Damascus-Sana
Theater director Mohamed Zakia finished the final touches on his new show of pantomime art “Silent Theater” prepared by him and with the participation of a number of young actors and actresses under the supervision of theater director Soheir Barhoum and produced by the Directorate of Theaters and Music in the Ministry of Culture.
The show, which comes as a result of a month-long workshop in the art of pantomime, and will be launched at the Al-Hamra Theater in Damascus next week, adopts the art of suggestion and expression in the language of the body with an animated visual scenography and accompanying graphics for several paintings that make up the entire show over a period of forty minutes.
Regarding the importance of the show, the Director of the National Theater Barhoum said in a statement to SANA, “It is rare for a pantomime to be presented on our theaters, and this is what prompted us to adopt this idea. Its presence gives diversity to the national theater shows and constitutes an opportunity for the public to get to know this art.” Details to reach the best result.
And the real adventure in the show comes, as I mentioned Barhoum, through working with a group of young people who do not have previous experience or knowledge in the art of pantomime, but confidence in the director Zakia with the diligence of everyone enabled the show to overcome the difficulties and benefit from the presence of the professional visual scenography designer Bassam Hamidi and the graphic designer, Engineer Firas Serenity
In turn, director Zakia said, "This theater is one of the most difficult types of theatrical performance and is different from others because it depends on the actor's body to express through the suggestions that are present in the painting he performs according to his role and it is an art that has its own rules," noting that the nine participating actors were able to acquire knowledge in the art of the pantomime. Which they will reflect through the show.
Actress Madonna Hanna, participating in the show, explained that she and her fellow actors and actresses spent a lot of effort and energy during rehearsals despite the difficulty of this type of performances because it does not depend on dialogue, but on separating the actor's senses and expression through movement and facial expressions, hoping that our theaters will witness other performances of this art.
Actor Faisal Saadoun, coming from Al-Hasakah governorate, pointed out that the participants in the workshop benefited from director Zakia's information and worked hard to develop their performance within this art.
Actress Abeer Bitar stressed the importance of developing this art in the Syrian theater, indicating that the show depends on suggestive performance as well as the scenography and music accompanying the scenes presented.
As for the actor Wissam Sobeih, he mentioned that this new experience has added a lot to them as young actors because pantomime is a difficult art, wishing that they present a successful show that the audience likes.
Mohammed Samir Tahan