Exhibit A

Sihame Haddioui, mise en scène Ilyas Mettioui

Live performance

Théâtre Massenet, Lille Fives
1h
Pass Latitudes

Somewhere between a stand-up routine and a family investigation, Exhibit A is a written performance during which Sihame Haddioui evokes the pain which courses through her body, tracing back to her familial and political roots.

“My white pals inherit sums of money whereas I inherited heavy legs and my grandmother’s support stockings.” A Belgian comedian and politically engaged person, Sihame Haddioui sits at a table, with her computer and a few prescription boxes. We do not hear her voice: it is through written words that she runs her investigation. From one significant lead to another, she tries to understand how pain manifests in movements, touches and signs of love in her body, in her family. Through anecdotes, memories, and pharmacy prescriptions, she places her body into the history of the working class, where only symptoms are treated – because in order to stop the pain it would be necessary to never have worked in these painful professions. A joyful trial, tender and affirmative which tells us how the results of capitalist, patriarchal and colonial oppressions are all engraved into our flesh.

Accessibility disclaimer :

→ the whole show relies on written text in french

Biography(s)

Sihame Haddioui is a Brussels-based artist and writer whose practice emerges at the intersection of stand-up, documentary storytelling, and political inquiry. Former Alderwoman for Culture, Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities in Schaerbeek (Brussels), she brings together artistic creation and social engagement in a continuous movement between the intimate and the structural.
Before entering the performing arts, she worked as a production laborer in the pharmaceutical industry and contributed as a radio columnist for Pure FM (now Tipik, RTBF) and Arabel. She began her theatre journey with the collective Scène d’up (Abdel en vrai, 2011–2015) and the association Ras El Hanout (381 jours, 2013), and co-wrote the play L’amour est dans le blé, directed by Ismael Saïdi (2015).
A member of Transfocollect, she co-created and performed in several hybrid, collaborative stage works: Lone Wolves(Haider Al Timimi, Het TheaterFestival, 2017), Bal Mosquee (Kloppend Hert, Ghent), Trigger of Happiness (Ana Borralho & João Galante, 2018), Penguins and the End of the World (Transfocollect, 2018).
In 2018, she launched her first artistic research project, Stigmate, exploring speculative-utopian democracies in a staging by Esther Gouarné (Citylab Pianofabriek).
She is currently completing her first literary essay, Rendre Corps, conceived as a companion piece to her performance Exhibit A, forthcoming from Les Liens qui Libèrent (Paris).
Ilyas Mettioui is a Brussels-based artist whose work is driven by encounters, interdisciplinarity, and the dismantling of formal boundaries. His artistic practice is rooted in collective processes, bringing together performers from diverse backgrounds to explore shared narratives through hybrid and collaborative dramaturgies.
In 2022, he wrote and directed Knokke-Le-Zoute, the first part of the diptych Écume. The piece follows a young woman confronted with the simultaneous arrival of an unknown father’s death and the emergence of new life within her body — two events that provoke a deep questioning of destiny, choice and agency. Seven performers collectively navigate these questions on stage.
In 2020, he wrote and directed Ouragan, later presented at Théâtre des Doms during the 2021 Avignon season. The play recounts a surreal, initiatory night in the life of Abdeslam, a bicycle delivery worker facing the invisible violence of the urban landscape and the weight of social determinism.
As a writer, actor, director and occasional choreographer, Ilyas has also performed in productions by other directors, including Pericolo felice by Tiago Rodrigues; Peter Wendy Le temps les Autres; La cour des grands by Cathy Min Yung; and La vie c’est comme un arbre by Mohamed Allouchi, among others.

Credits

Écriture et performance : Sihame Haddioui

Mise en scène : Ilyas Mettioui

Scénographie : Micha Morasse

Lumière : Lou Van Egmond

Régie générale : Gleb Panteleef

Regard dramaturgique : Ilyas Mettioui

Assistance à la mise en scène : Clara Bellemans Moya

Stagiaire : Babette Verbeeck

Regard extérieur : Adeline Rosenstein.

Une coproduction des Halles de Schaerbeek, le Festival Latitudes Contemporaines, en partenariat avec le Rideau de Bruxelles et de l’Atelier 210.
Avec l’aide de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.