Sayed Mahmoud enjoyed a rather experimental musical show The theatre company Tamyy gave a new performance last week at the Rawabet Theatre in Downtown Cairo. The independent musical and acting company has been performing in private venues since it was founded in 2002 when Salam Yosri, its director, began working with students at Cairo's Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA). It was there that they put together their first piece, Al-Duyuf (Visitors). Most of Tamyy's 25 members are graduates of the FFA and have no training in drama, and the company's headquarters is at the offices of the faculty's Alumni Society. Tamyy presents musical pieces, often using video in its performances. Their specialty is the performance of songs by the famous duo Ahmed Fouad Negm and Sheikh Imam Eissa and poets Naguib Shehabeddin and Naguib Sorour. The performances often include songs by the late Adli Fakhri with lyrics by Samir Abdel-Baqi, a poet who claimed attention in the 1960s. The company took its name, which means "mud", from a line in a song by Abdel-Baqi Al-Tamyy wahed wal shagar alwan (the mud is the same, but the trees are of different colours). On stage the performers wear T- shirts printed with the slogan Beyegmana Al-Ghona (Gathered by Singing). Tamyy's previous presentations have included Thawrat Qalaq (Revolt of Disquiet) and Kalam Mazzika (Musical Words), which both attracted a large audience of young people. The company has also made a short fiction film, Hekayat Al-Hekaya (Story of a Story), which was a joint production by Tamyy and the Semat Production and Distribution Company. Because most of the songs that the troupe performs are of the political dissent brand, the audience are often active in politics and learn about the performances through text messages and notifications on Facebook. One is reminded of earlier groups such as Thulathi Adwaa Al-Masrah (the Theatre Lights Trio) of Samir Ghanem, George Sidhom and Al-Deif Ahmed. Thulathi, which came out in the 1960s, used to perform musical sketches that contained a lot of acting and satire. Tamyy, however, may have a more recent inspiration: Habayibna (Our Loved Ones), one of the offshoots of Al-Warsha "the workshop" founded by director Hassan El-Gritli in the 1980s. Yet, while Habayibna focussed on performing the music, Tamyy pushes the experience a bit, turning the songs into an exaggerated satire of politics and society from the late 1960s onwards. The musicians choose songs from the repertoire of Negm and Imam, deconstructing them and spinning them into longer acts. Their performance is usually accompanied by simple percussion instruments such as drums and tambourine. The oud is occasionally used as well. Among the songs the company frequently performs are Ughniyat Al-Mahatta (Station Songs), Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Shaaban Al-Baqal (Shaaban the Grocer), Mawwal Al-fuul wal Lahma (the Ballad of Beans and Meat), Kelmeten le Masr (Two Words for Egypt), Ghaba (Jungle), and Al-Bahr be Yedhak Leh (Why is the Sea Laughing?), most of which are songs of dissent. Negm and Imam created a brand of literature that Hazem Saghiya dubs compensatory art, with music that borrows heavily from folklore, ballads, and classical tunes. The group takes these songs and develops them into a parody, which is exactly what the great composer Sayed Darwish used to do. Using post-modern techniques, the company deconstructs older themes and challenges the idea of unity in the performance. The pieces have no clear beginning and no clear end. And its act of parody tends to undermine the perfectionist propensities of modernism.
