Sunday 29 November, Palestinian dancer, choreographer, and performer Marah Haj Hussein brings her award-winning solo performance Language: No Broblem to Alan Kadıköy as part of the 30th Istanbul Theatre Festival by IKSV. Crossing fluidly between contemporary dance, spoken word, and documentary theater, this incisive research-led piece examines how language functions as both a tool of political domination and an arena of quiet resistance. By dissecting the linguistic power dynamics embedded in everyday speech and institutional classification, the performance delivers an urgent, intellect-driven study of identity, displacement, and communication that marks one of the most compelling international solo works in this year’s festival lineup. Tickets are available via Passo.
Born in Kaddum, Palestine, and currently based in Antwerp, Marah Haj Hussein has established herself as a vital new voice across European performance spaces. She completed her studies in dance at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp before earning a master’s degree in drama at KASK in Ghent. Her multidisciplinary practice consistently operates at the intersection of movement and vocal mechanics, scrutinizing how historical power structures alter accent, dialect, and vocabulary. Her breakthrough work earned widespread critical acclaim, receiving the prestigious Roel Verniers Prize at Het Theaterfestival in 2023, followed by the award for Most Acclaimed Performance under 35 at the Sector Awards.
In Language: No Broblem, Haj Hussein centers the narrative on the subtle mechanics of linguistic survival, particularly focusing on how Arabic speakers navigate spaces dominated by Hebrew, English, and Dutch. The performance draws directly from lived experience and recorded testimonies, moving seamlessly between analytical humor, bodily tension, and phonetic exploration. Rather than treating multilingualism merely as a celebratory bridge, the work exposes how mother tongues are flattened, mispronounced, or forcibly adapted under geopolitical pressure.
Through a minimalist stage setup that relies heavily on physical precision and vocal rhythm, the piece invites audiences to reflect on the untranslatable dimensions of human experience. The resulting post-dramatic work offers a rare, rigorous inquiry into how bodies carry the weight of mother tongues across borders, confirming Haj Hussein’s standing as an exceptional creator pushing contemporary performance art into deeply reflective territory.
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