In my age, I'm still hiding to smoke is a tragicomedy that gathers 9 women of different ages and situations in a hammam in Algiers... They are there to wash, but above all to talk... In the intimacy of this place, well protected from the outside, views and points of view meet, between virtue and audacity, in the midst of a violent, ironic, strange and sharp revelation of the suppressed silence of women who have been silent for a very long time.

Little by little, their particular destinies are revealed through the stories that have marked and shaped their lives, gradually revealing the political, social and sexual violence in Algeria, which has fallen victim to corruption, misery, attacks and daily battles waged by government factions and Islamists, using women's bodies as a battlefield, most of the time.

Away from any accusing gaze, they can exchange their moods, secrets, dreams, anger, joy, betrayal or little pettiness. They can talk about morals, religion, sex, but also politics and of course... they can happily discuss men. 

A little child is about to come into the world, and out of instinct and necessity, all of them, in one way or another, will rise up to protect and defend this new-born being, their hopes and ambitions for the future life, since the beginning of the deadly fundamentalism.

9 women, 9 destinies, between rebellion, dream or submission. Mothers, lovers or "saints", gathered in the middle of the hammam, where the wounds of the struggle against oppression, violence and war are healed amidst uncontrollable laughter and tears, secrecy and elation.

A declaration of love in Algeria

"At my age, I'm still hiding to smoke" talks about this wonderful and painful relationship we can have with the country we had to flee. Even if recent events have given us all sorts of objective reasons to leave, our country remains the source of our origins, the history that gave birth to us, the history of our parents, our childhood. A country that was the source of our suffering and yet we cannot help but love it deeply. A difficult history, but still our history. If Rayhana condemns some aspects of Algeria's recent history, the descriptions she gives of these women are for me a declaration of love.

The shadow of France

France is omnipresent in this contemporary description of Algeria. A natural and historical refuge from the daily violence, France attracts us because of the hope it inspires for a better future. But it also offers a dark face: the face of a refuge that has failed to integrate its strangers, a land of suffering that devours lovers, separates families and turns brothers into fanatics. And these women look at this country with a clear eye, but at the same time full of hope. And perhaps that's what characterises Algerian women: an astonishing clarity about the world they live in, and an unabashed faith in the future,

"At my age, I'm still hiding to smoke" talks about Algeria, Islam and the status of women in Arab countries, but the play is mainly about life, solidarity, the power and beauty of women.