The play Junoun (madness) written by the Tunisian writer and actress Jalila Baccar will be staged at current session of the annual Avignon Theatrical Festival which kicked off on July 5 in the French City of Avignon, according to the news agencies.
The play is based on a medical document published in French and will be staged under the direction of Fadhel Jaaybi as part of a program that includes 45 theatrical works. The most prominent of these is Platonov based on a text by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, with which the festival was opened.
Madness will be staged for five times during the period between July 21-26 at the Cloitre des Celestins.
The play Madness was staged last year at the opening of Fawanees Theatrical Festival in Jordan and many times at the Municipal Theater in Tunisia at the beginning of this year where it recorded a big success despite the fact that it tackles a cruel and severe topic.
The story of the five-hour play is about the relation between a poor patient and his psychiatrist in his long journey for cure. This relation acquires additional dimensions when the doctor visits the patient’ s house and tells about his relation with her and the society around and the outlook of the society towards him and his relation with her.
Avignon, which rarely portrays Arabic plays presented two years ago the play Gilgamesh in Arabic and French with Syrian actors under the direction of a French director. Also many Algerian plays were staged in French at the theater including one by the late Algerian writer Abdel Qader Alloulah and another one by Suleiman bin Eissa who will present during the festival unofficial festive ceremonies this year his play Perverted Memory -- Albawaba.com
