Le "Fou" de Taoufik Jebali : why it is a masterpiece ?

If the great Lebanese artist and poet Gibran Khalil Gibran were to wake up in his grave, he would certainly say that Taoufik Jebali, on Mai 18, 2026, with his entire team of actors and technicians, did a remarkable job interpreting his masterpiece "Le Fou" (Al Majnoun) presenting it with an intelligent set design, varied and well-oiled melodies.

Indeed, the live performance that took place in the El Teatro space was a textual force resonating in all corners of the stage with Taoufik Jebali's gravelly, dense voice and his ironic tone.

This 26-year-old play is a work in progress. In yesterday's performance, Taoufik Jebali added effects to multiply the imaginary characters.

"Le fou", in fact, has been evolving for more than two decades and has now reached the stage of a masterpiece on both the Arab and even global scale. The success of the play "Le Fou" is mainly explained by the fact that it is a play rooted in Arab culture.

"Le Fou" combines eroticism, piety, and rationalism. Taoufik Jebali has skillfully managed to blend these three ingredients.

Also, the scenes of Gibran Khalil were adorned with stage canvases made by Taoufik Jebali. The audience, during an hour and a half of intense and very physical performance by the actors, was kept on the edge of their seats and glued to their chairs, stunned by the modernity of the scenographic techniques used, the strength and intensity of this artistic feat.

In this perspective, Taoufik Jebali describes his show as follows: "The technology used in the performance does not rely on any complex technology, contrary to what it may seem, but simply on an ordinary projector, without holograms or similar." Moreover, this work was presented in its first version in 2000, and the current reprise is the fifth. […] Each person perceives art in a different way, influenced by their experiences, preferences, and cultural background."

As with previous performances, the audience flocked to "The Madman" because it is not always available and they wanted to see a show that the entire dramatic arts community couldn't stop talking about.

Objectively, it is a work of genius whose performance is characterized by fidelity to Gibran's text. Khalil Gibran and everything else, these are small dramas without words, non-verbal, rhythmic, symbolic, dreamlike, and even sensual. The ambient music is made with breathtaking percussion that carries the spectator into a world that is both internal and external.

The play, "Le Fou", requires the actors' full commitment

The hour and a half of play was for all the actors almost a full physical training session, there was a constant demand for energy and intellectual presence. Apart from a quarter of an hour of reading Gibran's texts at the very beginning of the play, the rest is mime coupled with percussion and staging that employs subliminal technology.

This technology has a great stage resonance and it fits into the alchemy of movements, helping the actors in their quest to occupy the space. The latter play in service of the main character: the director, namely Taoufik Jebali.

Indeed, the actors' performance is at the service of the director : the true main actor of "Le Fou." He is present thru his absence. We only listen to his voice expressing his torments, pain, madness, ignorance, wounds, sorrow, incapacities, frustrations, misunderstanding of the tormented reality, and finalty his strangeness to this world.

The quartet on stage, namely Yasmine Dimassi, Amel Laouini, Amina Bdiri, and Marwen Errouine, were in a subliminal and dreamlike alchemy.

For the audience, in a dimly lit and dark atmosphere, it was almost like witnessing a performance that straddled the line between dream and nightmare.

An actor's playing field in the desirable

On stage, Taoufik Jebali's actors play hide-and-seek with the audience.

These are actors who first make themselves desirable and then offer themselves to the audience; something never seen before.

In other words, they become rare and most often hide behind an impenetrable veil.

Sometimes, the spectators only notice the head, at other times the feet, the hands, the face, the mouvement from shadows or behind a ball of fire. They act in the dark at major moments.

At other times, they perform at the back of the stage behind a curtain with lighting that only shows their shadows and a only part of their body.

We also see them in a black box, but slightly transparent, all without words but with gestures alternating between expressiveness, protest, and violent movements in a hellish musical atmosphere.

In short, confusion, full energy and madness are indeed present. But what madness! Madness full of beauty even if it is devoid of love and compassion.

Generally speaking, the directors in our country excel in the dramatization of madness and hubris. Alongside Fadhel Jaïbi with his masterpiece Jounoun presented in 2002, Jebali has been perfecting this play since 2000 and has created five versions of it up to today.

From our point of view, it has reached a stage of perfection and is now on par with Jounoun, if not better. Proof that the great Taoufik Jebali always has more strings to his bow !

Impression of one spectator about "Le Fou"

It is difficult to talk about "Le Fou" de Taoufik Jebali as an ordinary theatrical performance, because what happens on stage transcends the idea of mere entertainment toward a complete emotional experience, Nour Elomr Ouni writes.

"An experience that places the audience in front of themselves more than in front of characters or events", he said.

"There are works that you watch once and understand, and there are other works that you return to because something in them remains incomplete within you", he added.

May be because they do not give you their meaning all at once, but rather seep into you slowly. "Le Fou" is one of those rare types of works.

Based on the text by Kahlil Gibran, Taoufik Jebali does not merely rewrite the text theatrically, but creates another life for it, more physical, more turbulent, and closer to today's human.

For here, Gibran is not just a writer to be quoted, but a complete spirit hovering above the stage—a spirit of a poet, philosopher, and mystic who sees the world with both a restless and astonished eye at the same time.

From the very first moments, the audience enters a dream-like state—shadows, bodies, music, whispers, screams, spinning, light that dims and returns, and words that sometimes seem to emerge from within us, not from the actors' mouths.

Le Fou play to see absolutly

What makes this work exceptional is that rare ability to combine chaos and precision. Everything seems chaotic, but it is calculated with high sensitivity.

Dance is not mere decoration, music is not just accompaniment, and lighting is not merely a technical element; every detail transforms into a language of its own.

As if the entire performance breathes with a single internal rhythm, a rhythm that resembles the turmoil of the contemporary human trying to find meaning amidst this harsh world.

In "Le Fou" madness is not presented as an illness, but rather as a kind of painful clarity. As another way of seeing things away from social masks and ready-made certainties.

Therefore, the audience sometimes feels that they see themselves on stage: their fragility, their fear, their desire for love, their desire to escape, and even their exhaustion from the world

Perhaps that's why many, in Tunisia, return to this performance repeatedly ; because it changes within them with each viewing, and because it awakens a new question each time.

The presence of actors was one of the most beautiful aspects of this work, as the rare harmony between them was evident, as if they were not performing separate roles but rather forming a single body and a single spirit moving on stage.

They gave this performance its sincerity, sensitivity, and human warmth. They devoted their bodies, voices, and emotions entirely to this troubled poetic world, making every movement, every glance, and every silence pulsate with life and meaning.

It was a presence full of passion, and that beautiful exhaustion that can only be created by "true theater".

Also "Le fou" is a master piece because of visual and auditory aspects. These aspects were not just a backdrop for the performance, but its beating heart.

These esthetic elements created a living space that constantly transforms, a space where light speaks, sound breathes, and even darkness becomes part of the meaning.

There were moments when the audience felt as if they were inside a collective dream, or within a memory moving slowly before them. What is also impressive is that the dramatic behavior, despite its philosophical depth and poetic density, does not fall into intellectual arrogance.

On the contrary, there is a clear humanity that resides in every moment of it. In other words, the representation does not try to indoctrinate the viewer or showcase its culture, but gently invites them to reflect, to listen to themselves, to accept their contradictions, and perhaps even their own incoherence and perplexity.

"Le Fou", eventualy, is not a show that is consumed and then forgotten. It is one of those works that remain stuck inside, like distant music or a memory whose beauty pains us for reasons we do not understand.

And with each new viewing, the audience discovers that it wasn't just the stage that was changing but also their way to see thing and others.

Mohamed Ali Elhaou