“I don’t wish to speak to you, but I do want you to listen – even though I know no good can come of it. Actually, I would prefer not to talk at all. I’ve grown tired of talking to people who grow tired of listening to me. There’s a Persian saying that goes: If this voice is my voice and that ear is your ear, my words will never reach their destination.”

— SAID REZA ADIB

The Voice of Fingers

ROBIN / 2023

Concept & text Reza Adib, Thomas Bellinck Directing Thomas Bellinck Performance Musia Mwankumi/Manizja Kouhestani, Jeroen Van Der Ven Dramaturgy Reza Adib, Esther Severi Costumes Rachid Laachir Language coach Elizabeth Morrison Light design Janneke Donkersloot, Stef Stessel Pictures Studio Pramudiya / Nathan Ishar Production management & Surtitles Marte Van Hassel Scenography Mirjam Pleines, Stef Stessel Set construction Kopspel, Jolan Moonen Technique Pieter-Jan Buelens, Arthur De Vuyst, Janneke Donkersloot Text correction & Translation Mahdieh Fahimi, Jodie Hruby, Ulrike Syha, Sarah Van Camp Video Léna Iloo Voices Reza Adib, Sajjad Hosseini, Fatima Mousavi

For several years now, theatre-maker Thomas Bellinck and journalist Reza Adib have been working together long-distance. This distance is not a choice, but the result of a border regime that facilitates the international movement of one of them and obstructs that of the other. A journey that takes one of them eight hours, takes the other eight years. Since it is nearly impossible for Thomas and Reza to share the same stage, they’ve written a highly personal text for two performers. From the ridges and grooves that criss-cross the skin of their fingertips, they zoom out. To a world where skin patterns unlock laptops. And where fingers are commandeered by governments as measuring instruments - to determine who is welcome where.

Production by ROBIN Coproduced by Theater Antigone, Arsenaal/Lazarus, Münchner Kammerspiele, Spielart With the support of Kaaitheater, Kask / School Of Arts Of The University College Gent and the Flemish Government