Overview
«To love is not to look at one another, but to look together in the same direction.»
The last theater in Beirut is burning.
«He» and «She» stand together, holding hands, watching the fire.
They stand before a premiere that never happened: the premiere of Antigone in Beirut.
A premiere that would have burned everyone who came to witness it.
«Suspended» takes the audience between the before and the after of the fire,
between the text and the body,
between guilt and blame,
between the bed and the stage,
between life and death,
between her and him.
They try to bury a corpse, an absence, in sleep, in sex, in words: a corpse they cannot name and cannot touch.
They face a city after the war, a present they cannot inhabit, they cannot mourn.
They ask who set the fire, as love and language corrode between their fingers.
Date&Time
18, 19, 20, 21 December 2025
8:30 pm
Doors open 7:30 pm
Zoukak Theatre
Team
Written and Directed by Jana Bou Matar
Performed by Rym Mroué and Tarek Yaacoub
Technical Direction and Light Design by Ahmed Hafez
Sound Design by Ziad Moukarzel
Assistant Director and Communications: Sandra Abdelbaki
Stage Manager and Sound Operator: Mhammad Swed
Set Execution by Zouheir Bou Matar
Poster Design: Jalal aldin jabri
Styling: Hikmat Abdulkhalek
With the support of Zoukak Theatre
The performance was first developed in 2024 during the residency program “Frankfurt Moves!,” an initiative of the Foundation KfW Stiftung in cooperation with Frankfurt LAB.
Acknowledgements
Lamia Abi Azar, Omar Abi Azar, Mohamad Hamdan, Junaid Sarieddeen, Maya Zbib, Hanane Hajj Ali, Roueida AlGhali, Ali Chahrour, Ali al Samra, Sanaa Shehayeb, Jad Bou Mattar, Serjoun Sarieddeen, Ezzo, Antonella Rizk, Marianne Noujeim, Walid Dakroub, Sawsan Bou Khaled