São Paulo – The French-Lebanese artist Wajdi Mouawad will stage a theatrical play in early November in São Paulo. On the 5th, 6th and 7th, he will perform solo at Sesc Pinheiros. The play is called “Solos (Seuls),” and it inquires about what happens to one’s native language once they start speaking another language on a daily basis. Mouawad is the play’s writer, director and actor.
The plot tells the story of Harwan, a student from Montreal who’s locked by himself in a room of Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, where he ponders the meaning of life, roots, values and culture. “What to do when in order to go back to what one used to be, one must become someone else,” the play’s promo material reads.
The author-director combines autobiographical elements and his admiration for the Canadian actor, playwright and filmmaker Robert Lepage. Harwan explores four major stages during the play: sitting, listening, waiting and looking.
Currently residing in France, where he spent his teenage years, Mouawad was born and raised in Lebanon. He graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada and has worked in theater as an actor, director, playwright and art director. In addition to acting in his own plays, Mouawad also directs other actors.
He has won prizes, founded theater companies in Canada and France, and his plays have been translated into 15 languages. He was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa degree by the École normale supérieure de Lyon and the Grand Prize for Theater of the French Academy.
The play will be staged at Sesc’s Paulo Autran Theater at 9pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and it lasts 120 minutes. The age rating is 10 or older.
Solos (Seuls) – Wajdi Mouawad
Venue: Paulo Autran Theater – Sesc Pinheiros
Dates and times: November 5th, 6th and 7th (Thursday, Friday and Saturday), 9pm
Tickets: BRL 30 (full price), BRL 15 (half price), BRL 9 (full credential: trade, services and tourism workers with Sesc memberships and their dependents)
Ticket sales: online from Oct 27th, 4:30pm at www.sescsp.org.br and at the box offices of Sesc São Paulo units from Oct 28th, 5:30pm
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
