The Cartographer’s Curse starring Ludwig El Haddad and Sara Saleh. Image via Riverside Parramatta.
Strong and powerful with many interlocking layers of meaning, Cartographer’s Curse is the latest production by the National Theatre of Parramatta. Supporting a newly established Arabic theatre company, Third Space Productions, in their premiere production.
Written and directed by Paula Abood, history is reimagined through the use of projections and other technology, spoken word in both prose and poetry, parkour movement and Qanuni music. Cartographer’s Curse begins one hundred years ago. With red and blue crayons in hand, British diplomat Mark Sykes and his French counterpart François Georges-Picot met over a map and set about redrawing borders in very straight lines.
The effects of the colonial carve up resonate into the present. Into this swirling macrocosm of ever-shifting alliances and arbitrary borders, the audience enters the allegorical world of the Cartographer and his family. The chaos in which these imposed boundaries was forged is developed in complex layers and interwoven voices. A battle of ideals is seen against a backdrop of duplicity, resistance, sacrifice and disaster. The effects of power and greed on not only maps and borders, but also on families and freedom are witnessed. We see poverty, famine and forced conscriptions and political double dealing as the French and British diplomats bicker in the struggle to set themselves up in the region as the new colonial masters once the Ottoman Empire fell. ‘The postcolonial and ongoing neo-colonial mess that started with those straight red and blue lines… remains with us today as refugees flee Syria and Iraq, the catastrophe that befell Palestine remains an open wound, and the frequent sectarian eruptive bursts of fire that plague Lebanon.’ Abood reflects. Far from being fixed in the past, the marks of the 100 year old Sykes-Picot agreement are still visible today. The show is an allegory about what life was like around roughly 1916 and the kinds of oppression people endured, focusing on the effects on one family in particular.
Paula Abood is a community cultural development practitioner, writer, creative producer and educator, who’s written for performance, radio, publications and film and, in 2013, received the Australia Council’s Ros Bower Award for lifetime achievement in community cultural development practice.
The multi layered set (Jerome Pearce) is rather minimalist – white archways, stage left has the music set up, stage right a cluttered cupboard with various hand props used at times in the production allowing for fluid narrative and quick scene changes. There are wonderful projections used , from the opening and closing thistles to the bazaar to maps and black and white footage of troops on camels.
The small cast of six all have allegorical titles: the Cartographer was terrifically played by bearded, darkly handsome Ludwig El Haddad. The Spirit Poet (the Cartographer’s wife as played by Sara Saleh) is haunting and passionate. The Poet (Zainab Kadhim), the cartographer and spirit poet’s daughter, is passionate not just about poetry but freedom and her country. The Resistance ( Ali Kadhim ), the Poet’s brother, passionately tries to defend his country and ends up escaping to join The Resistance. Kadhim is an exponent of parkour movement and his thrilling passionate performance is incredibly lithe, acrobatic and agile. The Wandering Professor (grey bearded, bespectacled Ghassan Hage ) is nattily, jauntily dressed and acts as the European voice. The Merchant (Alissar Gazal) acts as world weary commentator and voice for the everyday poor people, telling of poverty and heartbreak.
The effects of the colonial-carve-up, a century ago, resonate into the present as history finds meaning in this eclectic multi layered new theatrical work, full of voices demanding to be heard.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
THE CARTOGRAPHER’S CURSE
Presented by National Theatre of Parramatta and Third Space Productions
The Cartographer: Ludwig El Haddad
The Wandering Professor: Ghassan Hage
The Poet Zainab Kadhim
The Spirit Poet: Sara Saleh
The Resistance: Ali Kadhim
The Merchant: Alissar Gazal Qanun
Musician: Mohamed Lelo
Director: Paula Abood
Assistant Director/Co-producer: Claudia Chidiac
Digital Artist: Jerome Pearce
Dramaturgy: Barry Gamba
Riverside Parramatta
5-8 October 2016​
