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Honey, Sun and Gold is a 2021 monodrama written by Yasser Abu Shakra, acted and directed by Remi Sarmini. Inspired by Hector Malot’s Sans famille, the play is set in the present and follows Sarmini’s personal journey as he fled Syria in 2016, searching for safety and a place to belong. Exploring his experiences as both a migrant and the challenges in loving openly, due to sexual orientation. The play blends humour and emotional depth as it reflects on the loss of identity, home and love, creating a poetic bridge reflecting on Sarmini’s past and present.

This week from (October 21-25) theatre maker Remi Sarmini hosted a dramaturgical workshop in Globe Aroma’s rehearsal space, collaborating with theatre director Anne Berelowitch from Paris; writer, lecturer and German dramaturg, Henning Bochert and Yasser Abu Shaqra, Syrian-Palestinian theatre writer. And lastly, Ahmed MouradKhanfir from ArtVeda, who is a cultural activist based in Tunisia, following online on Zoom. 

Since 2021 the creatives that have been developing Honig, شمس & de l’Or worked and met digitally. On October 21st, they finally met in person, to develop the project’s translation. 

The objective of this week-long meeting was to ensure the play is bilingual: in Arabic-French and Arabic-German. Their purpose was to test the scenes in a way to imagine that subtitles wouldn’t be used when presenting the piece. This is a challenge they face as it’s difficult to keep the audience engaged in different languages. “It’s not easy to integrate languages, but through translation, this opened the door to many opportunities such as developing the script further, along with merging different cultures in the script and including everyone around the table’s customs and the audience’s too.” shares director Remi. As for their first time meeting, the group is excited and relieved with their group dynamics and great chemistry. 

The production will be taken to Paris and Berlin in two different versions, incorporating French and German with a local actor or actress. This project is supported and financed by PerformEurope.