Peter Seligmann, Elsebeth Nielsen, Bo Larsen
MAHMUD
Directed by Peter Srpčič
Starring: Iuna Ornik and Simon Šerbinek
Text adaptation: Peter Srpčič, Simon Šerbinek, Iuna Ornik
Translator: Sanja Selinšek
Costume designer: Stanka Vauda Benčevič
Video projections, set design: Mito Gegič
Music: Mahmud Al Khatib, Marko Korošec, Andrej Hrvatin
Lecture: Simon Šerbinek
Musician, translator to Arabian, lecture of the Arabian speech: Mahmud Al Khatib
Professional co-worker for the questions of Arabic culture: Dr. Maja Lamberger Khatib
Co-production: City theater Ptuj and Mini teater Ljubljana
Head of technicians in Mini teater: Tilen Vipotnik
Technical crew in Mini teater: Tilen Vipotnik and Anže Kreč
Premiere with invitations and for sale in Mini teater, Ljubljana: 25th January 2013 at 8pm
Location: Križevniška 1
Premiere in City theater Ptuj: 17th October 2012 at 7.30 pm
Performance for adults, students and pupils.
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
It is not a story about politics; it is a story of a young boy named Mohammed and of how he together with his parents came amongst us. In the performance husband and wife, parents of a boy named Mohammed stand in front of a school class to ask the pupils to accept their son as he is – with his culture, habits and customs. Through their telling a picture is being revealed in a humane and shocking way of the people, who were forced due to cruel and inhumane circumstances that people are being faced with in their countries to run from their home town. They find themselves in the environment that they are not accustomed to, where people live in a way that they are not used to. Reza and Maryam have fled to us from Iran for they didn’t want their son Mohammed to join the army at the age 11. They somehow retrieve fake identification papers and just before they are ready to escape, Reza lands in prison. Therefore Maryam and Mohammed flee to us first and then from here and with the help of friends organize all the necessities for Reza’s prison break. The prison break is successful thanks to the help of corrupt guards and while Reza is fleeing his country he winds up in a middle of a mine field …
In the performance Mohammed we show the human face of the mass of the refugees that in fear of their lives and in hopes of a better tomorrow come amongst us. And how crucial it is to see and understand that they are people as well that in spite their different culture and habits carry around in their hearts the hope of happiness, desire for freedom, for human dignity and life. When we observe the news on daily basis that inform us of the violence and the horror and that change the faces of these people in numbers this human side of the story is being lost and inside of us alienation is present. In such way stories remain merely news on the TV: But behind these numbers there are people, faces, eyes filled with tears and hope. In this way Reza, Maryam and Mohammed are the ones through whose eyes we will try to understand and feel the destiny of these numerous faces. Mohammed can be anyone from this mass of children that suffer deficiency and violence throughout the world
»Meeting with the story of Mahmud was an unusual theatrical journey into the world of Arabic culture, philosophy and mysticism. True stories of people, which are hidden behind numerous reports in which they are shown merely as numbers, are shocking. These people for us have no face. We are forgetting that they are people like us that only wish to live their lives normally, raise their children and earn money. Of these exact numerous faces we wanted to tell the story. And to this we gave an advantage in the staging itself. As unneeded we have given up all the unnecessary decoration … and so the story was born - set in almost vast space that with its simplicity gains the power of persuasiveness and shock. As I have already said in one of my previous thoughts of Mahmud: “This is not a story about politics or religion, it is a story about the people.” Peter Srpčič, director of the performance Mahmud and CEO of City theater Ptuj
»The main character Mahmud is reminding us, on the attitude we have toward refugees. Often we handle them in an authoritative way, especially on humanitarian and legal level. We put them into a role of helpless victims and the cultural context is not taken into consideration. We think only from our perspective, where we are certain that other nations have the same needs as we. We are patronizing them and in this way we are degrading them to a level of a child. We all are entitled to creating our own reality, safer and freer. We can live according to our free will. This is a universal right of all people, not just some people.«
Maja Lamberger Khatib, ph.D., professional co-worker for the questions of Arabic culture
O REŽISERJU
As a child he showed the potential to be extraordinary and unique, and when his dreams of flying did not come out as expected, he enrolled, after Gymnasium in Ptuj, into a Faculty of Economics and Business, course in Marketing. After he had passed the entrance exams at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, he left the studies of economics unfinished and set himself on a journey into the world of professional theatre. The world of entrepreneurship and art is constantly intertwining in his career, and he says for himself, that the work he is doing is tailored just according to his taste. In this way, he is a unique compound of a business man and an artist. He guides the Town Theatre of Ptuj from the year 2009, and we can certainly say that he is very successful at leading the theatre. Occasionally he sets himself to the other side of the stage and takes a role of a director. In this way he worked at 20 different projects in various theatres and institutions in Slovenia, the majority of which he directed at home, in theatre in Ptuj. He tried himself in other different artistic practices as well, such as at playwriting, translating, acting, dancing and he published a collection of his poetry with a title Cycle.
