Politically-loaded love story on the border between Israel and Palestine.
What does it mean to me to be Israeli ? This question is the basis of Tunnel Boring Machine, the newest creation of theatre maker Yuval Rozman.
Rozman wavers between feelings of shame and love. He loves his homeland but he is concerned, the more so because Israel more and more assumes the role of oppressor.
Tunnel Boring Machine is written from the point of view of the oppressed. Rozman puts himself in the body and mind of a Palestinian, Khalil, and confronts himself with the question how it must feel to be a stranger in your own country.
The result is a politically-loaded love story on the border of Israel and Palestine, in which the tunnel is the symbol of the distressing contrast between the nightmare on the one side and the delusion on the other side.
Khalil's love is also underground just like the tunnel : he once was in love with an Israeli and that very lost love drives him from one homosexual encounter to the next. The unwanted clandestine character of these meetings agrees with the subdued tensions in the region.
Yuval Rozman is a prize-winning actor and director who studied in Tel Aviv and New York. For his performance Cabaret Voltaire he received the prize for best direction, best choreography and best original music at the theatre festival of Tel Aviv. Previously, he worked together with a handful of visual artists, film and theatre makers such as Stefano Massini and Laetitia Dosch.
TEXT AND DIRECTION Yuval Rozman WITH Julien Andujar, Gaël Sall, Stéphanie Aflalo, Bachir Tlili, Bertrand de Roffignac LIGHT DESIGN Melchior Delaunay SCENOGRAPHY Victor Roy COSTUMES Rachel Garcia MUSIC Benjamin Cachot DIRECTION ASSISTANT Sophie Barbarit STAGE MANAGER Marco Laporte THANKS TO Nathalie Kousnetzoff et Damien Simonneau, Youness Anzane EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION Latitudes Prod (Lille) COPRODUCTION Maison de la Culture de Bourges – Scène Nationale / le phénix scène nationale Valenciennes pôle européen de création / TANDEM Scène nationale / Théâtre Garonne, Toulouse / La Villette – Paris WITH THE SUPPORT OF DRAC Hauts-de-France, Région Hauts-de-France, fonds de dotation Porosus, ADAMI, SPEDIDAM. With Jeune théâtre national IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Théâtre National de Bretagne / This text was given encouragement by the Commission nationale d’Aide à la création de textes dramatique ARTCENA (support and followup of the performing arts) WRITERS IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM Théâtre de Vanves – Scène conventionnée pour la danse, Vanves Actoral – festival international des arts & des écritures contemporaines – Marseille / Montévidéo – Centre de créations contemporaines – Marseille / Théâtre de l’Odéon – Paris / La Chartreuse – Centre national des écritures du spectacle – Villeneuve-lès-Avignon / Le Tripostal – Ville de Lille / Tunnel Boring Machine is a European Creative Hub project (le phénix scène nationale Valenciennes). It belongs to the Campus section.
