SUNNY SUNDAY

Based on a true story, Lebanese artists Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué explore the hybrid, eclectic narratives and symbols that are effective in Polish political discourse, questioning their socio-political mechanisms. Mroué and Majdalanie's storytelling performance unfolds on stage similar to a graphic novel, with illustrations by Lebanese artist George Khoury (JAD).

At the invitation of Marta Keil and Grzegorz Reske from the Performing Arts Institute Warsaw and HELLERAU - European Center for the Arts Dresden, the project was preceded by several months of collaborative research. The central question during this process was how contemporary right-wing populist governments and neo-nationalist ideologies evoke or reproduce certain affects.

SUNNY SUNDAY addresses the political changes in Poland that seem to reflect broader developments in European societies and beyond.

The production premiered under the title LAST BUT NOT LAST in July 2020 at the Residenz of Schauspiel Leipzig.

"The performance actively blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, applying the mechanisms of mythologization it addresses to its own material, making it intellectually and artistically tangible. [...] Majdalanie/Mroué create, through the deliberate avoidance of pompous theatrical effects and very precise settings, such as the dramaturgical peeling of an onion, an equally detailed and unexcited yet captivating scenario. The somersaults in the play with reality and fiction, the overlay of present with past (or vice versa), open up both sensual and intellectual spaces for thought." - Torben Ibs, Theater heute