Language: no broblem | Spectacle

What?

In the performance “Language: no broblem,” artist Marah Haj Hussein moves between Palestinian Arabic, Hebrew, Dutch, and English, exploring multilingualism as both a personal and a political experience. Here, language becomes more than just a tool for communication – it can define belonging, draw boundaries, and build community, but it can also subjugate, supplant, and transform other languages.

The story begins with a seemingly ordinary train journey through Belgium and a series of unexpected encounters. The performer’s personal story is interwoven with recordings of her family members living in Palestine. They talk about their relationship with Palestinian Arabic – the language they speak every day – and Hebrew, the official language of the country where they live. From these stories emerges a narrative about the process by which the dominant language gradually begins to transform the language of the subordinate community.

Haj Hussein combines storytelling with movement, sound, and image, and political analysis with humor, anger, tenderness, and absurdity. She is particularly interested in what cannot be easily translated from one language to another – the places where translation ceases to be transparent, revealing differences in experience and power dynamics. The theater becomes a space where conflicting languages and realities can meet without having to be homogenized.

After the performance, we invite you to a gathering and a circle discussion. You’ll have the opportunity to share your thoughts and emotions sparked by the event, but it will be just as important to listen to the experiences and perspectives of others. Facilitators from the New Community Foundation will ensure that the meeting proceeds smoothly and that the atmosphere is one of solidarity and appreciation for diversity.

Who?

Marah Haj Hussein – born in 1998, a dancer, actress, and artist originally from Kafr Jasif in Palestine, currently living and working in Antwerp. She combines theater and dance, deliberately blurring the line between text and movement. In her artistic practice, she explores power relations between languages in colonial contexts, as well as the ways in which colonialism is inscribed in the body and its language.

For “Language: no broblem,” she received the Roel Verniers Prize from Het TheaterFestival in 2023, and in 2025, she won the industry award for the most acclaimed production by artists under 35.

Concept and performance: Marah Haj Hussein
Dramaturgy: Krystel Khoury
Sound design: Anton Lambert
Music and composition: Verena Rizzo
Projection mapping and technical production: Koen de Saeger
Set design and textiles: Agnese Forlani
Set decoration: Mohamed Sultan
Lighting design: Pol Seif
Co-production: Monty
Curator of the performance program at the Łódź Festival of Many Cultures: Agata Siwiak
Production: Magdalena Maria Małowska (Łódź Festival of Many Cultures)

The New Community Foundation (Fundacja Nowej Wspólnoty) – an organization that has been active since 2020, working to bridge divides and strengthen community in Poland. It brings together people from different generations, backgrounds, and worldviews through its activities, which include Community Dialogues, Good Conversation Workshops, and Local Conversation Courses.

Special thanks to Tomasz Kireńczuk for his expert consultation on Palestinian theater and dance

For Whom?

“Language: no broblem” is aimed at people interested in theater and performance, as well as language, multiculturalism, migration, the Palestinian experience, and the social and political consequences of living among several languages. The performance may be of particular interest to those who have personal experience with multilingualism – those moments when switching languages means not only using different words, but also changing the way one functions, relates to one’s surroundings, or positions oneself in relation to others. However, you don’t need to know Arabic, Hebrew, or Dutch to engage with this story.

Why is it worth it?

“Language: no problem” addresses one of the central questions of the Łódź of Many Cultures Festival – what does it actually mean to live together when not all of us speak the same language—and when the languages we speak do not have the same social and political standing?

Marah Haj Hussein shows that multilingualism is not always a harmonious encounter between cultures. Languages carry memory, identity, and a sense of belonging, but they also operate within specific power dynamics. One may be the language of home and family, while another is the language of the state, government offices, or institutions; one may be suppressed, while the other becomes a prerequisite for full participation in social life. In the Palestinian artist’s experience, the question of language cannot therefore be separated from questions of borders, migration, and the right to one’s own identity.

This is a particularly important perspective for the Łódź Multicultural Festival. After all, multiculturalism doesn’t just mean celebrating the diversity of languages, but also examining the relationships between them – which voices we hear most clearly, which ones are often silenced, and what we lose when we expect that everything can be translated without loss. “Language: no broblem” remains a deeply personal, performative experience – full of humor, emotion, and absurdity – thanks to which major political questions resurface in the gestures of everyday life, in the words we use to express ourselves and understand others.

Availability

The performance is presented in four languages: Arabic, Hebrew, English, and Dutch. It will be translated into Polish.

The event takes place at the Dialogue Center in the theater and cinema hall, which is equipped with an induction loop. The Dialogue Center building is accessible to people with mobility impairments. It has wide, non-automatic entrance doors, an accessible restroom, and an elevator. The theater hall is located on the ground floor and has a ramp; the auditorium includes spaces for people in wheelchairs. There is a large parking lot in front of the building with designated parking spaces for people with disabilities. Assistance dogs and guide dogs are permitted inside the building and the auditorium. The building is equipped with the ToTuPoint audio navigation system. The entrance to the parking lot is on Wojska Polskiego Street. Nearby are the following bus and tram stops: Wojska Polskiego/Centrum Dialogu and Wojska Polskiego/Sporna.

Photos

Marah Haj Hussein, photo by Boris Breugel, press materials