One Minute World Arts- Across the Continent- A Journey of Hope

Across the Continent- A Journey of Hope

Remember we shared a post about Little Amal, a 3.5-meter-tall puppet with the identity of a 9-year-old refugee girl created for an ambitious theatre project, last October? The project, The Walk, was initiated by the London-based theatre company Good Chance, which envisioned Amal’s intercontinental journey from Syria to Manchester in search of her mother. Amal, whose name means “hope” in Arabic, was built by the world-renowned puppet company, Handspring, the very same creative team that made Joey, the beloved horse in the National Theatre’s production of the play War Horse. Her 8000 km trek, via Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France and finally the UK, started in July 2021 after a postponement caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and has eventually ended in November with celebrations and acclaims.

Amal has received all kinds of hospitality in this long trip, including meeting Joey the War Horse at London’s National Theatre. Her “walk” has highlighted the potential of refugees, and also re-written the narrative about them. As Good Chance states on their website: “At this time of unprecedented global change, The Walk is an extraordinary artistic response: a cultural odyssey transcending borders, politics and language to tell a new story of shared humanity.”

 

橫跨歐陸- 「#希望」之旅

還記得去年十月的貼文裡，我們曾經報導過一尊高達三點五公尺的人型戲偶「#小阿默」嗎？名字原義為阿拉伯語「希望」之意的小阿默，是由倫敦「#好時機」(Good Chance)劇團發想，以一名九歲難民女孩為原型，邀請全球知名的偶戲製作公司「#妙手生春」(Handspring)創意團隊所打造的（該團隊也曾與倫敦國家劇院聯手製作出名劇《#戰馬》中如同真馬尺寸的馬偶「喬伊」）；故事裡的她，為了尋找失散的母親，必須長途跋涉，跨越歐洲大陸，從敘利亞走到曼徹斯特，完成一回長達八千公里、名曰「#行走計畫」(The Walk)的行動藝術。礙於疫情，小阿默在耽擱了一段時間後，終於在今年七月啟動出發，途經土耳其、希臘、義大利、瑞士、德國、比利時和法國等國，最後抵達終點站英國；整趟行程總計駐足了8個國家，65座城市，並於十一月在一片歡慶讚頌聲中劃下句點。

小阿默所到之處，備受禮遇；甚至在她參訪倫敦國家劇院時，「師出同門」的戰馬喬伊也被請出來，與她來個相見歡。她的「行走計畫」凸顯了難民的耐力和潛力，同時也改寫了人們描述、談論難民經歷的方式。誠如「好時機」團隊於其官網所言：「值此世界巨變之際，小阿默的行走計畫正是以藝術性的作為，來回應這些前所未見的變動；這趟文化旅程不只跨越了 #國界、#政治 和 #語言 的藩籬，而且也訴說了一個關於人性共相的故事。」

 

Sources: https://www.walkwithamal.org/ 、 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59092059​

Photo Credit: Hakan Akgun、Ciro Fusco /EPA、Anadolu Agency、BBC、David Levene/ The Guardian