A Shoe Full of Events

Please Don't Move

A selection of texts by the Egyptian playwright Basem Sharaf was staged when Det Åpne Teater (The Open Theatre) launched A Shoe Full of Events (Please Don't Move) or Åpen Tekst 4* (Open Text 4) in The House of Literature in Oslo during The Contemporary Stage Festival 2009.

Basem Sharaf was personally present during the launch and the reading.

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning.

Information

(Objekt ID 6694)
Object type Production
Premiere September 5, 2009
Produced by The Open Theatre (Det Åpne Teater)
Coproducers The House of Literature
In collaboration with NORLA
Based on A Shoe Full of Events (Please Don't Move) by Basem Sharaf
Audience Adults
Language Norwegian
Keywords Reading, Theatre
Website Det Åpne Teater, Litteraturhuset

Requirements to venue

Blackout No
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The autumn of 2007 Det Åpne Teater (The Open Theatre) was contacted by NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad, Fiction & Non-fiction) about the Egyptian writer and playwright Basem Sharaf. Two years later the Norwegian edition of his collection of one-act plays called A Shoe Full of Events (Please Don't Move) or Åpen Tekst 4* (Open Text 4) was ready to be launched at The House of Literature in Oslo. Åpen Tekst* (Open Text) is a series of international and Norwegian stage texts published by Det Åpne Teater (The Open Theatre).

Basam Sharaf's texts in A Shoe Full of Events (Please Don't Move) originate in a marginalised sub-reality, without retouch or beautifying makeup. The compactness is the aesthetic question in this collection of short texts: How is it possible to bring forward the whole world in a text perhaps no longer than a line, still carrying about almost limitless associations of mythology and symbolism? Sharaf tries to realise what K. T. Rowe is talking about in the book A theatre in your head – the reader can personally stage the texts while reading.

The texts were translated to Norwegian by Wetle Holtan in collaboration with Jan Junchelka.

Source: Det Åpne Teater (The Open Theatre), detapneteater.no, 30.09.2010,  http://www.detapneteater.no/pub/daat/forestillinger/?aid=1160&cid=17&sac=all&viewall=1#daat

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning.

Contributors (6)
Name Role
Basem Sharaf – Script
Aslak Moe – Direction
Ragnhild Mærli – Dramaturge
Axel Aubert – Actor
Kaia Varjord – Actor
Randolf Walderhaug – Actor
Performance dates
September 5, 2009 15:00 – Kverneland, The House of Literature National premiere, Norway