PERSIANS. Triumph of Empathy
Director Chokri Ben Chikha examines the empathic capacity of six performers. Do they succeed in perceiving a decades-old highly polarised conflict differently through the lens of a Greek tragedy?
Run time tba
Genre Theatre
Language Multilingual incl. surtitles
Persians. Triumph of Empathy
One of the spearheads of theatre company Action Zoo Humain, artist in residence at NTGent, is to confront Western cultural heritage with the reality of a multi-voiced world. Led by Chokri Ben Chikha, the performers look at the long-standing conflict between Israel and Palestine through the lens of the oldest tragedy in the theatrical canon: Aeschylus' The Persians. Did Aeschylus, who himself fought against the Persians, write about them with genuine empathy or did his tragedy instead affirm the superiority of the Greeks? What parallels can we draw between past and present?
Persians. Triumph of Empathy thus balances between art and reality, opportunism and empathy. In the multidisciplinary theatre performance, Ben Chikha challenges the young generation to sharpen their personal, political and artistic visions on the two main elements of tragedy: empathy and pride. The ordeal is made all the more acute by a polyphonic chorus of Palestinians and Israelis who were interviewed by Ben Chikha when he was in the region in January 2024.
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After Flemish Primitives, Persians is the second part of a triptych: Trilogy of Empathy. As in the first part Flemish Primitives, a multilingual and interdisciplinary performance balances art and reality, opportunism and empathy.
Credits
concept, direction and choreography Chokri Ben Chikha
with and by Hellen Boyko, Liah Frank, Marah Haj Hussein, Mareille Labohm, Leblalta Abdennacer (Iskara_Alonzo) and Rateb Syassi
text Erik-Ward Geerlings
film Jan Beddegenoodts
dramaturgy Sietske de Vries
soundscape Jo Thielemans
lightning design Dennis Diels
set design Karolien De Schepper
costume design Chloé Wasselin-Dandre
movement coaches Izah Hankammer and Daisy Phillips
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production NTGent & Action Zoo Humain
coproduction Theater Rotterdam
partner City of Ghent and The Flemish Community
with the support of The Taxshelter of the Belgian Federal Government
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Ivo van Hove adapted Who Killed My Father, by internationally acclaimed writer Édouard Louis, for the stage. Van Hove turned the very outspoken book into a monologue, especially for Hans Kesting.
