Stop Calling Beirut

In loving memory of Ziad Abi Azar

There is a small city for sale, overlooking the sea, cheap, made of paper, flammable. Beirut is not just a city; it is an echo of its contradictions: ruin and beauty, memory and amnesia. It is the fleeting radiance of youth crushed beneath the weight of history, a melody lingering after the orchestra has departed, a hangover after the party.

Beirut is a city built, burned, lived, lost, loved, and resold—with stories scattered like ashes along its shores. Stop Calling Beirut intertwines tales and layers memories to outline the Beirut we have lost. Like losing childhood innocence, a brother at a seashore, or a place that once felt like home but is now erased, each story is a ghost haunting the city’s streets and forgotten corners—capturing fragments of a place slipping away even as we live in it. Beirut is a city of fire and paper, and through this play, three friends on stage try to capture its fragments before they disappear, before the child burns the city down, before the brother vanishes, before Beirut becomes only a word we once knew.

Omar Abi Azar is a theatre director and founding member of Zoukak Theatre Company. He was the dramaturge and director of several of Zoukak’s performances that toured in various cities in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, South Asia and Africa. He was commissioned by international festivals, theatres and universities including NYUAD’s Performing Arts Center, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center, University of Houston, Texas, Theaterfestival Schwindelfrei Mannheim, Williams College, Massachusetts to create original work. He was artist in residence with Zoukak at the Lift Festival, London, Sundance Theatre Lab, Utah among others. Since 2008, Omar leads psychosocial interventions with Zoukak, targeting various communities in different regions of Lebanon and abroad (in Serbia and in Calais’ Migrants’ Camp, France); giving drama-therapy workshops and creating collective performances with various groups. Since 2013 he co-curates “Zoukak Sidewalks” an international performance festival, and “Focus Liban” a platform showcasing and supporting the work of artists residing in Lebanon.

Lamia Abi Azar is a theatre maker, performer and drama therapist, and the co-founder and co-artistic director of Zoukak Theatre (2006). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology from St. Joseph University in Beirut (1999), and studied theatre at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University. In 1999, she moved to Italy where she co-founded La Casa del Teatro, and earned her degree in History and Practice of Arts, Music and Performance, with a focus on theatre from the Università degli Studi dell’Aquila (2004).

Merging the various tools she acquired during her studies, she developed a psychosocial methodology in response to the needs of the communities she worked with. As a strong believer in the power of imagination as an agent for change, she led a wide number of psychosocial interventions since 2000 in collaboration with local and international organizations. She devised performances with diverse groups in various contexts in Lebanon and abroad, connecting socially engaged work with artistic research and practice.

Over the past 15 years, Lamia has created over 20 performances with Zoukak Theatre—co-devising, co-writing and performing. She has presented performances at international festivals and venues such as the MuCEM, ITFOK Festival, Southbank Center, Ibsen theater, Théâtre des 13 Vents and more. Committed to sharing her expertise, she has developed training programs for theatre practitioners in psychosocial interventions and published research on theatre as a tool for development. Abi Azar is also a mentor in Zoukak’s Mentorship Program, guiding young artists in the creation of their projects.

Credits:•Direction: Lamia Abi Azar, Omar Abi Azar •Devisedby: Zoukak Collective •Performance: Lamia Abi Azar, Junaid Sarieddeen, Maya Zbib •Set Animations & Poster Design: Maya Chami •Scenography: Hussein Beydoun •SoundDesign&MusicComposition: Carol Ohair •TechnicalDirector&LightingDesigner: Antonella Rizk •AssistantDirector&StageManager: Jana Bou Matar •Stage Manager: Serjoun Sarieddine •Translation: Rayya Badran •ProductionManager: Mohamad Hamdan •Kidsdrawings: Alma Abi Azar •Production: Zoukak Theatre •Support: Drosos Foundation, Boghossian Foundation, SRT •