Tackling a major political issue head-on, such as the kafala system, an abusive arrangement in Lebanon that ties a worker's residency permit to their employment contract, is a perilous undertaking. That is the challenge Lebanese choreographer Ali Chahrour has taken on with his latest work, When I Saw the Sea. On stage at La FabricA in Avignon from July 5 to 8, he not only managed to alert the audience to a terrifying reality but has also created a peaceful work that reflects his own sensibility in defiance of barbarity.

When I Saw the Sea centers on three women. These domestic workers, who came from Africa, met Chahrour through a nongovernmental organization. They, along with others, testified about their harrowing survival conditions at the hands of employers who treated them as slaves. Emerging from the darkness of the stage, they share their stories and simply recount what they experienced, detailing one act of violence and humiliation after another. One, an orphan, was abandoned on the street by her mother, a housemaid, raped by her employer, and describes the abuses suffered by domestic workers: burned with boiling oil, forced into prostitution. Another explains how her hair was cut, she was forced to bathe in front of "Madame," and made to sign a paper forbidding her from having sex.

You have 61.2% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.