The Strangest invites audiences into an immersive theatrical experience in which they enter a traditional Arab storytelling café, where for centuries masters of the oral tradition wove tales of intrigue. The Strangest is an absurdist murder mystery loosely inspired by the unnamed Arab killed in Albert Camus’ classic novel, The Stranger. Experience French Algiers on the brink of revolution, and witness three Arab brothers vie for the love of the same woman. Their bitter rivalry ends only when one is gunned down by a French stranger.
French Algeria was a hybrid of Eastern and Western cultures that fascinated some of the most important writers and artists of the twentieth century, including Albert Camus, Jean Genet, and Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1848, Algeria was made part of France. It was the first colonization of an Arab country since the Crusades, and hundreds of thousands of Europeans immigrated and settled there. The Algerian War for Independence began over a hundred years later in 1954.
The Strangest evokes that cultural hybridity, mixing oral Arab storytelling techniques with Western theatrical practices of multi-character scenes in a way that illuminates the strengths and similarities of both those performance traditions.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
THURSDAY thru TUESDAY @ 7:30 PM
SUNDAY @ 5 PM
