Metro al-Madina’s vintage red velvet interior hosted a full house Friday night, an energetic audience engaging in food, drinks and conversation while entertained by the eclectic line up of satirical acts.
Entitled “Politics in Malignancy/Bel Siyasa Fi Khabasa,” the evening was comprised of multiple acts by a total of 17 artists, showcasing Metro’s patented melange of top-notch music and a hysterical stand-up comedy. The show opened with a musical number featuring Samah Boul Mona on vocals, accompanied by Metro’s skilled house musicians. They commenced with a set of tunes from the “Kechou al-Dajaj” show, devoted to the songs of Felimon Wehbe (1918-85).
Later on, the same ensemble of 14 rotating musicians performed a suite of songs from several of Metro’s cabaret shows, including “Aghane Servicet” and “The Political Circus,” peppered revolutionary jingles.
Driven by sardonic lyrics on politics and life in Lebanon, these tunes had an invigorating effect on the audience. When Boul Mona delivered a musical address critical of the current regime, he provoked a roaring response from the crowd, who chanted “Thawra, thawra, thawra.”
The strong opening was followed by a stand-up routine by Ziad Chakaroun’s - aka Dr. Chakarounsky, “Hakim al-Thawra” (Doctor of the Revolution). The good doctor performed two different routines recounting the ailments of a number of his “patients.”
The comedian’s keen-eyed routine - lampooning everyone complicit with the current political regime, from politicians to pop stars, and TV personalities - sent the Metro audience into hysterics.
The comedy was followed by sets featuring Metro’s stable of much-loved performers, accompanied by the cabaret’s house band. For her second tune of the evening, Yasmina Fayed delivered a Betty Boop-style performance of “Mazwaz al-Moto,” from the cabaret “Aghane Servicet.”
Sandy Chamoun followed with “Snoopy,” a tune that ponders some of the more depressing aspects of life in Lebanon. The evening’s closing set saw Chamoun join her collaborators in The Great Departed, a Metro discovery that’s won fans across the region.
“Politics in Malignancy” targets anyone needing to laugh about the country’s political and economic crises, instead of crying over them. As such it gave its audience some relief from the country’s current predicament. The show is strong from start to finish, funnier, and cheaper than most. The performers, while highly skilled, don’t take themselves too seriously and interact well with their audience.
“Politics in Malignancy” is part of larger program dubbed “Nights In Love Of The Revolution.”
Devised to revive Metro al-Madina’s performance program, it germinated in the ongoing economic crisis that had descended over Lebanon long before the Oct. 17 revolutionary movement.
As the program’s title suggests, Metro’s future shows will explore the delicate topic of Lebanon’s thawra using the tragi-comic language characteristic of Lebanon’s history, which also happens to be comic mode of the cabaret’s co-founder and principal writer Hisham Jaber.
According to Lara Nohra, Metro’s seven-nights-a-week schedule ended with the first demo on Oct. 17. The theater closed and profits dropped to the point that future performances were in doubt.
“We had two options,” Nohra told The Daily Star. “One was to close. Another was to try and create a new system that works with the country’s situation.”
At present that means a “pay as you like” system that lets spectators decide what they can afford for high-quality entertainment. “That’s how it’s been,” Nohra added, “since the first night of ‘Layali fi hob al-thawra.’”
Currently “Nights In Love of The Revolution” is being staged three nights per week. Some of Metro’s best-loved cabarets - like “Discotheque Nana” and “Hishik Bishik” - are also being performed.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
