I was wrong not to go see the play 'Black Coffee' that has been showing for seven months. In the end, I went reluctantly, as I have lost hope in the theater a long time ago. I thought it has died like many other things that we have lost nowadays. But I cried like the rest of the audience from the first moment of the play when I saw the actors burry in the sand everything that was once beautiful and will never come again.
'Black Coffee' that has been showing for seven months at the request of the audience has turned the theatre of the Opera House into a shrine for all art lovers, the simple of them before the learned. You will see among the audience a young man sitting next to his father or grandfather. From the first moment you will notice how the impromptu script reflects a true picture of reality. You will grieve and you will laugh at yourself and at the others around you. And from the womb tears and laughter, hope for a better future will be born. I don't know how Director Khaled Galal has achieved that equation with a few unknown actors. But he succeeded in making me grieve from the corruption I see, the escape to death in boats of illegal migration, the Fatwa chaos and other pains. And I laughed at my son and your son, who know the football games schedule by heart and do not know the October 73 War. I also laughed at stealing the Egyptian heritage and creativity in the Gulf satellite channels.
But something inside gave me hope in that we will get out of this painful reality. Perhaps it was the actors' performance and the quality of the play that may be a turning point in the history of the Egyptian theater, a task for the Ministry of Culture to pursue.
I went to see it again only to discover more beautiful things. I found out that the audience is really part of the play. It reminded me of Youssef Idris's "Farafir'. The difference is that Idris made the audience part of the fabric of the script, whereas Galal made them a mirror that reflects the script. Every movement on stage was matched with one among the audience. And so was every word. Such is the greatest degree of creativity. Indeed, this is the role the theater was created for. I will definitely go see it again and again, and I recommend that Minister Farouk Hosni order it show in all the provinces for the people to know that Egypt will never be sterile.
