Sawsana was born on March 4, 2011 of a Syrian father and a Spanish mother. The day after her birth, the Syrian revolution broke out, with the whole country asking Bashar Al-Assad to leave. More than nine months later, the violence and bloodshed in Syria continue. Sawsana's father used to tell his daughter stories to help her sleep. But then she started having nightmares. He wondered what was worrying her. He reasoned that all the fairy stories he told her were being transformed in her mind into cruel nightmares by the shooting, crying, screaming and smell of blood in the streets, accompanied by the slogans chanted by the protesters. In the theatrical performance ‘Stories of a Revolutionary Sawsana from Homs', Syrian actor Nemr Salamun imagines for the audience what his nine-month daughter sees in her sleep. The Syrian show was one of six performances from Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan, put on during a six-day event, held in Alexandria and entitled ‘Reveil', organised by ‘I-act', a non-profit organisation that works in the related field of theatrical creativity, in co-operation with the Goethe Institute, Swedish Institute (SwedAlex) and the French Cultural Institute. ‘Reveil', a wake-up call in Alexandria that reached many people of different nationalities, introducing them to Egyptian and Arab theatrical performances, as well as workshops, debates and book signings. It was hardly surprising that the Syrian performance was deeply affected by the Syrian revolution. This year has witnessed five revolutions in Arab countries, making it hard for theatrical artists to tackle themes other than that of the Arab Spring. The three Egyptian performances ��" ‘Tahrir Monologues: Performance of true Stories from the Revolution', ‘The Wound and the Joy' and ‘Lines from Egypt's Diaries: Explode or Die' ��" all dealt with the theme of revolution. In her ‘Tahrir Monologues', director Sondos Shabayek dealt with the 18 days of the Egyptian revolution that started on January 25. The director used the storytelling style to try to provoke the feelings of the audience, some of whom cried as they listened to the stories of people wounded or beaten during the revolution. The ‘Tahrir Monologues' team were amateurs with no previous theatrical experience; however, they were all passionate about the revolution. In ‘The Wound and the Joy', el-Warsha troupe, with its artistic supervisor and storytelling trainer Hassan el-Geretli, told moving stories and sang moving songs about the revolution. The third Egyptian performance was ‘Lines from Egypt's Diaries', subtitled ‘Explode or Die', directed by Mahmoud Aboudoma, the director of ‘I-act' and the head of ‘Reveil'. It was a musical, dramatic performance, blending instrumental music, song, poetry and acting. The work was based on poems in colloquial and classical Arabic, written in the 1970s and 1980s by famous Egyptian poets and writers. Although the spirit of revolution was very clear in these performances, it was subtler in the other two performances from Tunisia and Jordan. The Tunisian performance ‘Suitcases' dealt with political and social issues in Tunisia in an experimental way. It was like being on a journey with the actor who was carrying some bizarre suitcases. Meanwhile, ‘Zikra' (Memory), the Jordanian performance directed by Raid Asfour, was inspired by a play with the same title produced in 2008 by Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Belgium. Directed by Rudy Meulemans, the play is based on the testimonies of three women who were closely related to three PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) leaders who represented the Palestinian cause in Europe and were assassinated in the 1970s. Based on the French version of the text, the team rewrote the play using colloquial Arabic and including additional research material to contextualise the lives and deaths of these leaders. As well as these inviting performances, ‘Reveil' also held a publication programme for encouraging the translation and publishing of theatrical texts. It was designed to introduce theatrical artists and Egyptian and Arab leaders to contemporary creations in the field of theatrical writing. This year, the programme introduced two theatrical texts written by Swiss playwrights in German and French. The plays were ‘Night-blind' by Darja Stoker and ‘Providing the Opposite' by Olivier Chiacchiari. There were also two workshops held during Reveil. The first one was for playwrights and emerging writers given by Swiss dramaturge Erik Altorfer, while the other, by German trainer Anne Gorath, was entitled ‘Training and Forming Children's Theatre Activators'.
