A History of Water in the Middle East

Eight Talents Adami Theatre actors and actresses are taking part in the public reading game, performing three English texts translated into French for the 77th edition of the Festival d'Avignon. Under the direction of Lucy Morrison and Sam Pritchard, the young Talents Adami Theatre had the opportunity to rehearse in London at the Royal Court Theatre before the performances in the cour du Musée Calvet.

“What form can something take without water?”
British Egyptian Sabrina Mahfouz always loved the mix of places and rivers she grew up around – Thames, Tees, Nile, Essequibo.
But when she applied to be a spy, she realised that in Britain an identity not easily defined can be considered a risk.
So now she’s on her own intelligence mission – to explore how the water of the Middle East has enabled British power through the ages and how Britain still effects landscapes, lives and legacies in the region today.

Premiered in 2019, this landmark play from poet, playwright, lyricist and performer Sabrina Mahfouz fuses the personal and political in this remarkable theatrical odyssey.

Sabrina Mahfouz is a playwright, lyricist, poet and screenwriter based in London, Los Angeles and Cairo.In television, she has recently worked as a writer, consultant and producer on HBO's upcoming thriller series Full Circle; Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady's new animated comedy #1 Happy Family USA on A24/Amazon Studios; Evelyn Hardcastle's Seven Deaths on Netflix and Showtime's new spy series Split. And she is currently developing her own shows with Miramax, A24 and Amazon Studios. In theatre, she has written the dance adaptation of The Matrix, directed by Danny Boyle and Boy Blue, which will premiere at The Factory in Manchester in October 2023. Her many other plays have won the Herald Angel Award, the Old Vic New Voices Award, the BBC Best Drama Award, the Radio Academy Award, the UK Theatre Award and the Offie Award. Sabrina is currently developing new plays for Audible, Sonia Friedman Productions and The Donmar. Sabrina is currently developing new work for Audible, Sonia Friedman Productions and The Donmar. Sabrina has written a book mixing memoir and history, These Bodies of Water: A Personal History of the British Empire and the Middle East; she is also the editor of The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write; Smashing It: Working Class Artists on Life, Art and Making It Happen; Poems for a Green and Blue Planet and Sabrina Mahfouz, Plays: 1. She contributed essays to the multi-award winning book The Good Immigrant. She won the King's Arts & Culture Alumni Award for inspiring change in the creative industries and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature.

Wth Délia Espinat-Dief, Emma Kabouche, Tom Pezier
Translation Gérard Cherqui, Antoine Mazet

With the support of la Maison Antoine Vitez