Art in Crisis

Rayan Al-Hibta is Seenaryo’s Arts Manager in Lebanon.

In Lebanon this summer we have been living day-to-day, because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. 

As tensions escalated in August, we were in the middle of rehearsals for a Seenaryo Showbuild with children in Zrariyeh, South Lebanon. It was bittersweet. These children live in the South, where their friends and families have been directly affected by the conflict with Israel. Lots of them mentioned to me that they found the outside world very, very scary – but when they came to rehearsals they forgot all about that and life felt good again. They could sing, dance and act. Theatre brought some fun and lightheartedness to their lives, at a time when it was so difficult for them to live a normal childhood. 

Mira, who manages our wonderful partner organisation S. S. Foundation, told me that this play was “a letter of hope and a beacon of change amidst the darkness of war”. She added, “Projects like these help us voice our pain, thoughts and dreams to the world.”

Creating art at a time like this takes us away from our reality and opens a door to dreaming, which can be really hard to do when our senses are overwhelmed all the time. Art creates a space for us to breathe. It allows us to step back and ask ourselves what we really think and feel. For children, this is particularly important as they tend to shut down when they are surrounded by adults who are hectic. They keep their feelings and their worries to themselves. 

At the start of the project in Zrariyeh, none of the children in the ensemble knew how to talk about their feelings. When the facilitators asked them to write about their experiences of the war, they asked: why would I talk about my own experiences? One girl, Rahaf, didn’t say a word at the start – she was incredibly shy. But by the end, she had such a strong presence on stage and she was thinking critically about everything. Rahaf said, “Before theatre I used to be very nervous because of the war and the loud noise, but now when I act with you a lot of these feelings go away.” 

 

I’m so happy we did something in the South since it changed the psychological state of both the kids and ourselves.

 

While the impact of the project was deep, it didn’t come without its challenges. We had to postpone the performance twice due to the security situation and we decided the director should not travel from Beirut, where she is based, as the risk on the road was too high. The assistant facilitators, who live near Zrariyeh in the South, stepped up.

After the performance, I spoke with Tala Zaher, one of the facilitators, about her experience. She told me, “The road from my house to the project’s location is a dangerous one; many people have been killed by Israeli bombings. It was nerve-wracking to pass through, my heart would clench every time. But the moment we reached the S.S. Foundation and saw the kids—how they welcomed us and how excited they were—it made me forget all the fear. 

“On the day of the show, the security situation was terrible; it was one of the worst days. I was glad that we postponed it. Finally, when we were able to set a day to proceed with the project, I was thrilled. The kids were ten times more excited. Although the kids initially had no idea about theatre, and the sessions were intense, they quickly opened up. They became much more confident on stage. I’m so happy we did something in the South since it changed the psychological state of both the kids and ourselves.”

People are hungry for theatre in the South. When I speak with organisations based there, they tell me that their children really need theatre. I hope we can continue creating plays with them. When everything is so hectic it can be hard to find space to express even the simplest things, like how your day was. But art helps – it helps you to understand yourself and to cope.