Two months ago, Egyptian women protested in Tahrir Square against the abuses they have been suffering from. They did so by cutting off their hair. What they did brought to mind the famous folkloric character Naasa. If you watch the latest production of Her Name is Naasa, the image of the protesters immediately springs to mind; it's as if the Egyptian female protester is a modern-day Naasa. "In olden times, Egyptians always used to say that patience had limits. But Naasa's patience exceeded those limits." This was the message the Knights of the Orient Dance Troupe for Heritage Performances chose to deliver in their recent production of Her Name is Naasa, performed in the Main Hall of the Cairo Opera House and also in the Alexandria Opera House last week. Directed by Karima Bedeir, the show, inspired by an Egyptian folkloric epic known as Ayoub el-Masry, tells the story of Ayoub and his loving wife Naasa, who live very happily together, until people begin to envy them for their love and their wealth. This leads them to fall into poverty, while Ayoub becomes ill. Naasa stands by him until they find a cure and then their wealth returns too. Naasa bears all the miseries she suffers and keeps on loving her husband. She doesn't hesitate to cut off and sell her hair (something very precious, which all the village women envy her for), in order to buy food to feed her husband. Ayoub is cured by the love of his wife who cuts off her hair, becoming an icon for the sacrifices made by women. In the show, the director substituted the scene of Naasa selling her hair in order to buy food for herself and her husband with another imaginary scene, where Naasa meets an old woman who advises her to make a present of her hair to the sea. The sea then dispatches some mermaids to help cure Ayoub of his disease. The only good thing about this change is that the director introduces a new scene where Ayoub and the imaginary mermaids dance together. Regrettably, the substitution disrupts the original, realistic story. In the Holy Qur'an, Ayoub is a messenger sent by God to teach people patience. He is rich, strong and young, when he is suddenly reduced to abject poverty. He also becomes very ill, with no-one to stand by his side, save for his loyal wife, Naasa. The second story of Ayoub is the folkloric one, inspired by the story in the Qur'an. But the focus of the folkloric story is Naasa not Ayoub, which is what Karima tried to stress in her new production, giving a lot of attention to Naasa and marginalising her husband. With her contemporary dance show, the director wanted to underscore the strength, capacity for sacrifice and patience of Egyptian women. The show, composed of twenty dancing scenes, was accompanied by impressive décor, with the traditional motif of an eye hanging over the middle of the stage, to show that people envy Ayoub and Naasa. The script by Anis Ismail was also impressive. The dance scenes were interspersed by a few long monologues, well delivered by Hani Hassan, who played an elderly narrator. The monologues were written by playwright el-Shazli Farah. The dancers were impressive, as they had trained very hard for the show. As for the protagonist Hoda Hani, who played Naasa, she was very professional, with her performance enhanced by skilful facial and bodily and expressions. The Knights of the Orient Dance Troupe for Heritage Performances was established in 2009, with the aim of reviving Egyptian theatrical dance.
