THE Egyptian musical Praxa was recently performed at Cairo Opera House. This important event was produced by the private sector and hosted by Cairo Opera House under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture. The play Praxa, by late Egyptian writer Tawfiq el- Hakim, was originally published in 1939. It was inspired by the Ancient Greek classic comedy Ecclesiazusae (Assembly Women), written by Aristophanes in 390 BC. El-Hakim's adaptation is the first of three plays based on Ancient Greek ones. His second was Pygmalion (1942) and the third Oedipus Rex (1949). ‘Praxa' is the shortened name of the main female character in the play, ‘Praxagora'. The comedy revolves around women's involvement in politics and leadership, relegating the housework to men, in the hope of achieving freedom and justice. The new production of Praxa did not follow the standard Arabic text written by el-Hakim, which was changed to the Cairene dialect. The director, Nadir Salah Eddin, also rearranged the text and wrote the songs and dialogue. He not only used the text of Tawfiq el-Hakim, but also consulted the original text of Aristophanes. The outcome was a balanced treatment of the plot in a modern and meaningful text with an eye on current context. The music was composed by the talented Egyptian composer Hisham Gabr, who used an expressive orchestration. He managed to enrich the play with number of sung dialogues as well as pure music. Gabr's beautiful melodies suited the events on the stage and made the dialogues and songs very distinctive for the audience. His orchestral palette expressed the atmosphere of the work and its characters perfectly. A good example of this was his use of the low range of woodwind instruments in the scenes where General Chremes expresses his power and authority. The use of strings in dreamy melodies, however, expressed the feelings of women in need of tenderness and love. Gabr also managed to use the mixed choir to serve the dramatic plot. In some scenes, only the women in the choir sang; in others, only the men. The choir were excellent, but unfortunately we don't know the name of the choirmaster. Gabr deserves praise for his keeping the Arabic clear and understandable in the songs. The director was very successful in the actors and actresses he chose. Their performance really flowed, to the delight of the audience. His group scenes were also excellent: sometimes there were as many as 150 male or female artists on stage. Both the lavish costumes and well-designed scenery of Mahmoud Sami added a lot to the work, producing suitable visual effects. A good example of this was the unfinished drawings of the houses of Athens in the background, giving a feeling of antiquity, while the excessive use of the colour red in the judgement scene symbolised the injustice. The abstract costumes were also meaningful, as was the scene where the men wore women's clothes. Two more elements were of great importance, namely the lighting and choreography. Hisham Gomaa's lighting was very impressive. For instance, the palace scene was full of bright, rosy lights in contrast to the dark prison scenes. As for the choreography, the dances designed by Tamer Fathi were mainly simple. The dance in the final scene with its gesticulations was very expressive. Although LE2 million was spent on this production, the producer didn't get round to printing a small brochure or programme. The musical Praxa is a serious and respectful revival of the Egyptian musical, which had disappeared after a short comeback in the 1960s. It reminds us of the great Egyptian musicals of the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries with its use of live music and choir, without recorded playback music. The brave producer of this interesting work, Khaled Ibrhaim, should be applauded for his great endeavour. It would be great if the Government were to support such outstanding individual initiatives. ([email protected])
