A young woman with long brown curls sits at a dark wooden desk in front of a flowered wallpaper with headphones on her ears. On the table are a doll's house, a lamp and two small plants.

Still Openhaus

Performance

Basel Zaraa

Dear Laila

Tickets:

8 Euro

Info

The installation deals with themes such as flight, life in exile and mourning. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Past dates

Archive

Saturday

4/6/24

3:10 PM

20 min. per slot from 15:10 to 21:30

The individual 20-minute slots can be booked in the webshop.

A man with short dark hair and a black T-shirt digs intently with his fingers into the body of a brown mummy.

Arkadi Zaides

Necropolis

The seeds of DEAR LAILA were planted when Basel’s five-year-old daughter began to ask him about his home growing up. Unable to take her there, he decided he would try to bring the place to her, by creating a model of his childhood home in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. DEAR LAILA shares the Palestinian experience of displacement and resistance through the story of one family, exploring how war and exile are experienced through the everyday, the domestic, and the public space. An intimate, interactive installation experienced by one audience member at a time.

The photo was taken over the shoulder of a person sitting at a table. In the center is a blue and white cassette recorder with yellow buttons, which the person is operating with both hands. A doll's house can be seen at the back of the table

Sitting at a table is a woman in a pink T-shirt, with brown hair a bun and several earrings. She is reading a letter, in front of her on the table are colorful square cards, a casket, a bottle of herbs and the doll's house.

In front of a grey-brown doll's house with a prefabricated look are colorful little cards and a cassette recorder with a sticker that reads "DEAR LAILA". The doll's house has two floors and two balconies. Behind it is a lamp with a golden base.

Next to a framed black and white picture showing a portrait of a woman with a headscarf and two children, there is a letter on the table that reads: "Open the big drawer in front of you. There is something from your grandad inside."

Press photos – Basel Zaraa: Dear Laila

With: Basel Zaraa

By Basel Zaraa Translator and script editor Emily Churchill Zaraa Sound engineer Pete Churchill

Commissioned by Good Chance Theatre, with support from Arts Council England

Basel Zaraa

Dear Laila

Past dates

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