The Piccadilly Theater's stage, which was devoured by a fire on Aug.19, 2000. (L'Orient-Le Jour/Gilles Khoury)
A walk down Hamra Street in 2022, through the adjacent alleys shaded by ficus trees, coffee street vendors and newsstands, is tantamount to a walk through the invisible rubble of two cities — almost two worlds. We can’t tell which one we miss.The first one is the city of Beirut before 2019. It is a city on crutches, chaotic, but one that walked, lived and vibrated without ever understanding how. The second one is the city before 1975: Beirut of the Golden Age, a time that people like to recount as if it was shrouded in magic. Today, it seems that we have almost forgotten this era. It is hardly ever mentioned, particularly as the nostalgia for that time now seems a bit irrelevant given the tragedies riling Lebanon since 2019.It is strange to enter the newly opened door of the Piccadilly Theater in Hamra one morning in July 2022. There is...
A walk down Hamra Street in 2022, through the adjacent alleys shaded by ficus trees, coffee street vendors and newsstands, is tantamount to a walk through the invisible rubble of two cities — almost two worlds. We can’t tell which one we miss.The first one is the city of Beirut before 2019. It is a city on crutches, chaotic, but one that walked, lived and vibrated without ever understanding how. The second one is the city before 1975: Beirut of the Golden Age, a time that people like to recount as if it was shrouded in magic. Today, it seems that we have almost forgotten this era. It is hardly ever mentioned, particularly as the nostalgia for that time now seems a bit irrelevant given the tragedies riling Lebanon since 2019.It is strange to enter the newly opened door of the Piccadilly Theater in Hamra one morning in July 2022. There...