Everyone is invited to Zaffé – it’s a Middle Eastern wedding party with dancing, ululation, wedding games, gossip and long-distance video calls, but something is missing.
An award-winning immersive theatre celebration, Zaffé will transform the North Melbourne Town Hall into an abandoned building in Beirut for a gathering like no other.
Zaffé brings together young artists from the Middle Eastern diaspora to ask: “how does this generation attempt to commemorate what is lost to us through migration and the passing of time?”
Led by director Stéphanie Ghajar, Zaffé is written and devised by an international team of artists with roots in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. It also features Arabic-language covers of pop songs, underground techno music, and the beautiful melodies that sound like home.
“Zaffé is inspired by the ways that people strive to bring each other joy in the midst of destruction and loss. Celebrations nourish us, connect us with our roots and with each other – it keeps us going,” said Ghajar.
Winner of the 2023 Melbourne Fringe Director’s Choice Award, Zaffé is designed by visual artist and National Portrait Prize finalist Ayman Kaake and theatre designer Lara Week. The composition and sound design by Meena Shamaly and Camille El Feghali earned a Green Room Award.
Other Zaffé collaborators include Jean Bachoura, who is in Goran Stolevski’s You Deserve Everything and Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits; and also ABC Classic presenter, Taj Aldeeb, who features in the SBS TV series Four Years Later and is a recent finalist for the Australians in Film Heath Ledger Scholarship.
Arts House Acting Artistic Director, Olivia Anderson, said Zaffé is a surprising and moving celebration created by some immensely talented artists.
“We feel immensely privileged to host this wedding gathering at Arts House. Stéphanie Ghajar and her passionate ensemble have created an incredible experience for audiences,” said Anderson.
