Are you sitting comfortably? Osama Kamal went to hear the Arabian Nights at the Diwan It is an evening in Heliopolis, and it is mid- Ramadan. A small audience has congregated before a simple stage in a corner at the back of the Diwan bookshop. The stage is furnished with nothing more than klim rugs on the floor, a chair, and a small table bearing a cup of Nescafé for the storyteller. A projector in the background transmits familiar imagery culled from the artistic renderings of The Thousand and One Nights, popularly known as the Arabian Nights. "Welcome to the Arabian Nights at Diwan, the bookshop," it says on a small screen. The story teller is Abir Soliman. As she tells her tales she is accompanied by the singer Sayyed Imam, who has written several mawaweel especially for this show. A mawwal is a traditional brand of country song, slow and soulful, usually telling a story interspersed with proverbs and advice about life, warnings of betrayal, and harangues against injustice and disloyalty. At every dramatic turn in the story Imam steps in and sings a few lines, recapping the tale and commenting on it. The audience seem to be thoroughly enjoying this mediaeval brand of art -- the distraction of their laptops, mobile phones and water bottles notwithstanding. The show was inspired by the novel Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz, and is the fourth that Abir Soliman has produced in her storytelling career. The three previous ones were Violence in Upper Egypt, which she wrote herself; and Murderes by Nature and " Cinematic, adaptations of novels by Mekkawi Said. Imam, who was also part of the three previous shows, offers a musical counterpoint to the story and enlivens the narrative with a type of singing that is as original as it is timeless. In the Arabian Nights show, Imam is accompanied by three traditional instruments: a tabla (drum), a rababa (violin) and a kawala (flute). Abir Salama began her career as a blogger. Her blog, "A Spinister's Diary", has morphed into columns in the newspaper Al-Dustur and been turned into a popular book published this year by Al-Dar. In her blog-diaries Salama describes the life of a beautiful and well-off young woman who prefers to live alone rather than bend to the dictates of a patriarchal society. In her story, Salama brings up the issue of the political and social dilemmas in Naguib Mahfouz's novel. Despite the title of his book, Mahfouz was writing not about mediaeval times but about some of the more bizarre aspects of modern life. Arabian Nights and Days was one of Mahfouz's favourite works. After he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Mahfouz said that this novel did not get the attention that it deserved. He started writing it immediately after President Sadat signed the Camp David Accords in September 1978, and finished it in November 1979. It was first published in 1982. In the novel Mahfouz uses the technique of The Thousand and One Nights to tell the story of a modern city going through political turmoil, and where the police try to protect the rulers from underground religious groups bent on seizing power. In this turbulent atmosphere, jinn (mischievous spirits) come into the picture and start interfering in the patterns of human life. Storytelling is a complex art, involving acting and wit, imagination and diction, as well as interaction with the audience. For Salama, storytelling offers her the things she cannot get from writing and blogging. She impersonates more than one character in quick succession, using her voice, facial expressions, and hand gestures to convey the smallest details of the story. Like the theatre, storytelling offers immediate interaction with the audience. Until the invention of writing, storytelling was the only way of preserving human legacy. This is why the art is known for its mix of reality and myth, since unless the story is exciting future generations will have no motive for storing it in their memory. The mix of fact and fiction also helps people transcend their daily problems and reach out to realms far beyond their immediate surroundings, to magic and unseen worlds. Salama says that story telling gives her access to audiences who enjoy listening to stories rather than, or as well as, reading them. Imam, who has been Salama's artistic partner for some time, feels the same way about the art of mawwal. His shows aim to bring back the mawwal to mainstream singing. He says that most of the traditional mawwal singers and writers are now dead, and that only a few practitioners remain on the scene. We should create a "natural protectorate" for this sort of art to preserve it from extinction, he suggests. Imam says that for centuries mawwal has helped the common people cope with the often horrendous trials of daily life. It is an art fraught with patience and wisdom, and a legacy that must be saved for future generations.
