“Who killed Youssef Beidas?” is an interactive installation that questions the expansion movement of capitalism through the cycles of failed romances. The performance reflects on the reality of the financial collapse in Lebanon today taking as a starting point the circumstances of the downfall of “Intra Bank” in 1966.

Biography:

Chrystèle Khodr is a theatre performer, writer and director based in Beirut. She studied theatre in the Institute of Fine Arts in Lebanese university and was trained in physical theatre at l’École Internationale de Théâtre LASSAAD Brussels– Jacques Lecoq pedagogy. 

Her work springs from the emergency to reconstitute the collective memory from personal stories. In her most recent projects, Chrystèle is increasingly concerned with the movement of history and its impact on time and narrativity as a basic formal dimension of theatre. 

Between 2009 and 2012, she has created small format plays and solos: “Bayt Byout, 2007 or How I smashed My Bubble Envelopes” and “Beirut Sepia”, all of which were shown in several festivals and venues in Lebanon, Egypt, France and Belgium. Her latest theatre production “Augurs” premiered in May 2021 in Beirut and is touring across Europe.

As part of her research cycle around economical speculation and its impact on theatrical narratives, she created the interactive installation “Who killed Youssef Beidas?” that opened in June 2022 in Beirut. The cycle includes her listening piece “Rise & Fall of Orient Swiss ǀ Bedtime stories”. 

She has collaborated and performed with several artists from multiple disciplines such as Zoukak Theatre, Waël Ali with whom she wrote and directed “Temporary Stay” and visual artist and set designer Bissane Al-Charif on the installation “I Once Entered a Garden”.

Chrystèle was awarded the “Ibsen Scope” to create an adaptation of the playwright’s text “The Pretenders, Ordalie” is to premiere in October 2023. 

Credits:

Concept: Chrystèle Khodr & Nadim Deaibes
Text and direction: Chrystèle Khodr
Set design: Nadim Deaibes
Sound design: Ziad Moukarzel
Graphic design: Philippa Dahrouj
Production coordinator: Walid Saliba

With the support of Al Mawred Culture Resource, Mophradat and Beirut Art Center.