What if Brecht Met Darwish?

Resonance and Subversion in Majdalanie and Mroué' Four Walls and a Roof

Forfattere

  • Meriam Bousselmi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/peri.v22i40.167626

Nøgleord:

resonance, censorship, exile, diasporic performance, transculturality

Resumé

This article analyses Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué’s Four Walls and a Roof as a scenic essay on censorship, exile, and the politics of speech under conditions of contemporary catastrophe. Reading the performance through Brecht, Darwish, Zweig, and theories of resonance, it argues that the work turns historical reference into a resource for artistic survival and subversion. It also proposes shaghaf as a concept for grasping the aesthetic and ethical force of Majdalanie and Mroué’s stage practice.

Referencer

Ahmed, Sara. 2012. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Duke University Press.

Ben Salah, Najla. 2024. “Migration in Tunisia: The Government’s Doublespeak.” Nawaat, December 23, 2024. Translated by Vanessa Szakal. https://nawaat.org/2024/12/23/migration-in-tunisia-the-governments-doublespeak/.

Berliner Festspiele. 2025. “Performing Exiles.” Accessed March 10, 2026. https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/programm/2025/performing-exiles-start.

Bhambra, Gurminder K., Dalia Gebrial, and Kerem Nişancıoğlu (eds.). 2018. Decolonising the University. Pluto Press.

Boenisch, Peter M. 2022. “Local Interferences: Mapping the City as Resonant ‘Counter-Text’.” Peripeti 19, no. 36: 83-93. https://doi.org/10.7146/peri.v19iS10.132299.

Bousselmi, Meriam. 2023. “Schuldmonologe: Portraits unschuldiger Personen und Objekte.” https://www.meriambousselmi.com/theaterproduktionen/schuldmonologe/.

Celan, Paul. 2014. “Ashglory.” In Breathturn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry: A Bilingual Edition. Translated by Pierre Joris, 62-65. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Ceplair, Larry, and Christopher Trumbo. 2018. Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist. Columbia University Press.

Darwish, Mahmoud. 1964. “Jawaz-us-Safar” (جواز السفر). In Awraq al-Zaytoun (أوراق الزيتون) [Leaves of Olives]. Matbaʿat al-Ittihad al-Taʿawuniyya (مطبعة الاتحاد التعاونية).

Derrida, Jacques. 2025. Témoigner: Séminaire (1992-1993), edited by Peggy Kamuf and David Wills. Éditions du Seuil.

Four Walls and a Roof, by Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, June 27, 2025. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de/en/programme/pdetail/lina-mjdalanie-rabih-mroue-four-walls-and-a-roof.

Keim, Stefan. 2000. “Berliner Ensemble: Mehr schlecht als Brecht.” Der Spiegel, January 9, 2000. Accessed April 1, 2026. www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/berliner-ensemble-mehr-schlecht-als-brecht-a-59208.html.

Rosa, Hartmut. 2019. Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World. Polity.

Seksik, Laurent. 2021-¬2022. “Chefs d’accusation.” Revue des Deux Mondes, no. 12, December 2021-January 2022. https://www.revuedesdeuxmondes.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Revue-des-Deux-Mondes-12-2021.pdf.

Shohat, Gil. 2026. “Greater Israel: From Political Ideology to Territorial Practice.” Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, March 5, 2026. Accessed April 1, 2026. https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/54514/greater-israel-from-political-ideology-to-territorial-practice.

Steinberg, Stefan. 2000. “The Brecht File, a New Play at the Berliner Ensemble.” World Socialist Web Site, January 29, 2000. Accessed April 1, 2026. www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/01/brec-j29.html.

Zweig, Stefan. 2019. Montaigne. Translated by Corinna Gepner. Le Livre de Poche.

Lina and Rabih by Bobby Rogers

Downloads

Publiceret

2026-05-01

Citation/Eksport

Bousselmi, M. (2026). What if Brecht Met Darwish? Resonance and Subversion in Majdalanie and Mroué’ Four Walls and a Roof. Peripeti, 22(40), 102–127. https://doi.org/10.7146/peri.v22i40.167626