Samer Hanna takes his Lebanese Musical to the Carthage theater festival

In the lobby of the Monnot theater in Beirut, where he came to join Josyane Boulos, the director of the premises and incidentally “his” actress, we meet Samer Hanna in full emotional turmoil on the eve of his departure for Tunisia. Between happiness, excitement and apprehensions… The young author, actor, director and producer of musical comedies, barely thirty years old, can’t believe his play Tnein Car Leil (Two in the night) selected in official competition at the Carthage Theater Days, the 25th edition of which takes place this year from November 22 to 30. And if he says he is “very honored to represent Lebanon in this prestigious theater festival, and very proud to carry the creativity and resilience of its artists internationally despite everything it is going through”, he admits above all, feel “gratitude for this recognition of my work which I did not even dare to dream of. It was my choreographer, Romario Akiki, who sent the file. Personally, I didn’t believe it at all, convinced that this somewhat experimental work, written and produced in a fairly short period of time, could not interest this festival which selects the most important productions from the Arab and African artistic scenes.

A depressive, his neighbor and his mother

And for good reason, his piece, which will be presented there on November 28 “in official competition”, is a musical in the form of an intimate closed session with only three characters. The plot features a depressed young man preparing to end his life and who sees the arrival, shortly before the fateful moment, of his neighbor, an extroverted and intrusive young woman, as well as his mother, with a cold and distant personality. .

“Tnein Bil Leil”, the poster for the show in official competition at the 25th Carthage International Festival. Photo DR

” In Tnein Car Leilas always in Samer Hanna’s shows, beneath the lightness, there is a psychological approach full of subtlety,” underlines Josyane Boulos who plays the role of the mother. “The characters are well portrayed and the storyline conveys a very beautiful message of tolerance, inclusiveness, acceptance of others and of oneself. » “There is also the recurring idea for me that hope springs from where we did not expect it”, adds for his part the young man who declares that he is inspired by the things of life and the various situations that go through his daily life.

Dalida hummed in the shower

In another life, Samer Hanna would have liked to be a musician, a pianist more precisely. “Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to learn to play the piano during my childhood,” he regrets. On the other hand, he grew up in music, fed on the hits of the eighties, those of Abba, which his parents listened to over and over. As a result, the just thirty-year-old is now a subscriber to Nostalgie and Light FM radio. Fan of Dalida also and above all, of whom he sang this very morning in the shower “The comedy is over”, he reveals with a big smile. A title that does not at all fit the reality of this rising talent in Lebanese-style musicals. A multidisciplinary artist who, after a degree in business management and a panic attack upon learning of his hiring in a major local bank, turned to stage and theater studies at the Lebanese University. “With no other motivation at the start than notoriety, stardom, what could a career as a good-looking actor bring me,” he confides to The Orient-The Day, with disarming sincerity.

“There is the recurring idea for me that hope springs from where we least expect it”

Except that upon contact with the great pieces of the theatrical repertoire, he very quickly got into the game. Before becoming passionate about music, “discovered during the Covid confinement thanks to free broadcasts of the entire Broadway catalog”, and deciding to tackle it too.

However, he will have to face the lack of enthusiasm shown by his teachers who are more inclined to favor classical tragedies, the theater of the absurd and plays with a more intellectualizing register. “While, personally, I wanted to introduce music, singing and dance into my theater to offer the public popular and contemporary entertainment, as a breath of freshness in their difficult reality. »

Introspection, songs and a group of friends

Only Betty Taoutel, who then taught at UL, encouraged him. She will be his mentor for his diploma project West Miaa Lebanese adaptation of the extremely famous Oh mama. It was such a success that the show was presented on the stage of the al-Madina theater. This same scene where Samer Hanna will take his first official steps as an author, actor, director and producer of Musicals just a few months later with Hala3, The Musical (Panic) in 2021. He enlists, once again, his twenty college friends. Because the young man who confesses a touch of narcissism and a shyness which sometimes paralyzes his exchanges, is paradoxically one of those who cultivate friendship as a group. The one he trained during his years of theater studies at the Lebanese University has since been involved in all his productions. “Without them, without them, nothing would have been possible,” affirms in all modesty the actor who, between two roles in plays and television series, enjoys writing his own musical comedies.

This will follow in 2023, Yen3ad 3leyna – The Musical (Best wishes), a story of a family reunion, always with a Lebanese flavor. And in January 2024, Tnein Car Leilwhose 33 performances in the small Act room of the Théâtre Monnot will be furiously applauded.

Where can we place Samer Hanna today, in the restricted Lebanese Musical industry? Halfway through Roy el-Khouri and his adaptations of the great Broadway shows in Arabic (Chicago Bil Arabs) and the theater of Georges Khabbaz, “with plays closer to the land than mine and more denouncing in songs the ills of Lebanese society”.

His own theater is more focused on introspection, intimate situations brushed with local sauce, and which are at the same time universal: friendly relationships, romantic relationships, family ties, sometimes discomfort, the difficulty in finding one’s place… And then even if the songs come from a melting pot of Western rhythms, very pop-eighties, their lyrics readapted to the dialect and the current Lebanese context give the piece a contemporaneity specific to the Lebanese of the new generation.

A “Paradisco” to come

About the 1980s, his very latest creation entitled Paradisco“a total homage to the eighties”, should have been on the bill at the Monnot theater this November. Postponed due to the situation, the young artist who had invested a lot in this production – where he brought together his entire troupe again – was starting to feel depressed, he admits. The unexpected news of his invitation to the Carthage festival gave him hope. This hope anchored at the heart of all his work. And which makes him dream again “of a future in a peaceful Lebanon, where I will continue to create, to play, to offer joy and entertainment to the public while presenting my plays abroad”, declares regaillardi the one whose motto is: “Be kind and be courageous.” »