A new play Chamaa (The Candle), is the first Moroccan play to tackle the issue of past human right abuses in Morocco, following the recent process of reconciliation undertaken by Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER)
In 1983, a young Moroccan woman, Jamila, was kidnapped and held among 97 male and female prisoners for years, during which she underwent all forms of torture and sexual abuse. Fifteen years later, after she had regained freedom, got married, and not forgetting her past sufferings, she meets by chance a man whose voice and smell she recognised as being those of her torturer. She ties him up and decides to interrogate him, in a desperate attempt to get psychological relief by hearing the crime admitted.
Chamaa tells her story. Directed by young director Jaouad Essounani, the play's avant–première was performed by the group DABATEATR Wednesday evening in Rabat's Bahnini theatre. The talented young director based his play on an adaptation of Death and the Maiden by the Argentine-Chilean novelist, dramatist, essayist, and human rights activist, Ariel Dorfman.
The play, however, was given a totally Moroccan makeover. As a title, “Chamaa”, is a reference to a song which is part of the Moroccan popular heritage. But the choice was also based on the symbolism of “the candle”, the light that accompanies prisoners during their plight, the poetic devise which is always linked to commemoration, and also a clear reference to the logo of human rights organisation Amnesty International.
The three main characters - the woman, Jamila, the husband, Kamal, and the ex-torturer, Amine - were played by Moroccan actors Jamila Lhaouni, Kamal Kadimi, and Amine Naji. The actors used their own names, as a means of identifying with the characters.
“We didn't change our names because both the torturer and the victim can be anyone of us,” Naji said.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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