Where Culture and Coffee Collide: Tunis’ Etoile du Nord Theater

posted on: Apr 10, 2015

Described in the Lonely Planet Tunisia travel guide as “an underground thespian haunt… as boho as Tunis gets,” Tunis’ Etoile du Nord theater is a focal point for cultural life in the city. Founded in 2000 by Sonia Zarg Ayouna and Noureddine El Ati, the converted warehouse plays host to a theater and popular cafe frequented by a diverse – if predominantly young – clientele. Indeed, the theater has been the focus of international media attention, with the New York Times portraying it as “a cafe where the spirit of the Arab Spring lives on.”

Acknowledging the cafe’s somewhat subversive reputation, actress, director and company co-founder Sonia Zarg Ayouna was slightly more subdued in her assessment. “The New York Times article described the theater at a very specific time…We have a certain clientele – bloggers, the gay community, girls who want to sit here on their own without being harassed – who we know and who know us, but these days people meet, discuss, exchange ideas wherever they like, not just here.”

The atmosphere on the warm March afternoon Tunisia Live visited was suitably sedate, with many clients explaining that the cafe is simply a convenient place to work. Anwar, 29 and unemployed, Mohammed a 22 year-old IT student, and Sahar, a 27 year-old architect, met there to discuss a project, telling Tunisia Live: “It’s very calm here – it’s a good meeting space. It’s known for being a cultural center, but we just came here because it’s convenient.”

Two cafe regulars working together at Etoile du Nord cafe. Credit: Jennifer Ciochon, Tunisia Live.
Raja, a 28 year-old who owns her own beauty school, explained how she liked the fact that she could work without fear of harassment: “I know most of the people here, and if I have any problems I can talk to the waitress or the owner. It’s also a good place to come during Ramadan.”

As well as hosting the cafe, l’Etoile du Nord also remains an important cultural center, especially for Tunis’ theater scene. Despite the lack of a theater industry in Tunisia – audience numbers are chronically low and there are very few Tunisian playwrights – the company produces several free productions a year.

Around seventy percent of the theater’s income comes from the cafe; the rest is provided by the Ministry of Culture. Although public funding depends on the opinions of an independent panel – who subjectively assess a production’s quality – the theater does not need an official permit from the panel to perform plays, which was a requirement in the past. Nevertheless, financial aid is very modest, explaining the theater’s dependence on its cafe and its loyal clientele.

Although theater can often be seen as catering to an elite, Zarg Ayouna challenges the assumption that an appreciation of theater and the performing arts is necessarily tied to wealth: “The problem is that we conflate culture and leisure – of course when people are struggling ‘leisure’ is a luxury, I understand that, but culture shouldn’t be a luxury”

In addition to holding free performances given at the theatre – a practice l’Etoile du Nord is keen to maintain, despite the difficult economic climate – the company also endeavours to tour to regions where access to the arts – and particularly the dramatic arts – is scarce: “Places like Sidi Bouzid are impoverished both economically and culturally – culture is centred in Tunis, as it always has been. Everything is concentrated in the capital, and the rest is forgotten.”

Sonia Zarg Ayouna, co-owner of cafe Etoile du Nord. Credit: Jennifer Ciochon, Tunisia Live.
The content of the work presented by the theater is also an important part of its identity, with many of its productions pushing societal boundaries and taboos. Zarg Ayouna brings up a play several years ago about a topic unexplored and to her, ignored, in Tunisia: hermaphroditism.

“I think these days when people don’t talk about certain issues, it’s a form of self-censorship – they’re scared of moving away from entertainment and raising ideas that not everyone is comfortable with. I’m not here to persuade people about certain topics, but I want to create a discussion. ”

Indeed, despite widespread proliferation of social media and increased freedom of press, cultural transgressions can meet sometimes violent reactions in Tunisia. Recent examples include the much-publicized screening of (and subsequent backlash to) the Franco-Iranian film Persepolis, and even the censoring of the globally popular TV series Game of Thrones.

Polemics aside, it is hard not to become caught-up in the missionary verve of the theater’s intentions. Although it might not quite live up to its reputation as an underground revolutionary haunt, its ultimate mission – theater for the people – is compelling. Far from patronizing its audience, l’Etoile du Nord instead wishes to play a societal role by truly opening access to culture, an objective that few western theater companies succeed in contemplating, let alone realizing.

Zarg Ayouna therefore defines l’Etoile du Nord’s mission as an ultimately social one: “Someone who has never been exposed to culture – to art, to literature, to cinema, to theater – doesn’t feel a need for it. But they must be able to have a taste for it first – we have to open doors for them, offer culture to the world. People should be able to create their own modes of cultural expression.”

Source: www.tunisia-live.net