THE ADVENTURES OF A
HYPOTHETICAL SELF
2025
Yara Bou Nassar
Theater Neumarkt
Text/Direction: Yara Bou Nassar
Performance: Yara Bou Nassar | Elie Youssef
Music/Composition: Paed Conca
Drawings: Karen Keyrouz
Stageconcept: Laura Knüsel
Light: Martin Wigger
Outside Eye/Translation: Hayat Erdoğan
Dramaturgy Intern/Subtitles: Sylvie Robinson
What narratives do we construct around our dreams and disappointments when we decide to leave or return to our home country? How does the decision to stay or leave a place at a particular time shape the course of an entire life? In this autobiographical piece, Yara Bou Nassar explores the story of her parents, who commuted between Paris and Beirut during the war. She reflects on the circumstances of their return to Beirut in 1981, during a fleeting “peace” that ended abruptly within 24 hours. In this way, she questions the complexity of migration and the consequences of timing in decision-making. In her narrative, she intertwines her parents' earlier departure with the present reality in Beirut, incorporating collective exile, grief and unredeemed possibilities.