Lalaei

about

Sleep, sleep,
Give your sadness, your sufferings to me.
Sleep, sleep,
The dark night will pass.
Soon, my child,
The sun will drive away the winter cold.
Only your daddy,
Oh, if only he were here with me, with you.

In this unique collaborative project, the guitar quartet Zwerm and WALPURGIS together with percussionist Karen Willems, the Iranian singer Sarah Akbari, the English storyteller Marie Phillips and the Israeli director Raphael Rodan explore the darker side of the seemingly innocent songs that are sung all over the world to rock children to sleep. They do so by using a mythical tale from Ovidius' Metamorphoses: the story of Procne, queen, dutiful daughter, obedient wife, and loving mother. Until the day she discovers that her sister has suffered a terrible injustice…

The singing is in Turkish, Kurdish, Hebrew and Persian*
The spoken words are in English.

* as well as Mazandarani (Iranian language, spoken in northern Iran), Bakhtiari (an
Iranian dialect spoken in southwest Iran) and Qashqai (Turkish language that is related
to Azerbaijani) etc.

credits

production

Zwerm, WALPURGIS

coproduction

Klarafestival, DESINGEL

copresentation

Bozar

With the support of the Flemish Community and the City of Antwerp

image

© François Sarhan