I am Hussein, who are you?

Photos of the fourth evening “I am Hussein, who are you?” – a monologue of Hussein Mahdi, accompanied by Luk Nys

The last evening, the theme was  An Impact of migration: a new begin?.  Iraqi theatre maker Hussein Mahdi, in Belgium since 2015, in his theatre-solo “I am Hussein, who are you?” shared how his life until arrival to Antwerp was always about having to fight for something: back home, to escape, to come to Europe – and then, once in Antwerp he didn’t have anything to fight for any more, and found himself in an existential dilemma: what do to? To chill out, or to find something to fight for, climate change, for example.

He emotionally engaged people in the audiences with this topic in different ways: by asking them about the motto and the driving force of their lives;  by inviting some of them on a stage for a tea and a talk about the happiest and saddest moments in their lives. The answers were moving for all present: for a refugee from Iraq the happiest moment was when he was selected to play for the Iraqi national football team, and for an Afghani man the saddest moment was when he realized that he left everything, but absolutely everything and everybody behind. These answers also encouraged the public to respond warmly to Hussein’s invitation to think and talk to each other about their happiest and saddest moments, and other similar questions.