Lenteur scénique – accélération dramatique: aspects de dramatisation de l’histoire algérienne dans la pièce Les Oranges d’Aziz Chouaki
Stage slowness – dramatic acceleration: aspects of dramatization of Algerian history in the play Les Oranges by Aziz Chouaki

Author(s): Christina Oikonomopoulou
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: theatre; francophone; slowness; acceleration; scenic and dramatic action; Algeria;
Summary/Abstract: Our study aims to approach and interpret the notions of scenic slowness and dramatic acceleration in the theatrical play Les Oranges (1998) by the Algerian francophone writer Aziz Chouaki (1951-2019). First, we will try to decipher the identity of the scenic slowness and statism that welcome the anonymous and timeless protagonist of this particular theatrical play. In a second step, we will attempt to put them in relation within the acceleration of the dramatic and extra-scenic action of the play. The rapprochement of these two conditions of the dramatic text and the theatrical performance will lead us to evaluate their significant contribution to the structuring of the major theme of the play, which is seems to be a fascinating and documentary journey -but at the same time full of abundant imagination- of the Algerian history. That said, starting from the idleness of the protagonist and his immobile positioning in an apartment in Alger, Aziz Chouaki will lead us to the discovery of many aspects of the collective memory and the tormented fate of Algeria in the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial era. Consequently, we will try to prove that the play Les Oranges by Aziz Chouaki represents not only a dramatized ethno-anthropological portrait of Algeria and its history, but also and especially, the acute problematic of the universal human condition who’s trying to find hope in a happy and peaceful daily life.

• Details
• Contents