After his uninterrupted success stories, writer, actor, and director Joe Kodeih made his way once again overseas, taming dissimilar audiences, in one hour and a half of non-stop performance.
Flying from one country to another, Joe made sure to put in his luggage energy, humor, and criticism. And, just as sacred as a personal trip, he stepped on stage, leaving a bit of his dearest Beirut in every place he has been to and person he has seen.
Joe's evasion happens on stage, when his silence communicates with the audience, before he speaks and moves from neutrality to interaction. It just feels like theater and real life are one. His characters' thoughts, way of speaking, moving, reacting are all in him... Play or reality? Stories and happenings naturally follow. Joe Kodeih gives bodies to his words. He, himself, his thoughts, his mask, and his characters are one.
Whether in Paris, Luxembourg, or in Abu Dhabi, he carries all spectators on a flying carpet, all the way to Beirut. Laughter pushes him forward, as he lightly moves from one place to another, accompanying his audience to Sushi restaurants, nightclubs and bars, airports, and homes... All those rich panoramas are reflected on stage through one sole actor in black, with no ornaments but one single chair.
Despite his externally lawless spirit, his performance abides by strong disciplined art and training, involving both taught aptitude and impulsive talent. Absorbed by his characters, he drags every person into another place and moves ahead to others' emotions.
With an accurate sense of humor, Joe meticulously draws his stars, paints their emotions, and then, with his very own actor's breath, he brings them to life... What's more? After touring the world with his sharp eyes, critic jokes, yet sensitive understanding, Joe comes back to his roots, finding back his same give 'n take energy at his same source and place of beginning. "What should I do with these hands?" keeps on asking Joe, as he goes on stage for his new play " Le JoCON." He invites the audience to his private session at the psychiatrist's, from the beginning of his very own conception, to his last trip to Paris that he shares with his non-stop giggling spectators... until we get to meet his Mona Lisa.
Enchantés! The JoCON disorder simply reflects through the actor's performance, as his hands are no longer in the spotlight; they become an extension of a whole entity, one body and soul actor, who smoothly reveals gentleman's culture and hooligan's troublemaking, joyful dynamism and desperate sickness on the doctor's armchair, "tolerable" taboo statements and daring declarations, as well as eloquent words of silence.
As he highlights La Fontaine's "The Wolf and the Lamb," Joe's acting proves that the right of the stronger isn't always the better, since he makes each and everyone's weak voice heard... Moreover, he turns misadventures and heavy experiences into fun souvenirs, as light and subtle as a Joe's jokes can be... Besides, he puts his audience in his luggage filled with Lebanese scents and thyme; he flies everyone to Paris, the city of culture and lights, as he highlights its stereotypes in his funny line of attack. "Café des deux magots," "Père Lachaise cemetery," "Champs Elysés," "Pigalle..." we're simply there, in a glimpse of a fading rêverie, in harmony with the actor's swift movements. "Sous le ciel de Paris" and all the way to his stage, Mona, and Lisa (and "Elodie") bow down. Standing ovation. -by Marie-Christine Tayah.
Source:800lifestyle.com
