Ken Fi Asfour Aal Chajra

THERE WAS A BIRD ON A TREE Ken Fi Asfour Aal Chajra is based on the book of the nursery rhymes collection published by Dar Onboz in which Najla Jreissati Khoury gathered over 400 rhymes in a period of 30 years from all over Lebanon. It is the story of a Lebanese teta/grandmother who sleeps a lot and wakes up to plant strange seeds. With each seed grows a nursery rhyme during her sleep. It is her story and the story of so many Lebanese grandmothers who collect memories from our oral tradition which sometimes fly with clouds or continue with the younger ones or maybe are put in a book. A poetic piece full of magical tender moments where rhymes become flowers, leaves on trees, written in dust on windows, drawn on blackboards...Rhymes that evoke our childhood, our street games, our teasing skits, our tongue twisters, our ways of loving. With each new audience these dormant rhymes come to life and are retransmitted from one person to another. This play tours in theaters, public spaces, gardens, roof tops, and was presented more than 150 times all over Lebanon. This puppet performance was created at the request of the publisher Dar Onboz for the Arabic Bookfair in Beyrouth, with the support of the Heinrich Böll foundation.