12 plays in official competition, return of school theatre
The 25th edition of the Carthage Theatre Days will be held this year from November 23 to 30, 2024, under the slogan “Theatre, Resistance and Art is Life”, as it coincides with exceptional regional circumstances due to the Israeli occupation aggression against Gaza as well as against Lebanon.
The Carthage Theatre Days are also considered a “founding festival for Arab-African theatre,” as Mounir Erki, artistic director and head of the organising committee, stated at a press conference held by the festival’s managing committee on Friday to reveal the various details of this event.
In line with this approach, the theme of the international symposium for this edition is ‘Theatre, Genocide and Resistance: Towards a New Humanist Horizon.’ This edition is organised in “a difficult global humanitarian situation in which our Palestinian and Lebanese brothers are suffering various forms of arrogance and persecution by the brutal Zionist entity,” as expressed in the document of this session.
125 performances have been scheduled over eight days, with an average of 18 performances per day, coming from 32 Arab, African, European, and Latin American countries. Twelve performances are in the official competition (2 from Tunisia, 8 from Arab and 2 from Africa). As usual, during this edition, Tunisian shows will have the lion’s share of 23 shows outside the official competition, 12 Arab and African shows.
Syria will be the honorary guest at this edition, and theatre actor Duraid Laham will be honoured alongside a host of other Tunisian and foreign actors, playwrights, directors and critics such as Amine Nahdi, Issa Harath, Wajiha Jendoubi and Fatma Bahri.
China is also a host country, with the presence of the new creation ‘Star returning’ by director Lémi Ponifacio, which has just premiered in China, offering Tunisia its world premiere.
For the first time, the Tunisian military will be part of the event, with performances at the military academies, land, sea and air.
This edition is also distinguished by the reopening of the school theatre and the youth and culture centres, as indicated by Hind Makrani, Director General of the National Foundation for the Development of Festivals, Cultural and Artistic Events, which is the organising institution of this prestigious event, who stressed that this edition faced difficulties due to the absence of sponsors.
TunisianMonitorOnline (Dhouha Talik – English: NejiMed)
