Nehad Selaiha finds the cultural politics of this year's Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre far more intriguing than any of the shows In her inaugural speech to this edition of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (CIFET), Martha Coigney, the longstanding head of the international selection committee, pensively wondered at the fleeting nature of time, saying she could hardly believe that the festival was already 20 years old (21 to be precise, if you count in the year it was cancelled on account of the 1990 Gulf war). At 20, or 21, unless it had the life span of a cat, you would expect this festival to be in the full bloom of its youthful vigour, to have attained a modicum of maturity and common sense, and to have learnt from its past mistakes. Sadly, however, it has clearly displayed in this edition unmistakable signs of acute mental debility, cultural disintegration and artistic multiple sclerosis. Nothing but sheer senility could explain the haphazard choice of most of the shows on offer (some of which would have been better appreciated in a less pretentious context, one which does not trigger such high expectations), the shabby treatment meted out to many of the guest performing artists who, as American artist Margo Lee Sherman bitterly complained, were "picked up at the airport, dumped in an expensive, out of the way hotel near the Pyramids (as it they were common tourists, there for a camel ride or a horse trot round the pyramids at dawn), and left without any information as to what, where and when anything was going to happen to them, no one to appeal to for help, and no opportunity to meet with other theatre people, foreign or local", or the preposterous, sadistic farce thought up and stage-managed by the festival organizers for the sole purpose of crushing the only 2 troupes representing the Egyptian independent theatre movement in this session -- a session that was purportedly intended, as the speech of the festival's chairman and the subject of the central seminar clearly indicated, to celebrate alternative theatre the world over. Indeed, the CIFET's organizing board has surpassed itself this year in defeating its own declared purposes, especially with regards to the central theme it publicly embraced. If you've been following my reports of this event in the Weekly in the past 2 weeks, you will remember that in my curtain raiser I warned that: "It is possible, of course, as some pessimists cynically maintain, that this," i.e., dedicating this edition to independent and alternative theatre, "is all but a show staged for the benefit of our foreign guests to peddle to them the idea that the Egyptian system and its cultural policy makers encouraged free expression and non-governmental initiatives." I added that: "To corroborate their view, those pessimists could quote at you the mortifying item in the festival statute which stipulates that for any independent troupe to be allowed into the festival at all, even as a fringe performance, let alone to be considered for the international contest, it has to mask its independent identity and present itself under the name of a state theatre company or any government-affiliated organization." Indeed, this particular item was brought up and unanimously denounced by the representatives of more than 20 independent troupes in the roundtable on the independent theatre movement in Egypt held on 14 October. Despite the zest of the speakers in detailing their demands and the general enthusiasm, it was clear that many were vaguely suspicious of the whole undertaking and wondered what secret agenda lay behind it. Many of the speakers ironically thanked the festival for finally realizing they existed and wondered why they were suddenly recognized this year; they had been around for more than 15 years, often representing Egypt in the contest, they said, and yet this was the first time any of them had ever received an official invitation from the festival to sit on a panel or participate in any of its cultural activities. Ominously, the discussion was moderated, or, rather, rigidly controlled and safely channeled in one direction by a carefully chosen theatre academic who behaved like a strict, old-fashioned headmaster landed with the unpleasant job of managing a lot of unruly schoolchildren. When Nora Amin, the founder of La Musica troupe protested that the meeting should be conducted more democratically, he stoutly retorted that democracy was not always a good thing and quoted at her what the Americans were doing in Iraq in its name!! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it with my own ears. It was a mind-boggling response that left us all gaping. This roundtable took place after I had written my second report on the festival; but even then, it was clear that the cynics and pessimists had won and the roundtable only corroborated their view. In that report, published last Thursday, I recorded how the only 2 independent Egyptian shows in this festival, Cafeteria and Forming, entered under the name of Al-Hanager centre, had been denied access to any performance space and did not, therefore, appear on the festival schedule. "I would not have believed it possible", I said, "that a festival which chose the alternative theatre as the theme of its central international symposium and organized a special roundtable on the independent theatre movement in Egypt would have the cheek to blatantly ignore the only two performances which represented the movement in it, and ones that had been especially recommended by its appointed selection committee too. But it did happen, and for two days the young artists in both troupes were dazed and kept wondering what had happened and why they had been so crassly and so unfairly ignored." Was this issue raised in the roundtable? Of course not, and for a very good reason. It was an open secret among the representatives of the independent troupes that both Cafeteria and Forming would be playing at Hanager within two days in defiance of the festival authority and they thought it wiser not to air the grievances of both troupes until their performances actually took place. They knew that if the festival authority got wind of the revolt being hatched, they would crush it at once. The roundtable took place on Tuesday, 14th. On Thursday, 16th, Dalia El-Abd's Forming was performed at the wantonly incapacitated, viciously gutted out and willfully left to rot (by official orders) Al-Hanager main hall. The event was both a protest and an act of defiance. That night, in the office of center's artistic director, and before many creditable witnesses, Huda Wasfi got a call from the assistant of the official responsible for allocating venues to performances during the festival, telling her that 'they' had finally found a 'safe' space for the performances entered under the Center's name and asking her to cancel that night's show. 'Tonight is out of the question,' Wasfi responded. The theatre hall she had hastily repaired at her own expense was already full. 'Tomorrow' she would follow orders and move the shows to the cramped, badly equipped and rarely frequented theatre at the headquarters of the Youth and Sports Council in Agouza, as they demanded. All that afternoon she had had to battle with the industrial security forces who kept on terrorizing the actors until she signed a document taking full legal responsibility for any damages her venture might entail. That night and the following morning, Friday 17th, the members of both troupes, their friends and their supporters were busy sending out mobile messages and emails announcing the change of venue. By noon, however, the same official emissary bluntly informed Wasfi that the theatre she was promised was not available. The festival had had permission to use it for only a certain number of days which, unfortunately, he said, ended the night before -- that is on the same night he himself had told her before witnesses that she could use it. It was too late to prepare the stage at Hanager for a performance that evening, and so Dalia El-Abd's second performance was cancelled. You can imagine how she felt; but what beats even the most fertile imagination is the hassle of trying to reach everyone to tell them not to go to the Youth and Sports Council that evening and that Cafeteria would be staged at Hanager the following evening, on Saturday 18th. On the morning of that day, however, Wasfi thought it wise to inform the minister of culture personally of what had happened, whereupon he telephoned the head of the Youth and Sports Council, a certain Mr. Kharboush, who told him that Wasfi could have his theatre for two nights. This meant another frantic hassle and more SMSs and emails to announce that Cafeteria would be playing at the Youth and Sports Council after all. Two hours later, the actors were on the Council premises, ready to put up their set and rehearse; but there was no one there, and the theatre was closed. No one had been informed of anything, they were told by the security people at the door. So, they trooped back to Hanger and it was too late to give a performance that evening. When Wasfi rang up to say she had been taken for a ride and what a fool she had been to trust anybody and asked me to get back to the people I had contacted and tell them that Cafeteria would play tomorrow at Hanger come what may, I didn't know whether to cry or laugh. I could imagine how the Wogooh troupe must feel and was utterly dejected. Still, one good thing came out of this ridiculous farce: unwittingly the festival and the whole cultural establishment had called their own bluff and flagrantly exposed their own hypocrisy, and not only before the independent troupes they had thought to delude with glittering words at the roundtable, but also in front of some of the festival's most distinguished guests who had closely followed the unfolding of this shameful business over three days. This valuable group of supporters included Lee Breuer, the distinguished American director, playwright and co-founder of the prestigious Mabou Mines Theatre Ensemble, American actress Maude Mitchell who stunned audiences when she played Nora in the Mabou Mines production of Ibsen's A Doll's House a few years ago, professor Mieke Kolk from Amsterdam university who has long supported the independent theatre movement in Egypt, 3 American theatre scholars specializing in Arab theatre, namely Margaret Litvin, Kristin Johnsen- Nashati and George Potter, Egyptian actress and theatre scholar Areeg Ibrahim and brilliant critic and theatre scholar Hazem Azmy who not only brought this group of wonderful people to Al-Hanager, but also persuaded many of them to contribute reviews to the English supplement of the daily bulletin he edited (the best written in this festival), braved the wrath of the festival board when he published an announcement of Forming and Cafeteria in this publication and managed single-handedly to organize a showing of recordings of Breuer's fantastically imaginative and deservedly world-famous productions of Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus and Ibsen's A Doll's House. Indeed, Hazem Azmy's many valuable contributions, and the wonderful integrity and enthusiastic warmth of the lovely people he brought together were the real highlights of this festival and are, by themselves, enough validation and justification of its existence. Without Lee and his mesmerizing, disturbing and provocative films, without Maude's unforgettable performance as Nora and her natural warmth and unbounded sympathy, without Margaret, Kristin and George and their perceptive reviews and supportive presence, this edition of the CIFET would have been a very bleak affair indeed. If the CIFET is all about creative people coming together and bonding, regardless of geographical, political and cultural boundaries, then Hazem Azmy has done more in this respect than the whole grand apparatus of the festival's board and managerial body. Yes, the CIFET should continue; but in order for it to credibly survive, it should be given over to such honest fighters as Wasfi, Hazem and the independent theatre troupes. CIFET AWARDS * Best Performance Grasping the Floor with the Back of my Head, the Mute Company Physical Theatre, Denmark. * Best Director Khalid Galal, Egypt, for Black Coffee. * Best Scenography Sub-Zero, Iraq, the National Ttheatre. * Best Actor Jointly: Abdel Sattar El-Basri and Yehia Ibrahim, Iraq, for their performance in Sub-Zero. * Best Actress Rama Issa, Syria, for her performance in Laila and the Wolf (an adult version of Red Riding Hood ) by the Circle Theatre Ensemble. * Best Ensemble Performance Aunt Safiya and the Monastery, Egypt, the Alexandria Creativity Centre.
