Hanane Hajj Ali & STET The English Theatre - Jogging
The production team of STET and The National Theatre are delighted to invite Hanane and her inspiring performance Jogging again after the success of 2022. This time in partnership for a good cause: raising money to help Gaza's war refugees in Beirut.Hanane Hajj Ali is many women. She is a Lebanese actor and playwright. A feminist and political activist. A mother and a wife. In her award-winning play Jogging, a humorous, revealing and ultimately dark performance, she puts herself in the shoes of four women and asks herself the question, ‘Who is Medea today in a torn city like Beirut? Proceeds from ticket sales will go to Action for Hope, you can choose from three donation amounts when ordering your ticket.
The four women Hanana portrays are herself, the Medea from Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy; and two contemporary Lebanese women, one who kills her children and herself, and another who sacrifices her children to the wars in the Middle East.
As a woman now in her 50s, Hanane exercises daily to prevent osteoporosis, obesity and depression. The effects of her daily routine are contradictory. In fact, two hormones are stimulated in her body: Dopamine and Adrenaline. Two hormones that are alternately destructive and constructive, amid a city of Beirut that destroys to build and builds to destroy.
Alone on stage, jogging, Hanane - wife, wife and mother - lifts the veil of her identity. As she becomes an ‘unveiled’ performer, her multiple characters gradually begin to fit together like Russian dolls, with the exploration of Medea's motivations as the central theme.