Grid Iron on location in Beirut

The British Council and Al-Mawsam organized a four-day workshop in November 2004, “Listening To The Space”. The workshop was delivered by the UK based Theatre Company “Grid Iron”. The purpose of the workshop was to convey to the participants the Grid Iron model of practice in working in unusual locations and found spaces.

The workshop was a very successful and impressing one. The Grid Iron group is seriously thinking of holding one of their performances here in Beirut.

The Red Shoes - Kneehigh theatre company

The Red Shoes is an ancient story currently produced and directed by Emma Rice. Long before the Hans Christian Anderson wrote about the girl with the red shoes as a Christianised fairy story it was used as a dark tale of obsession to warn against the lure of red.

Actors Mike Shepherd, Rebecca Applebee, Giles King, Luis Santiago and John Surman carried the audience into the "twists and turns" of this breathtaking theatre marvel that mesmerised the spectators.

Around this event was organised successful workshops led by the Kneehigh Company members, Mike Shepherd and Rebecca Applebee, that brought together senior students from Syria and Lebanon, and focused on story telling through theatre, physicality and group dynamics.

Roadmetal Sweetbread –Station House Opera

Roadmetal Sweetbread occupies an alternative world that bears an uncanny resemblance to reality, a man and a woman compete with their own life size video images for survival.

Roadmetal, Sweetbread tantalises the audience and works its magic at a distance. Projected life-size against the wall, the performers' video images compete with their live counterparts for attention and authenticity. Hidden motives, repressed impulses, covert violence and secret passions all become visible in this strange space which is part real, part intangible, part past, part present.