THEATER, CHILDREN OF ALEPPO

Students' Stories from the Antelope of Hell: The Children of Aleppo Monologue

'When did something start? Usually you suddenly find yourself in the middle of something. And you ask yourself: how on earth did I end up here?' In the theatre monologue Children of Aleppo, which premiered last weekend at De Meervaart in Amsterdam, actor and theatre maker George Elias Tobal (32) talks about the turbulent days in 2011 in Aleppo, Syria. Students and high school students took to the streets en masse to demonstrate against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The peaceful

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Tobal is of Syrian descent. He says he has no affinity for war, but war does have a special connection with him. That's why much of his (theater) work is about it, like the film Jungle, for which he won a Golden Calf in 2017 along with fellow actor Majd Mardo.

For Children of Aleppo, he searched for refugee students who experienced the failed Syrian revolution from the inside. Through the Foundation for Refugee Students (UAF), he connected with Heba Alibrahim (21), a psychology student at VU Amsterdam, among others. When Alibrahim received the email asking if she wanted to participate, she didn't hesitate. "The first question people always ask me is: What did you experience? I get that. People are curious. What's it like when your country is destroyed? Well, it's very intense. But that war and everything that came afterward made me stronger. And I don't want to hide that, so I keep telling my story."

She spent many hours talking with Tobal, whom she hadn't known before. But the UAF had described him as a "great talent." "The first time we met, he brought me flowers. That was so sweet. Then I met the others who told George their stories. We'd sit in a café and talk for hours, trying to get a good sense of what that time was like." Alibrahim's story and that of the other refugees inspired Tobal to write his text.

This one is emphatically not about stories of escape, but about the time before. About the absurdity of a revolution and how it can completely disrupt the lives of young people, often still children. Alibrahim: "I was still in high school. Suddenly, some friends started demonstrating after school. Along with others I didn't know at all. I joined in, but I didn't understand anything. I had no idea what freedom actually meant or why we were demonstrating. So I started asking questions, and that's when I learned about our country's history. That we didn't have a democracy, only dictators. That people didn't dare speak up about it because demonstrating was tantamount to disappearing. That was the case in 2011, but also long before that, when Assad's father was still in power."

Suddenly, everything in her young life had changed. "From one day to the next, the streets were no longer a place to play, but a place to form opinions and demonstrate." What had initially been curiosity and a bit of excitement quickly became a dire necessity. She hid the demonstrations from her parents, not wanting to worry them. "Students were regularly shot. Many people disappeared overnight during that time, never to be seen again. The government had seen how the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia had gone and started arming itself against us. We had nothing."

Ultimately, it became too dangerous, and she fled the country with her family. Yet, she remains hopeful that she can one day return to her roots. "There are only pebbles there now. But I have hope that we can make something beautiful again, someday." Until then, she will continue to tell her story.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/verhalen-van-studenten-uit-het-voorgeborchte-van-de-hel-de-monoloog-kinderen-van-aleppo~bc04ab4b/

Demonstrations erupted into a horrific civil war. What went wrong?