AGAINST A HARD SURFACE
“The resistance can be seen, felt and heard by the audience. In gentle, circular movements, the actors first seem to encourage themselves, only to land all the harder on the wall, which leaves traces on their bodies.”
— Annette Stiekele, Hamburger Abendblatt
TEAM
Co-Created by: Samar Haddad King and Amir Nizar Zuabi
Music by: muqata’a
Lighting by: Muaz Aljubeh
Rehearsal Direction by: Zoe Rabinowitz
Set Construction: Nader Khoury
Performance by: Hamza Damra, Yukari Nishimura Osaka, Zoe Rabinowitz, Adeeb Safady, Ayman Safiah, Yusef Sbeih, Mohamad Smahneh, Samaa Wakim, Fida Zidan, and Fadi Zmorrod
TOURING INFORMATION
Cast: 8
Touring Company: 12
Duration of work: 60 minutes (no intermission)
Produced by: Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre
Supported by: A.M Qattan Foundation/ The Qattan Grant for Performing Arts 2016, American Dance Abroad, Covillo Lynch Foundation, and co-produced by Sareyyet Ramallah in partnership with the Palestinian Museum.
World Premiere: April 29th, 2017, Baladi Theatre, Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival (Ramallah, Palestine)
European Premiere: June 5, 2017, Theater der Welt Festival (Hamburg, Germany)
Photos © Reham Abdelrahman, Alaa Khanger, Samar Haddad King, and Wael Abu Jabal
Against a Hard Surface, an evening-length dance theatre piece, asks what happens to a group of people isolated from the rest of the world by a wall. Created by theatre director Amir Nizar Zuabi and choreographer Samar Haddad King with an original score by muqata’a, Against a Hard Surface examines how a population survives a high-pressure ecosystem of unremitting political strain, violence, and containment. The work is a relentless portrayal of human resistance and resilience in a dystopian landscape.
Against a Hard Surface is a production of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre and supported by the A.M Qattan Foundation/ The Qattan Grant for Performing Arts 2016 and Covillo Lynch Foundation, and co-produced by Sareyyet Ramallah in partnership with the Palestinian Museum.