Nehad Selaiha surveys the 2004 theatrical scene, finding the brightest spots on the fringe 2004 began auspiciously with a visit in January by Il Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d'Europa. Its world-acclaimed, long-running production of Goldoni's Arlecchino servatore di due padroni, directed by Giorgio Strehler and starring the magnificent Feruccio Soleri, was jointly hosted by the Italian Cultural Centre and the Opera House, playing at Al-Gumhuriya theatre in Cairo and Sayed Darwish theatre in Alexandria. It was a glittering event and was closely followed at the same venues in early February with a visit (organised by the Opera House and the Goethe Institute) by another world-famous company, the German Das Folkwang Tanzstudio from Essen. Like Arlecchino, Lakenhal (The Cloth Factory in Flemish), brilliantly choreographed by Henrietta Horn, seemed intentionally designed to dispel the gathering gloom on the political scene. By June, however, the gloom had so deepened and solidified that it seemed futile to try to alleviate it. The next international event staged by the Opera -- the fifth Festival for Contemporary Dance: Egypt-France 2004 -- not only reflected the general political despair, but gave it existential dimensions, extending it to the whole of the human condition. Though some of the shows had fitful glimmers of hope, these were totally eclipsed in one's memory by the gruesome visions presented in two outstanding guest-performances. While May B, by Compagnie de Maguy Marin, vividly evoked the setting and atmosphere of Samuel Beckett's bleak, godforsaken world of dust and ashes, Josef Nadj's Woyzeck plunged us headlong into a pit of horror, infested with lurid travesties of humans, and regaled us with nauseating displays of their cannibalistic tastes and nechrophiliac appetites. Earlier, however, in late January, the national gloom had found a different outlet at Al-Hanager, swinging the mood to fierce belligerence in an agit-prop-cum-political cabaret piece by Khaled El-Sawy and his Al- Haraka (Movement) independent troupe. , originally intended for a two-week run, was sold out for two months and its phenomenal popular success attracted wide media attention both at home and abroad. Writing for The New York Times on March 19, under the title "Who messes with Egyptian minds? Satirist points at US", Neil MacFarquhar attributed the success of the play to its harshly anti-American thrust and fiercely satirical wit, describing the opening scene in which the actors storm into the cafeteria of Al-Hanager in American military uniform, waving guns and ordering people about as "intended to mimic the jolt felt across the Arab world when the United States army stormed into Iraq." The show which "meanders through a thicket of regional issues including the Arab-Israeli dispute, the inability of young people to afford marriage, the dubious appeal of American goods and the mushrooming of satellite television news networks," the article continues, "uses various aspects of American culture to deride United States policy, including rap songs and booming show tunes." The satire extends to parodying American political figures, including Bush, and "is interrupted by advertisements for products like Condoleezza Margarine -- '...a real problem solved' -- and a steroid drink called Colin Power... one sip (of which) allows you to 'trounce four men and conquer four women'." As for the audience, they "unfailingly emerge from the theater buzzing with excitement and admiration," and this is because, MacFarquhar concludes, "the show amplifies the current mood across the Arab world." In May, Al-Hanager became once more the subject of intense media focus, but the publicity this time was of a sharply divided kind. The production of Our Town, the fruit of a collaborative Egyptian-American theatre project, though technically acclaimed, stirred a heated political controversy concerning its ideological aims and unfortunate timing. Coming close at the tail of the vituperatively anti-American , it was suspiciously regarded by many as a conciliatory move to the Bush administration and a cleverly-timed ploy to offset the damage caused by the Abu Ghraib notorious photos. This, however, was not the case (see my review on 3 June on this page) and happily for its director, Gordon Seth, and his all-Egyptian cast and technical crew, the production played five days to full houses and was even more warmly admired when it moved to the provinces. In August (15 to 22), Al-Hanager hosted and financially supported the hugely successful third Independent Theatre Festival for Light Comedy and continued to engage public and media attention when one of its productions, Mohamed Shafiq's Echo, or On the Table Listening to Wagner, was chosen to represent Egypt in the contest of The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (held this year for the first time on 20 rather than 1 September). Echo, made its claim to the nomination good by winning one of the awards, thus further consolidating the prominent position of Al-Hanager on the theatrical map of 2004 and confirming its prestigious status as the incubator of new theatrical talent and champion of independent artists par excellence. The centre's other candidate to the CIFET contest was Blue Dogs, which centred on the crisis of identity in the face of globalisation and introduced a new playwright; and though it failed to make it to the contest, it enjoyed a good run after the festival, playing for most of the month of Ramadan and culled many favourable reviews. During that month too, the centre hosted many independent groups at its gallery, including Al-Misaharati's exquisite and highly entertaining Tales of the Harem. After Ramadan, Al-Hanager revived its much-admired 2003 production of Saadalla Wannus's Anguished Dreams with a new cast while its 2003 winner of the CIFET's Best Ensemble Performance award, Masks, Fabrics and Destinies, was touring in Asia and Europe. As the year drew to an end, Hoda Wasfi, the artistic director and manager of the centre, thought she could relax and take it easy for a bit while preparing for the next season. Suddenly, however, she found her centre right in the middle of a huge and widely-publicised dispute over cultural politics between the Theatre Festivals Committee (of the Supreme Council for Culture) and the state- theatre organisation. The dispute, or rather brawl, was triggered by the Damascus theatre festival. The Syrian Ministry of Culture had sent a letter to its Egyptian counterpart asking it to nominate an Egyptian production for the event. The invitation should have been automatically re-directed to the festivals committee which, according to the ministerial decree which created it and governs its statute, is the sole arbiter where participation in festivals outside Egypt is concerned, unless, of course, the host country specifies a particular show by name. Instead, the invitation seemed to have found its way to other quarters where the matter was arbitrarily decided in favour of a production by the state-theatre organisation. The letter which the committee members received was informative rather than consultative, appending to the Syrian letter a recommendation to the effect that the minister approves the nomination of A Day of our Times by Al-Ghad state- theatre company for the Damascus festival. The Festivals Committee could not brook such blatant arm-twisting and could easily guess who was behind it. And since they knew the minister had not seen the show recommended in his name, they chose to ignore the recommendation and discuss the matter objectively. After long deliberations and surveying what was available on the market, they unanimously agreed that the only production that could creditably represent Egypt in that festival was Al-Hanager's Anguished Dreams with the original 2003 cast. This unanimous decision, however, was ignored, with the result that the Festivals Committee has suspended itself in protest, and the harsh critical reception of A Day in Damascus bore witness to the sagacity of its strong objections to sending it. The fact that the Egyptian selection committee of the CIFET had earlier ignored all the productions of the state-theatre companies, which were pathetically few and both artistically and intellectually emaciated, opting for shows by independent groups, must have irked the head of the state-theatre organisation, Osama Abu Taleb, and given him many a sleepless night. He desperately needed to assert his power amid mounting criticism of his performance and sending a production by one of his companies to the Damascus festival seemed one way of doing it. Since he took office at the beginning of last year, he has done nothing except quarrel with everybody and exacerbate the bureaucracy which threatens to bring this governmental establishment to a halt. Look at its miserable record in 2004: the National, having lived off the glories of King Lear and Jerusalem Shall Not Fall, both mounted when Wasfi was head of the theatre, has produced nothing except an amateur dance show as a kind of off-hand gesture to the CIFET, a modest, low-budget comedy, staged at the small hall upstairs (Abdel- Rehim El-Zurqani), about the awful treatment patients get in Egyptian public hospitals, and, finally, a wash-out adaptation of Pirandello's Tonight We Improvise, scripted by the self-same head of the theatre organisation and promoted under the title Layali Al-Azbakiya (Azbakiya Soirees -- see review on 9/12 on this page). The rest of the state-theatre companies fared no better. El-Taliaa staged only one play, The Sultan's Harem, which closed after three nights, causing the artistic director of the theatre, Intisar Abdel-Fattah, by then at the end of his tether, to publicly declare that Abu Taleb was making it impossible for him to work. Predictably, he was promptly sacked and replaced with an new young director, Hisham Gomaa. Gomaa, however, did not prove as docile as Abu Taleb could have wished, and his first public statement contained an ironical criticism of his boss's idea of renovating theatres which resulted in the expensive venture of tiling the whole of El-Taliaa floor, including the performance areas, with hard, slippery ceramic slabs. At Al- Salam theatre (the Modern state company), the 2004 record was equally poor and consisted of only two plays: Alfred Farag's 1960s Gawaz 'ala Waraqit Talaq (Marriage on a Divorce Paper), directed in a playful, quasi- parodic vein by Ahmed Abdel-Halim. With three stars in the lead (Hisham Abdel Hamid, Aida Abdel-Aziz and Wafaa Amer), a new happy ending replacing the old tragic one and plenty of singing, dancing, film footage and video projections, it was reasonably successful and had a decent run. The other production was Qa'deen Leeh? (What's Keeping You Here?) was far inferior -- a shoddy adaptation of a Syrian 1970s political cabaret piece by Mohamed Maghoot called Kaasak Ya Watani -- an ambiguous title which could either mean "your health", or "this is your bitter cup, my country". To guarantee commercial success, director Hossameddin Mustafa roped in faded comedian Said Saleh (who seemed incapable of memorising his lines, often resorting to obscene comments or offensive, erratic cursing to fill in the gaps), a real television presenter, Inji Ali, who treated us to a veritable fashion show, plus a host of comedians, dancers and beautiful female extras. And for a final touch, or insult, he glossed over the whole tedious potpourri with a thick layer of Fouad Hadad's verse in the hope of making this rambling, fetid mess appear like a political satire. One honest thing about it though was the title and I remember asking myself repeatedly as I watched it: what was keeping me there? As for Al-Ghad, it long remained out of action and within less than a month of CIFET, it quickly scrambled two half-baked so-called "experimental" shows: a folksy adaptation of Lorca's Blood Wedding, at once ridiculously prim and grossly vulgar, called Sheikh Mahdar, and an addle- brained concoction of electronic music, chaotic movement and verbal inanities called Faqaqee' Hawa (Air/Love Bubbles -- "hawa" meaning both). And while the Puppet theatre continued churning out its staple diet of silly plays, the Children's theatre remained as serenely dormant as it has been for many years. What last year has proved beyond a shadow of doubt is that the future lies with the independent theatre groups and the cultural bodies which support them. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina realised this early on, hosting independent groups within months of its opening, then founding its own company of theatre amateurs and enticing first Mohamed Abul Su'ood (in 2003), then Karim El-Tonsi (in March 2004) to train and launch them in ambitious productions (Abul Su'ood's Titus Andronicus and El-Tonsi's Shakespeare: An Encounter. But its most significant contribution in this direction was launching the first Euro-Mediterranean Creative Forum for Independent Theatre Groups which straddled the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004 and was covered on this page on 8 January 2004. By the time this is published, the second Creative Forum will have started and I hope to tell you all about it in due time. Another important champion of the free theatre movement in Alexandria (with a thriving branch in Al-Menya) is The Jesuit Cultural Centre which regularly hosts independent groups and functions at its simple but efficiently equipped theatre, often collaborating with foreign cultural entities, like the Swedish and Goethe Institutes in Alexandria, the Ford foundation and the Royal Netherlands Cultural Fund, or local or Arab ones, like the Bibliotheca or The Arab Young Artists Fund. Among the diverse activities it staged in 2004 were two productions by Mahmoud Abu Doma's Alexandria-based Alternative Theatre -- a beautiful adaptation of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba and another of Max Frisch's The Fire Raisers. And by the way, early this December, the Jesuit Cultural Centre celebrated its golden jubilee, promising to carry on in future the same enlightened task it has diligently pursued over the past 50 years. In Cairo, the Creativity Centre, another government-affiliated and funded centre like Al-Hanager, and similarly situated in the Opera grounds, a stone-throw away from it, has proved another active incubator for independent talent. Its workshop which started last year has managed to produce in 2004 two concerts, a stage-designing exhibition centring on Hamlet, a dance-theatre piece called The Audition, a word and movement piece conceived and directed by the centre's manager, Khalid Galal, called Forced Landing (also nominated to represent Egypt in CIFET 2004) and five different versions of King Lear by young directors. For a whole month after CIFET, the Centre's work was on public display, constituting a mini festival called The Harvest. On the non-governmental side, champions of independent artists in Cairo include the two-and-a-half-year old Al-Saqia (Waterwheel) cultural centre which staged in August its second festival for independent theatre groups, auditioning dozens of shows over two weeks, then presenting the selected ones over one week, at the rate of two performances a day. There was plenty of talent there, and though most of it was technically unpolished, it made up for this with tonnes of energy and gallons of enthusiasm. The interest of Al-Saqia in the independent theatre movement shows no signs of flagging and the proof of this is a symposium held last week at its Al-Hikma (Wisdom) hall to reflect on the future of the movement and ways to protect and promote it. Materially too, and not only in terms of hopes, plans and ambitions, Al-Saqia keeps growing and expanding its facilities and technical equipment to cope with the needs of its fast-growing clientele. Starting with one covered hall, it soon added another, and 2004 witnessed the opening of its new open-air theatre. This charming spot on the Nile has been transformed into an ideal space for summer performances and concerts and promises to be a haven for artists and audiences in the long Cairene summers. Independent theatre groups also exist on the fringe of some political parties and in community centres. In Shubra Al-Kheima, a predominantly working-class area north of Cairo, the trade-unions social club there staged last month its 12th annual free theatre festival which continued for ten days and featured nearly thirty productions from Cairo, Giza, Alexandria and other governorates. In previous years, the festival used to get a grant of LE5,000 from the Cultural Development Fund; this year, however, this modest assistance was withheld for no known reason, except, perhaps, to punish the festival for its political outspokenness and critical audacity. The festival was held, nevertheless, and it was heart-warming to watch all these young artists coming from so far, taking so much trouble and paying their last pennies to put up a show, speak their minds, show their talent and make a claim to independence. Though socially and economically far removed from Shubra Al- Kheima's workers club, the American University in Cairo has also shown interest in independent local artists, hosting The English Lover by Nora Amin's La Musica troupe at the Falaki Studio in 2003, and Mother, I Want to be a Millionaire by Ahmed El-Attar's Al-Ma'bad at the Falaki Main Stage in 2004. But apart from this, and true to its tradition, the AUC Performing Arts Department has treated us in 2004 to a string of polished, exciting productions of old and new texts which included Macbeth, Constance Congdon's Tale of the Lost Formicans and two Arabic plays: Alfred Farag's Suliman Al-Halabi, directed by Mahmoud El-Lozy in May, and Mohsen Misilhi's Mannequin, directed by Hanaa Abdel-Fattah this month. In the former, Cairo and the French campaign on Egypt became metaphors for Baghdad and its invasion by the US. in the spring of 2003. The metaphoric transfusion was visually and emotionally effective and made the play come across as a sad, ironic reflection on the grim present and the still grimmer threats that lie ahead. Baghdad, however, had featured earlier, in March, in Leila Soliman's production of Naomi Wallace's striking monodrama, The Retreating Country -- a student project presented at the Howard studio theatre on the main campus. Soliman and her actress, Yara Atef, handled this tricky, multi-tonal monologue, a mixture of humour and pathos, at once gently lyrical and deeply harrowing, with great subtlety and sophistication and communicated the suffering of Iraqis under the economic sanctions with stunning theatrical eloquence. It was a haunting production which still reverberates in my memory and its cunningly low-key, bitterly ironic denunciation of US policies in the region, though coming from an American, were far more shattering than anything a garishly loud play like could achieve. Hopefully, Soliman and Atef, and similarly gifted and well-trained young people, will eventually join the ranks of the free theatre movement. As I write this, I find the beautiful face of Vanya Exerjian, another talented AUC graduate who found herself as an actress working with Al-Warsha, slowly forming on the monitor's screen and my mind flies back to that evening of remembrance in August, one of many held by Al-Warsha this year, when all her colleagues, fellow artists, friends and admirers gathered, not to mourn her tragic, sudden death, but to celebrate the survival of her art beyond the grave and her continued presence in our memories. Indeed, with such independent theatrical entities as Al-Warsha (which has just come back from Milan where it opened its latest production, Cairo Calling, at Il Piccolo theatre and will have given it its Egyptian premiere at Al-Saqia on 28 December by the time this is published) and the newly established Al- Mawred Culture Resource Foundation (which hosted in late November Roger Assaf's Al-Sanaye' Park from Lebanon at the Puppet theatre), who (except, perhaps, the tax-payer) cares how many artistic atrocities the senile, debilitated state-theatre organisation or the newfangled state television theatre company commit? Time is on the side of independence.
