PROJECT

I think I’m asking questions, but the questions are asking me.

A performance full of astonishment about the self and the other.
About looking for connections between things.
About being together or ‘not-being’ together.
A performance of ideas.
Cheerful, wild, questioning, fearful, short and long ideas.

In Salut Copain Dounia Mahammed uses language as a medium in which to philosophise, dream, draw, hesitate and question on stage. Inspired by the work of Daniil Charms and Paul Auster, among others, she creates a virtuoso solo on identity and difference. Dounia’s work is intended to tell us something about mankind and being human, and swings from wonder to despair.

Dounia Mahammed graduated with Salut Copain at drama, KASK in Ghent. In 2015 she won the Horlait-Dapsens Prize, and in the summer of 2016 she won the SABAM Youth Theatre Writing Prize at Theater Aan Zee in Ostend. In 2017 the solo got selected for Circuit X, which offers the opportunity to show the work of young theatre makers in cultural centres in Flanders and the Netherlands

Salut Copain was first performed for an audience at Gouvernement (Ghent) in the spring of 2015 (KASK Graduation Festival). In 2016 and 2017, it toured to Bâtard Festival, wpZimmer, Theater aan Zee (where Dounia received the SABAM Young Theatre Writing Prize), DE Studio, C-Mine, Recyclart, Vooruit, CC De Factorij and GC De Kriekelaar. In February 2017, Salut Copain was selected by Circuit X, which will organize a tour in cultural centres in Belgium and the Netherlands in the spring of 2018.

Extract from the KASK jury report: ‘Dounia is a lovely, disarming and sensitive actress. It is exceptional for anyone to be able to perform a solo piece that fills the whole space. A very special aspect of the performance is the way Dounia carries on a dialogue with herself, not only in terms of acting and dramaturgy, but also with herself as an actress. … She has found the perfect tone in which to capture Charms’ subversive spirit and incorporates this into very precise, physical acting. … The script itself also makes an impression, being both moving and full of humour.’