple life, surrounded by her husband, Brahim, worn out by his work as a construction worker, and her four children, Malika, Hannah, Imane and Omar. “We have to accept it, we’re like their guests, we’re in their home”, she reminds them when she hears their anger rising, an anger that she for her part has transformed into a form of resistance. For Yamina’s life has not always been a quiet one. Behind her story lies that of Algeria, of the struggle for independence, of forced exile, of complex ties with France, the colonizing country. It’s also the story of the children of these immigrant workers, searching for a balance between the culture of their parents’ homeland and their often-stigmatized lives as French Muslims.
As Algeria celebrates 60 years of independence, Faïza Guène delves deep into the memory of a generation – her parents’ generation – that has remained silent about painful experiences. In La Discrétion, the Franco-Algerian writer commits herself to leaving traces, to defying erasure. To bring this beautiful text to the stage, in both French and Arabic, Algerian actors Amal Kateb and Meriem Medjkane (seen in Papicha and recently in La Dernière Reine) will be joined by the brilliant Hakim Hamadouche and his mandoluth, singer Sylvie Paz, a well-known connoisseur of Mediterranean music and song, percussionist Nadia Tighidet and photographer Shiraz Bazin-Moussi, who will be projecting live images.
Faïza Guène, who took part in the adaptation of her novel, will be present at the festival, and will discover the show at the same time as the audience. She will then give her impressions on stage, and talk about the reasons that led her to write this important book, which highlights the imperious necessity of storytelling.
This show is produced by Good Chance and supported by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant, in partnership with the AARC and the Institut français d’Algérie. It premiered at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022.
Co-produced with Mucem.
To read
Faïza Guène, La Discrétion, Plon, 2020.
To listen to
Hakim Hamadouche, Live, Le Rat des villes, 2020.
Zoppa (Sylvie Paz and Kalliroi Raouzeou), Topographia, Sublimes Portes, 2022
Musical reading
With Hakim Hamadouche (music and vocals), Sylvie Paz (music and vocals), Nadia Tighidet (percussion), Amal Kateb (actress), Meriem Medjkane (actress) and Shiraz Bazin-Moussi (photography and projection design).
A novel by Faïza Guène
Adapted by Faïza Guène and Sarah Ardizzone
Directed by Dina Mousawi
Show followed by a meeting with Faïza Guène.
Discretion is Yamina’s hallmark. Born in Algeria, which was still French, she now lives in Aubervilliers where, at almost 70, she leads a simple life, surrounded by her husband, Brahim, worn out by his work as a construction worker, and her four children, Malika, Hannah, Imane and Omar. “We have to accept it, we’re like their guests, we’re in their home”, she reminds them when she hears their anger rising, an anger that she for her part has transformed into a form of resistance. For Yamina’s life has not always been a quiet one. Behind her story lies that of Algeria, of the struggle for independence, of forced exile, of complex ties with France, the colonizing country. It’s also the story of the children of these immigrant workers, searching for a balance between the culture of their parents’ homeland and their often-stigmatized lives as French Muslims.
As Algeria celebrates 60 years of independence, Faïza Guène delves deep into the memory of a generation – her parents’ generation – that has remained silent about painful experiences. In La Discrétion, the Franco-Algerian writer commits herself to leaving traces, to defying erasure. To bring this beautiful text to the stage, in both French and Arabic, Algerian actors Amal Kateb and Meriem Medjkane (seen in Papicha and recently in La Dernière Reine) will be joined by the brilliant Hakim Hamadouche and his mandoluth, singer Sylvie Paz, a well-known connoisseur of Mediterranean music and song, percussionist Nadia Tighidet and photographer Shiraz Bazin-Moussi, who will be projecting live images.
Faïza Guène, who took part in the adaptation of her novel, will be present at the festival, and will discover the show at the same time as the audience. She will then give her impressions on stage, and talk about the reasons that led her to write this important book, which highlights the imperious necessity of storytelling.