Imam Hussein
Corposcopio Teatro (Mexico)
21 - 22 February 2012, 8pm
Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore
$30 | $19
Advisory: Religious Content (16 years and above)
(Asian Premiere)
Imam Hussein is a rhapsody of violence and cultural heritage – an intercultural dialogue which, through the fetishization of the Orient, demonstrates how that which is happening in distant lands may well also be deeply rooted in one's own identities. It presents the intimate laments of a young group of Mexicans, tired of living amongst violence.
The piece portrays two historical characters in a fictional time. Zeineb needs Sekinah to acknowledge her inheritance and command her community. Through them, we witness the drama of an unwanted inheritance and an inherited war.
(Performed in Spanish with English surtitles.)
Relationship to Art & Faith
Imam Hussein’s relation to faith is a given ever since its conception. In the show, two key characters of the Shiite history debate on whether it is worthy to keep on fighting in the name of Allah. The show is the result of a research on intercultural and interfaith theatre practice. By taking the traditional Shiite story of The Tragedy of Imam Hussein as a contextual frame, the play explores how the ongoing Mexican Drug War will have a very negative impact in the generations of Mexicans to come.
In doing so, the show posits the following questions: How can a religion be both a compressive heritage and a liberating truth? Why has the search for the divine been transformed into the need for the revenge? Why does faith provoke violence? Why is violence inherited? Is there a Mexico left to inherit?
Photo credit: Blenda