The 22nd Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater (CIFET) held its opening ceremony on Oct. 10, kicking off 10 days of impressive performances by talented theater troupes from around the globe. The CIFET, sponsored by the Egyptian Cultural Development Fund, is one of the world's most prestigious events for experimental international theater. This year, the festival is hosting performers from 47 different countries, including representatives from 13 Arab countries. In addition to a packed schedule of performances, the festival held three sessions of seminars exploring the manifestations of theater visions in different countries from the perspectives of directors, actors, stage designers and playwrights. A special session, held on Oct. 13, was devoted to examining this theme in the Arab world. This year's special festival honorees included Irina Miagkova of Russia, Emanuela Giordano of Italy, Hanan Kassab of Syria, Dimos Avdeliodis of Greece, Ragaa Hussein of Egypt, Witold Mazurkiewicz of Poland, Manfred Beilharz of Germany, Michael Fields of the United States and Hugo Luis Saccoccia of Argentina. Russia's Surgut Theater troupe provided the first performance of the festival, entitled “Hyperborean: The Beginning of the World.” This piece explored and interpreted different conceptions of Russian identity by contrasting national myths about northerners — or Hyperboreans — with legends about natives of Siberia. “Sharaweya,” staged by Egypt's Youth Theater Group, was a highlight of the Oct. 11 program. In this piece, which seemed to take place outside of time and space (other than its focus on a desert setting), six women from different backgrounds — including a gypsy, an immigrant, a female judge, a writer, an Arabian slave and the Sacrificial Bride of the Nile — sit together in the desert weaving stories and songs. Two exceptional Arab performances took center stage on day three of the festival. Iraq's National Acting Group presented “The Baghdadi Love Circle,” a sophisticated interpretation of Brecht's “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” that successfully allowed for a comic, satirical interpretation of reality in Iraq. The second performance, “Guantanamo: Meaning of Waiting” by the Theater of Joy of Lebanon told the story of six women waiting for the release of their husbands from Guantanamo Bay Prison. The play explored the various meanings of imprisonment by contrasting the men's physical incarceration with their wives' captivity to their personal memories of their husbands. The piece also critiqued the western claim to being protectors of oppressed Arab women through creative layering of the male prisoners' hysterical laughter with the women's reflections about their reality. On Oct. 13, the program featured a dynamic performance produced by the Palestine Caravan Executive Committee with support from Japan. “Pinocchio in Bethany” was based off of “The Legends of Martyrs,” a well-known work of Arabic literature that follows a Palestinian minstrel through his dreams and realities to shed light on the daily experiences of Palestinians. The play also effectively utilized the figure of Pinocchio to represent a young boy as a Palestinian refugee who, like Pinocchio, only wants to become human. Day five saw another exceptional staging by Arab performers, this time “Order” by Morocco's Professional for Culture troupe. This piece was a sensitive exposition of insecurities and the relationships that help us to overcome them. TeatriMigjeni of Albania presented on day six “A Losers Story,” a piece specific to Albanian history but with resonance for people of many nationalities. The play's main character, Perparimi, is a former spy in the state secret service forced to flee Albania in the early 1990s. He eventually returns to Albania, but is forced to assume a false identity. When he loses his fake Bolivian passport, it becomes clear how much weight such documents hold in our lives and how their disappearance can prompt our own disappearance. Staging of performances by Egyptian, Arab, and international theater troupes will continue though Thursday at the Cairo Opera House and at other theaters throughout the city.
