‘Ce que le dictateur n’a pas dit’

The Tunisian dramatist Meriam Bousselmi takes the manipulations and political intrigues of those in power to task in this monologue. ‘Nobody has any reason to reproach me’, says an ex-dictator as he calmly smokes on stage. ‘I simply embody the desires of the people; it’s down to the people to decide. Nobody has opposed my course of action’. His words linger, almost compensating for the silence which has engulfed him since the revolution. In Tunisia Bousselmi is known for her defiant and socially critical work. In 2014 she won the ‘Grand prix Afrique du Théâtre francophone’.