The stage is dark. But it moves easily from frustrating darkness to glaring light. And the transition between the acts is meant to be violent, marked as it is with resounding gunfire or uncompromising industrial electro beats. It’s difficult to give birth when obscurantism threatens movement towards the light. Even in full colour, the stage is not free. The characters are unpredictable. Their actions are uncompromising. And their choices are absurd. We are talking about The Polling Booth, a play directed by Naoufel Azara and Moez Gdiri and produced in 2010. Taoufik Jebali, born in 1944, provided the artistic direction and concept for this work. The scenography makes the stage look like a polling station, a reality show or a call centre. The visual universe of the play is created with a particular light-dark aesthetic. Even if the characters appear talkative, the place for the unsaid is conserved. Sometimes, it’s even the how and the why.

In The Polling Booth, fear of possible failure haunts the characters. As paralysing as it is motivating, this fear is the leitmotiv of their actions and reactions. Nevertheless, they each assert their difference, brandishing their dogmas like a series of reflections. In this way,...