Various Cities, Europe

Yahia Yaïch—Amnesia: Since its debut in Tunis in April 2010, the play Yahia Yaïch—Amnesia has begun touring major European festivals and houses. The production was created by Tunisia’s Familia Productions, the theatre and film company of actor/writer Jalila Baccar and director/designer Fadhel Jaïbi, a married couple who in 1976 were also among the founders of Tunisia’s first independent theatre company, Nouveau Théâtre.

Any play related to the Arab Spring might easily have piqued curiosities this year, but this play—presented in many cities under the truncated title Amnesia—is not only barefacedly political but, as it turns out, prophetic. Its plot concerns a despot who learns from TV reports that he has lost control of his nation. According to the program materials of Festival d’Avignon, where the show stopped over the summer, Familia’s last production (Corps otages) was blocked by Tunisian censors in 2008. Recall that the self-immolation of the Sidi Bouzid vegetable seller—which sparked a social-media wildfire and the uprisings that triggered the downfall of President Ben Ali—occurred about 12 months ago, and you can imagine how surprised those who attended the Tunis opening of Amnesia in early 2010 might have been to see what made it onto the stage.

Furthermore, Avignon’s organizers note this is no easy political parody: “Far from making a facile and direct denunciation, Jalila Baccar and Fadhel Jaïbi orchestrate a genuine tragedy about a despot who is suddenly dismissed, about a long-muzzled press that has a hard time getting rid of its cant and about a people with a numb conscience. Using to its best advantage a simple set, playing on the contrasts of black and white, the staging brings out the actors’ bodies and creates a constant movement around the fallen ruler, caught in the infernal spiral of incomprehension and denial, ground down by practices that he himself developed. There is no caricature in this in-depth analysis of a terrifying system in this presentation, not devoid of humor, of the mechanisms of power; in this attempt at understanding the phenomena of self-censorship, more terrible yet than official censorship.”

Those interested but outside the show’s touring orbit can turn to a body of information assembled online, including video snippets on the Festival d’Avignon website, along with the sites of such other recent tour stops: Berliner Festspiele, Festival de Almada and Piccolo Teatro di Milano. French-speakers can also read an extensive interview with the show’s creators on the Avignon site. In early 2012, the production will circle France, touching down in the cities of Amiens, Draguignan, Gap, La Roche-sur-Yon, Vannes and Cavaillon, and will play in Athens, Greece, in March. (Ongoing; (216) 71 333 018; www.tunicine.net)

Santiago, Chile

Festival Internacional de Teatro de Santiago a Mil: This giant event has an international program (25 shows from 15 countries) and a local showcase (28 Chilean companies plucked by a jury that collectively scoped out nearly 200 shows). Alongside a menu of street theatre and dance, major Chilean theatrical productions featured will include: La Pasionaria, a play about dreams of homeownership set in 1940s–’70s Chile by Malucha Pinto and the Colectivo Aracataca; El toro por las astas, directed by Alejandro Goic and written by Juan Radrigán, and another play, Mi Marilyn Monroe, also written and directed by Goic; plus productions of Miss Julie and Waiting for Godot directed, respectively, by Cristián Plana and Raúl Osorio. The festival will host three premieres co-produced by Santiago a Mil Foundation: Villa Fuenteovejuna, a modernized Lope de Vega adaptation co-directed by Paula Aros and Héctor Noguera; La victoria de Víctor, inspired by the life of the musician Victor Jara, who was killed during the Pinochet dictatorship; and Sobre la cuerda floja, by the puppet company Teatro Milagros. Among the international attractions are Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil with the sweeping Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir (Survivors of the Mad Hope), as well as a focus on Latin America with a program of eight shows from Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. (Jan. 3–22; (56) 2-925-03-00; www.stgoamil.cl)

Sydney, Australia

Gross Und Klein (Big and Small): First let’s dispense with the crucial who’s-who: Major German playwright Botho Strauss’s surreal 1978 script has been reincarnated with new English text from major British playwright Martin Crimp. In September, top French director Luc Bondy left the production to convalesce from an unexpected operation (a pity, since this would have completed his mission to direct all of Strauss’s plays) and top Australian director Benedict Andrews has taken the helm. And yes, those superstar-sculpted cheekbones in the publicity image belong to Cate Blanchett, who runs Sydney Theatre Company along with her husband, Andrew Upton. In the role of the displaced, disconnected, socially awkward Lotte, Blanchett headlines the cast of Gross Und Klein, which will tour to its co-producing European festivals and theatres—including Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Théâtre de la Ville Paris and the Wiener Festwochen—in the coming year. (Through Dec. 23; (61)2-9250-1777; www.sydneytheatre.com.au)

Oslo, Norway

A Dance Tribute to Ping Pong: In December 2009, we reported in this column that Jo Strømgren Kompani had revived and was touring its late-’90s sensation A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football. Last month at the Festival Automne en Normandie, the Scandivanian dance troupe debuted a new show, about another sport with a passionate following: table tennis. According to the company, this production was conceived around the same time as the soccer show, which was a “shoestring” production never expected to have such longevity: “The new production maintains a fearless approach to popular culture references and represents the more pure dance style of the company. In addition, puppet theatre is particularly present this time, along with a voiceover in badly spoken English. The show’s storyboard have deliberate similarities to the average American B-film script—a team of bleach-white youngsters are taught Eastern philosophy in record time and take ping pong to a transcendental level.” Karate Kid meets avant-garde kineticism? Sounds like a concept that could bounce around the world’s presenting houses for some time to come after a run at home in Oslo this month. (Dec. 1-7; (47) 22460459; www.jskompani.no)