Avignon

'Saigon' brings exiles' loss and longing to the stage

Avignon - muslimchronicle

A hugely moving debut drama about exile set in a Vietnamese restaurant has become a surprise hit at the world's biggest theatre festival, with standing ovations every night and the audience in tears. "Saigon" by Caroline Guiela Nguyen -- whose family fled what is now Ho Chi Minh City in 1956 -- has been hailed for shining a light onRead more

8 hurt in shooting outside French mosque

Marseille - Muslimchronicle

Eight people were lightly wounded late Sunday in a shooting in front of a mosque in the southeast French city of Avignon, the prosecutor’s office said, ruling out terrorism. According to initial accounts taken on the spot, at least two men got out of a car around 10:30 pm near the mosque and opened fire, including with a shotgun, theRead more

Sarkozy announces long-awaited bid

Paris - Arab Today

Nicolas Sarkozy launched a bid Monday to win back the French presidency, announcing he would seek his party's nomination to run in next year's election. The pugnacious 61-year-old conservative, who in 2012 ended a five-year term mired in unpopularity, had made no secret of his ambition to reconquer the top office. "I have decided to be a candidate in theRead more

'Open wound' of Rabin's murder haunts

Avignon - Arab Today

Acclaimed Israeli director Amos Gitai has returned to the 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in a new play which examines what he calls an "open wound in Israel's history". The film-maker made an award-winning documentary last year -- "Rabin, The Last Day" -- about the last 24 hours of the murdered leader's life. The former general was shotRead more

'Open wound' of Rabin's murder haunts Israel

Avignon - Arab Today

Avignon festival dramas warn of Europe's far-right lurch

Avignon - Arab Today

On paper it was already theatrical TNT. One of the hottest directors in the world and some of France's greatest stage actors in a play warning about the slide into dangerous political populism. And "The Damned" has not disappointed. Ivo van Hove's powerful adaptation of Luchino Visconti's 1969 film about the insidious rise of fascism opened the Avignon festival inRead more