CAIRO – Christopher Columbus tells the audience that he is innocent, but they refuse to listen, so he decides to address the gods instead. "Gods?" asks one of the actors. "He is an infidel. Execute him! Execute him!" shout the rest of the cast. Columbus then asks them to re-enact his life with him, to prove his innocence. They agree, and here comes the comedy. In El-Safeena wel-Wehsheen (The Ship and the Wicked People), young director Islam Emam has adapted the famous Italian play, Isabella, Three Tall Ships and a Con Man, written in 1962 by Dario Fo, an Italian satirist, playwright, theatrical director, actor and composer He was born in 1926 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997. Fo's dramatic works employs comedic methods from the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a form of theatre that began in Italy in the 12th century but peaked in the 16th and 17th century, and was popular with the working classes. As a director, Emam has succeeded in employing commedia dell'arte, which is characterised by masked ‘types', the advent of the actors dressed as actresses, using pantomime and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. One can notice the impact of commedia dell'arte, whose closest translation is ‘comedy of craft', on European drama, in French pantomime and the English harlequinade, which is a type of theatrical performance piece, originally a slapstick adaptation of commedia dell'arte. "I like commedia dell'arte, which is why I have put on this play, having translated it into colloquial Arabic and renamed it El-Safina wel-Wehsheen. But I haven't changed the plot," Emam told the Egyptian Mail. Just as Fo, with his play, succeeded in turning a forgotten tale of Christopher Columbus into the concern of a modern European citizen, Emam has succeeded in turning this Italian play into a visual piece of art that Egyptians like and understand. The audiences, during the play, feel that Columbus' journey can, after all, be everybody's life route. "I have tried in my adaptation to make the story closely reflect what is happening now in Egypt politically," Emam added. After finishing his studies in the Academy of Arts, Theatre Department in Egypt in 2000, Emam did further studies in 2005 at the Egyptian Academy in Rome, whose purpose is to spread Egyptian culture in Italy and also teach Egyptians about Italian art. In Italy, Emam learned Italian, allowing him to read Italian plays in their original language and translate some of them into Arabic. It has also helped him get closer to a famous Italian writer like Dario Fo. In El-Safeena wel-Wehsheen, Emam introduces in a unique, comic fashion the story of Christopher Columbus, the explorer, who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to the discovery of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. The play, which features the sufferings of Columbus, who tried hard to get some help from the ruler and the Government, dwells mainly on two ideas. "The play deals with two different ideas. Firstly, rulers always ignore the discoverer and the explorer. They don't give him attention because all they're interested in is staying in power as long as possible," he explained. In the play, Columbus, having spent a very long time trying to convince the authorities to help him, makes a deal with them, according to which he agrees to give them the goods and fruits of the new land. But they decide to try him, as they want to squeeze everything they can out of his new land. Of course, the charges against him are trumped up. "Secondly, the play highlights the fact that no-one can make a deal with the authorities or the ruler. You are stupid if you think that you can be friends with the ruler. That's what happened to Christopher, who thought he'd struck a deal with the authorities, only for them to throw him in jail," explained Emam. The play, with a cast of more than 20 actors, took about two months to prepare. "Some of the actors in the play are acting for the first time, so I've made a big effort to train them. The lead actors are professionals and I've enjoyed mingling them both in this play," he added. Hamza el-Eili, who plays Columbus and Rami el-Tombari, who plays the King, are very impressive; they know how to make the audience laugh and interact with them in a light manner. The other actors are impressive too. As for the décor, it's new and innovative. The armchairs for the Queen and King are not designed for them to sit in, but to stand in. In the opening of the court scene, the judge sits in a kennel, something both satirical and comical. "I've been working on absurd ideas, and here comes the comedy. The sailors who bear witness against Columbus in court are sailing a huge duck-shaped ship," said the director.
