Gardens Speak

Reviews

The art of Syria’s tragic war Paul Mason, Channel 4
Gardens Speak (Battersea Arts Centre) Jo Caird, What’s on Stage
Gardens Speak, theatre review: Eerily absorbing Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard
Review: 'Gardens Speak,' a Graveside Encounter With Lives Lost in Syria The New York Times
Gardens Speak: One of the most uniquely individual and profound theatrical experiences in recent memory. Clinton Campbell, Edge Media Network
Narrating Syria’s Conflict through Intimate Memories in Gardens Speak Samer Abboud

Across Syria, many gardens conceal the dead bodies of activists and protesters who adorned the streets during the early periods of the uprising. These domestic burials play out a continuing collaboration between the living and the dead. The dead protect the living by not exposing them to further danger at the hands of the regime. The living protect the dead by conserving their identities, telling their stories, and not allowing their deaths to become instruments to the regime.

Gardens Speak is an interactive sound installation containing the oral histories of ten ordinary people who were buried in Syrian gardens. Each narrative has been carefully constructed with the friends and family members of the deceased to retell their stories as they themselves may have recounted it. They are compiled with found audio that evidences their final moments.

Credits

Concept Tania El Khoury
Research Support and Writer Kinana Issa
Calligraphy and Tombstones Design Dia Batal
Set Design Abir Saksouk
Production Manager Jessica Harrington
Production Assistant and Audience Guide Naya Salamé
Sound Recording & Editing Khairy Eibesh (Stronghold Sound)
Available Versions Arabic, English, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese

Co-commissioned by Fierce Festival in Birmingham and Next Wave Festival in Melbourne. Developed through the Artsadmin Artists’ Bursary Scheme. Supported by Arts Council of England.