THE TIME IS OUT OF JOINT (Il tempo è dislocato) by Jacopo Giacomoni
World premiere in Lebanon
Gulbenkian Theatre, LAU – Beirut
October 14, 8:00 PM
Directed by Aliya Khalidi
Through a dramaturgical device that deconstructs and reconstructs the dialogue between father and son, The time is out of joint gives physical — on stage and in language — form to the disarticulation of time that afflicts the mind when it begins to decline. The text arises from the Alzheimer’s experience: a disease that deeply affects the symbolic horizon of our present, questioning what remains of identity, memory, and that logos which slowly corrodes.
The dramaturgy structures textual loops based on paternal memories transcribed by the son, dictated and reiterated through an automatic writing program. Each memory, theme, image is conceived as a mental room, a scenic installation that the audience is free to walk through, choosing their own temporal and spatial path.
Blending philosophical research, autobiographical elements, and linguistic experimentation, Giacomoni creates a bold and contemporary dramaturgy. The theatrical device evokes the lesson of the neo-avant-garde poets (such as Balestrini), but also the hauntological thought of Derrida and the contemporary echoes explored by Mark Fisher, where the present is haunted by a past that cannot be forgotten, yet can no longer be remembered.
The time is out of joint is part of the international project New Italian Stage – From the World to Riccione, conceived by Riccione Teatro and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has brought the play to audiences in Italy and abroad.
“The process dislocates the text just as my father’s memory is dislocated by dementia.”
Jacopo Giacomoni
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Aliya Khalidi (born in 1963) is an actress, theatre director and lecturer, active in the Arab theatre world for more than twenty years. She also trains public speakers and television presenters. She earned a Master’s in directing and a PhD in Arab Theatre in the UK.
She currently teaches History of Arab Theatre and Dramatic Directing at the Lebanese American University (LAU). In 2022 she founded FADA – Foundation for Arab Dramatic Arts, one of the few independent foundations in the Arab world dedicated to archiving and preserving Arab theatrical heritage.
In her artistic work Khalidi explores themes related to female identity, memory and the Palestinian condition. Among her most significant productions are 80 Steps, selected to represent Lebanon at the Sharjah Arab Theatre Festival (2014); Anbara, inspired by the figure of the feminist pioneer Anbara Salam Khalidi, her grandmother; and Food and Fadwa, set in Bethlehem, which deals with daily life under occupation.
She is also actively involved in social theatre projects, bringing artistic performances into Palestinian refugee camps, with the aim of making art accessible also to marginalized communities.