March –––– June 2025: 17th edition
20 years on the assassination of Samir Kassir
SPECTACLE – THEATRE
CONTRACTIONS
Melanie Bouexière, Elara Le Floch, Rana El Khoury
Lebanon, France / Creation 2024
A fundraising theatre evening for the Beirut Spring Festival.
Monday 31 March & Tuesday 1 April 2025, 8:30 pm
Théâtre Le Monnot
After the Festival Off Avignon 2024, Rana Khoury presents in Lebanon “Contractions”, a play by contemporary British playwright Mike Bartlett, with actors Mélanie Bouiexiere and Elara Lefloch. At the Théâtre Le Monnot, 31 March and 1 April 2025, in support of the Beirut Spring Festival.
Emma begins a relationship with Daren, her colleague, but the internal rules of the company where they work prohibit romantic and sexual ties between employees.
Mike Bartlett's "Contractions" is a sharp and darkly comic exploration of power dynamics, workplace culture, and personal autonomy. Set in a sterile office, the play revolves around a series of increasingly invasive meetings between Emma, an employee, and her unnamed supervisor. The latter interrogates Emma about her personal relationships, closely examining how they might affect her performance at work, under the guise of company policy. The opening is icy, heavy. When “the” manager, who will never be named, is intrusive to the point of cynicism, Emma submits... until when? The office table - the 3rd person - manages the distance. As the meetings intensify, the boundaries between work and private life blur, revealing the frightening extent of corporate control.
These are not caricatures, but rather a double reading of the corporate world. The hierarchical relationship disappears in the face of corporate strategy. Is “the” manager the company?
With its minimalist setting and sharp dialogue, "Contractions" offers a critique of modern capitalism, exposing the dehumanizing effects of bureaucratic systems.
An engaging play about the power of the company in the lives of its employees. A play with ferocious humor, a precise rhythm, pauses and unspoken words that leave room for interpretation. This social drama raises the question of individual destiny and the power of words.
The tension of a face-off between two women: the company manager and Emma, a young executive. Fourteen encounters in which Emma's life is gradually tipped over into horror. The nightmare slowly sets in, leading her to become a perfect employee, in absolute solitude; work, it seems, does not bear any emotional intrusion.
This play explores the issues of intimacy and unbridgeable boundaries in the corporate world. How far can an employee accept an intrusion into his or her personal life to further the company's growth? Beyond the corporate framework, this is a real question that affects our contemporary world. The crises that have taken hold in our countries, the growing unemployment and the fragility of employees, are leading us to reflect on our place in the world of work.
The setting, the office of a big corporation, becomes the stage for power struggles. Two characters compete ruthlessly to defend their professional and private interests. Rana El Khoury stages the confrontation between two women on a minimalist set.
Playwright Mike Bartlett
Director Rana El Khoury
Actresses Melanie Bouexière, Elara Le Floch
Production Compagnie Les Flâneuses
Performance in French with subtitles in English.
🕓 1h05
No break
Théâtre Le Monnot, Monnot
Indoors venue
Capacity: 260 seats
Phone Number: +961.1.202.422
Parking available for free / street parking / parking available for a fee
The Beirut Spring Festival is a free of charge annual arts and culture programming that celebrates freedom and renewal in Beirut, in memory of Samir Kassir.
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