Immigrant prophet resurrected in ruined cathedral

Gibran Khalil Gibran
TAQA Theatre
St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta
Wednesday-Sunday, February 17-28, 8.30pm
Bookings phone 0416 116 716

Review by Jennifer Long

PARRAMATTA — The poet of solitude — Khalil Gibran — will be unearthed in the ruins of Saint Patrick's Cathedral over the next couple of weeks. The poetry and visions of the author of the timeless classic The Prophet will become the subject of TAQA Theatre's new bilingual performance, Gibran Khalil Gibran.

Despite the response from Arabs and non-Arabs the world over to the work of Gibran, little is known about his life. He was a Lebanese immigrant living in the tenements of Boston and New York in the early part of the century, not a hermit living atop a mystical mountain. He was in fact of "Middle Eastern appearance".

This conflict is the focus of TAQA's new play, which draws upon the critical and artistic forces at work in this immigrant poet. The burnt-out ruins of the cathedral are a poignant terrain for a journey of words, melodies, hip hop, movement, images and light. The earth and stones of the site embody the poetics of the Arab diaspora.

In 1996, TAQA's critically acclaimed production Writing with the hip took Arabic language, phonetics and calligraphy as raw material for an unconventional performance. This year, the company, in collaboration with The Politics of Belly Dancing's Paula Aboud, looks at the writings of someone who is arguably the Arab world's most famous bard.

From GLW issue 349