Impressive Shadow Puppetry: "Atyef" Redefines the Art of Storytelling
The impressive chiaroscuro in which the show is immersed reinforces its connection to the cinematic universe, especially since everything takes place on a screen. "Atyef" presents itself as a journey into a fairy tale universe.
A New Approach to Marionette Theater
With each new creation, marionettist Habiba Jendoubi tries to renew an art that she has been practicing since the 1980s and has mastered all its techniques. "Atyef," her latest show presented at the Théâtre des Régions during the 7th edition of the JAMC, is a rarely practiced genre in Tunisia: shadow puppetry, which requires complex techniques. However, the artist, always seeking novelty, enjoys taking risks.
A Poetic Tale of Love, Sacrifice, and Redemption
The story of "Atyef," drawn from the repertoire of popular tales, resembles a fairy tale. Two princess sisters live in a palace. The younger one falls ill and can only be cured if her sister sacrifices her beauty for her. To save her sister, the older one accepts becoming ugly. One day, the two young women meet a young painter, and both fall in love with him. However, to the older sister's dismay, the man prefers the younger sister's beauty. The younger sister, conquered by the painter's charm, forgets her sister's sacrifice. The older sister then decides to take revenge by subjecting the young man to a nearly impossible challenge, while the kingdom suffers from drought.
A Cinematic Experience on Stage
This poetic tale explores complex emotions where love, ingratitude, betrayal, revenge, and forgiveness are intertwined. The director has chosen the technique of shadow puppetry, reproducing the cinematic atmosphere. The narration unfolds like a film with characters, dramaturgy, twists, and a denouement that plunges the audience into a unique form.
A Reflection on Identity and Sacrifice
Accompanying the precise movements of the interpreters who carry them, the protagonists narrate a story that exists in many forms of literature, cinema, and theater, but rarely in puppet theater. With a flawless ambition to cross other artistic disciplines, giving the public an exciting rendezvous, Habiba Jendoubi has the audacity to venture into unprecedented approaches. The work proposes a reflection on the quest for identity, the construction of oneself, the destinies that tip, the fragility of beings, and the sacrifice of some of them, sounding these themes through the depth of the shadows and drawing from references as cinematic as they are literary, plastic, and musical. The melancholic music accompanies the narrative.
An Impressive Stage Setup
The choice of the scenic device is important, even impressive, as it relies on a giant screen behind which the marionettes and landscapes are carried and animated by excellent comedians-manipulators: Fethi Dhibi, Jamila Kamara, Ons Gannoun, Islem Ben Salem, Karama Chibani, Firas Mosbahi, and Ahmed Kmaira. Only their silhouettes and images appear, projected in Chinese shadows for a sensation of total immersion that can transport the public to the heart of a remarkable visual epic.
