top of page
photo Soukaina Habiballah (c) Hind Alilich.jpg

11 June 2022 - Morocco

Casablanca / Institut Français

16 to 19 July 2022 - France

Festival d'Avignon

21-22 March 2023 - France

Blois / Halle aux Grains sn

24-26-27-28 March 2023 - France

Saint-Nazaire / Athénor

30 March 2023 - France

Choisy-le-Roy / Théâtre

4 April 2023 - France

Amiens / Centre Jacques Tati

5-8 April 2023 - France

Vandoeuvre / CCAM sn

12 May 2023 - France

Orléans / scène nationale

16 May 2023 - Switzerland

La Chaux-de-Fonds / TPR

24 May 2023 - France

Nantes - Maison de la Poésie, Grand T

Soukaina HABIBALLAH

Dodo ya Momo do 

 

bilingual performance (Arabic / English) by Soukaina Habiballah
The entire cycle of poems is performed by the poetess in both languages

sound: Zouheir Atbane from a collection of collected Moroccan lullabies in the duverses languages of Morocco
stage direction : Henri jules Julien

In Dodo ya Momo do, Soukaina Habiballah interweaves the voices of a grandmother and her granddaughter who speak to each other through the absence of the mother, and two haunting themes: the grandmother's post-colonial trauma and the granddaughter's post-partum depression.

 

On stage, Soukaina intertwines the Arabic and English versions of the cycle of poems: as if the two voices were alternating in her own body, her own psyche as a poetess. As if the two women of the poems were living in her.

The performance benefits from a sound environment created by Zouheir Atbane and based on Moroccan lullabies collected from very old women in all corners and languages of Morocco contrasting with the exceptional softness and striking presence of Soukaina's voice.

Festival d'Avignon 2022

224369_62d3fe00286b1.jpeg
224368_62d3fde9c1377.jpeg
224370_62d3fe163cc13.jpeg

Dodo ya Momo do

 

for years

              says the granddaughter

I got it wrong

 

I see you taking

out your teeth

to plunge them every

night in water

 

I alone

drowned

 

tried to cry out but

the bubbles streaming from

my mouth were powerless to help

 

who are you in this story?

grandmother or wolf? 

 

 

the trail of claw prints in my mind

leads me straight into your hands

who are you in this story?

grandmother or wolf?

 

no     

     it was not winter

only your words combined

with spray from your blank

mouth like a blizzard

chilling my bones

 

I looked for an escape

but the only one I found

led straight to nightmares

 

 

I went in

             heedless

I went in

             shivering

and came out soaked

I will never understand why

it brought you such distress

 

because it warmed my nights

you wanted cold as tombs?

 

who are you in this story?

who are you in this story?

bottom of page