“When I was still living in Iraq, I mainly took my inspiration from Western dramatic literature. I never started from my own surroundings. Now that I live and work in Belgium, it’s the opposite: here I start from my own Iraqi background, culture and atmosphere. I try to articulate these two movements in my work now. I am searching for new codes and signals that do not simply refer to my Iraqi background alone, because then the audience in Belgium would drop off. My goal is a universal language, which is why I start from the physical and the visual. That’s very legible.”

In reference to Iraqi Ghosts (Irakese geesten), he said of his favourite working procedure: “Improvisation is an important part of the rehearsal process. I provide the concept, the general direction and the atmosphere. I try to outline the course for each actor, but I am very interested in the personal stories of my actors. I give them a few words as a point of departure. My first question to the actors here was: What does war mean to you? The two Iraqi actors had experienced war, but the actresses hadn’t. That created a tension, which I also used. For the Iraqi actors, it wasn’t a difficult question: everything was there, the emotions, the memories. The actresses, however, wanted to acquire more information, read up on it. But that’s not what I’m interested in; what interests me is the personal story. To learn about the background of a war, you can find everything you want to know on Google. People who haven’t experienced war might be able to visualize it better. They start from the imagination. I’m not interested in literally showing war. I wanted to make a kind of dream.”

All these lines come together in Romeo & Julia (Romeo and Juliet) that Mokhallad is currently working on. The premier is set for 18 April. Shakespeare’s play is an icon of Western dramatic literature, to say the least. But don’t expect any straightforward text theatre from Rasem. Romeo & Julia also starts from questions and improvisations. Questions about love, naturally, that crazy little thing called love… but also improvisations about love by actors and performers Gilda De Bal, Vic De Wachter, Eleanor Campbell, José Paulo dos Santos and two children, who alternatingly are Daan Roofthooft, Mona Staut, Nathan Van den Broeck, Luna Rous, Janten Versteele and Ivana Batchvarov. Meanwhile, after the first few weeks of rehearsal this has resulted in very beautiful and varied scenes that constantly put the audience on the wrong track. To be continued…