The voice of Aziz Chouaki comes off. The playwright franco-algerian died Tuesday at the age of 67 of a heart attack. He was the author of texts with a backdrop of islamic fundamentalism in his country of origin but also illegal migration. He was known for his plays The Star of Algiers , Oranges or Esperanz a.
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established in France since 1991, this son of teachers born in Tizi Rached who has done studies of English letters, had to leave Algeria because of threats from islamists. In the 1980s, «he signed every week in The New Hebdo a novel inspired by the rise of islamism. He was threatened of death and had to leave the country at the time,» recalls his wife.
«I believe that all writing follows a biography»
Since the writer in the French language, nourished with the juices of languages berber, Arabic, French has never ceased to deepen his style. A musician in his spare time, Aziz Chouaki knows a particular appeal for the classical forms of arab-andalusian music and jazz. «I believe that all writing follows a biography. In this case, my writing looks like me, if you will. She is arab, berber, anglo-saxon, French. From my culture of music, it is jazz, funk, contemporary, plastic. Now, the dramatic writing tightens up the word, because there is no question that, in a room. The actors speak. It is the word that builds the drama, î he told the magazine Diacritik last November.
● Oranges , Aziz Chouaki, 1997
A playwright committed
better known in France than in his country of origin, the author of more than forty books has followed with enthusiasm the challenge of algeria and the resignation on 2 April, under the combined pressure of the street and of the army, Abdelaziz Bouteflika after 20 years in power.
It was in France that his career took off, starting with Baya (1991), the monologue of a woman in Algeria post-colonial. Oranges (1997), which traces the history of Algeria from 1830 until the end of the 1990s, becoming a major text in the francophone theatre. He speaks of «the day when all the people of this land of Algeria will love as if like to oranges». And in his novel the Star of Algiers (2011), translated into several languages, the protagonist Moussa Massy dreams of becoming the Michael Jackson of Algeria before becoming islamist. His play Esperanza on the drama of illegal migrants is presented in Avignon in 2017. It will be played again in the festival of theatre and the performing arts, Avignon off in July of next year.