Saturday 23 September

🏢 Venue: Studio A, Spazju Kreattiv 💰 Cost: 15€ ⏰ 20:00

We Are All Sabir is a free-form long-form improvised show that makes the most of common grounds to promote cultural diversity thanks to the power of improvisational theatre. The main aim of the SABIR project is to stage improvisation shows that can contribute to the promotion of intercultural dialogue, taking as a starting point the potential offered by this performing art on a cultural and artistic level. The show tackles political, social and current issues in a spirit of understanding and dialogue between different cultures.

The show involves the audience from the very start, as spectators asked yes/no questions on political, ethical, religious and other topical issues. The questions are the key to the show and will decide the topic of that performance. The main goal of the questions is to provoke a reaction from the audience and push them to take a position (literally and figuratively). The performers will then take the chosen topic as inspiration for the show that is created on the spot.

Sabir Project – Sabir Project is a collective formed in 2016 and made up of 15 improvisers from 9 Mediterranean Countries: Italy, Turkey, Malta, Spain, France, Algeria, Greece and Tunisia. The improvisers will be using their mother tongue, reflecting the origin of the word Sabir, which is a term that denotes a Mediterranean Lingua Franca that was used in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th Century. For the performance that will be taking place as part of Improvizza! Malta Improv Festival, the languages used will be Italian, Maltese, Turkish, French, Spanish and English.

What Sabir wants to show is how difficult it is to say whether something is right or wrong, how difficult it is to take a position and how everyone has different perspectives and points of view and through empathy we try to show different versions of the stories that emerge in order to stimulate new questions in the audience’s mind and to improve awareness.

Even within the Sabir Collected itself there are strong difference, not just because they come from different countries but because they are from different generations, have different and diverse sexual preferences, are of different genders, have different lifestyles and religions, and do many different jobs. Some of them are married with children, others are students, others are corporate managers. However, one thing brings them together – experience in and a love of improvisational theatre. Through this show they explore the power of stories and have a social impact.

The Sabir Project under Improvizza! is promoted in collaboration with the International Festival of Improvised Arts Tolfama (Italy) and the Mahdia Improv Festival in Tunis (Tunisia) and is part-financed by the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA) within the Creative Europe Programme.