Friday Evening, November 28, 2025, at the Tunis Municipal Theater
As part of the Carthage Theater Days, Abdelaziz Meherzi unveiled his new creation: a refined comedy in Tunisian dialect, inspired by Carlo Goldoni's La Locandiera. This work revives a genre "that we have lost to the benefit of burlesque and newspaper theater," according to the director, and promises to reconcile the Tunisian public with the pleasure of great popular theater.
A Powerful Female Character
After Saïda Mannoubia, Meherzi returns with a powerful female character. He explains: "This play deals with the subject of women as a symbol and locomotive of society." In Goldoni's work, which Meherzi describes as "the Molière of Italian theater," women are a mystery, a driving force, and a revelation. The director continues: "Understanding women is difficult, managing a relationship is even more so." He weaves, from the classical text, a Tunisian adaptation "that resembles us a lot," a fine comedy rooted in our codes, social quirks, and contemporary fractures.
The Story
The story takes place in a residence run by Chahira, a free, brilliant, and independent woman. Between a proud nobleman, a wealthy businessman with a troubled past, and a convinced misogynist, she imposes her presence, intelligence, and charm as a weapon of resistance and truth. Wounded by Sinouji's contempt, she decides to seduce him to give him a masterful lesson: the strength of women surpasses masculine certainties. It's a game of power, irony, and seduction, where comedy becomes a high place of social reflection. The play offers a true theater of characters, where each protagonist represents a facet of contemporary Tunisian society, between persistent traditions, new ambitions, and deep contradictions.
A Reflection of Tunisian Society
Meherzi emphasizes that the work speaks "of the decline of the nobility and the emergence of a new category thanks to easy gain and shady commerce." A striking echo of today's Tunisia, where elites change faster than values, where quick money upsets old hierarchies, and where social certainties hold only by a thread. This re-reading of Goldoni brings comedy back to its primary function: a smiling but implacable mirror held up to a society in full transformation.
A Tribute to Classical Theater
The director adds: "I thank the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, which encouraged me to return to classical theater with comedy in its quintessence." He also salutes the co-production of Tunisian television, proof that people still believe in comedy as a noble, popular, and unifying art. Meherzi promises a "very attractive" spectacle, spectacular, careful, and rhythmic — exactly what is needed to give the Tunisian public a taste for the theater again.
