CAIRO - "Politics prohibited" Mohamed Nasha'at, a theatre director, warned his fellow directors at the beginning of their performance while they were on stage. "They could close the performance and take us to jail. Please, don't," he asked the other friends, who insisted on performing for audiences come what may. This was the beginning scene of Special Performance II, the recent project that was created by students in the Department of Directing at the Artistic Creativity Centre in the Cairo Opera House, under the supervision of veteran director Essam el-Sayyed. The performance is performed by actors from the Department of Acting in the Centre, which is headed by theatrical director Khaled Galal. The show consists of six different, short plays, each lasting for 10 minutes and directed by six different directors. Each separate performance is inter-related and are woven together to make an intriguing very lovely plot that employs comedy in scenes involving two policemen (played by Mohamed Mohamady and Ahmed Mohy). They watch each play in order to torture those directors who employ political implications in their plays. This satirical link highlights what occurred previously before the January 25 Revolution, when there were restrictions on culture and arts with critical political undertones,which matter hasn't changed much since the old regime was ousted. The first play is L'Etat de Siège (The State of Siege), written by Albert Camus and directed by Mina Ezzat. It revolves around the arrival of a plague, personified by a young opportunist, in Cadiz, a city in Spain, and the subsequent creation of a totalitarian regime through the manipulation of fear. In order to make it intensive, the director cut the original play, which is in three acts, into 10 minutes as did his fellow directors in their plays. But in spite of the cuts, actors were still able to show their abilities in those few minutes. Two of the best actors were Mohamed Abdel Wahab who played the dictator and Mayada Amr who played his assistant. The second play is El-Kanaba (the sofa), directed by Ahmed Fouad, who presents in his play an ‘Egyptianisation' of the famous 'Frenzy for Two or More' written by Eugene Ionesco. The original text tackles the life of a husband and wife who are always quarreling about trivial issue like "the difference between the snail and the turtle" without even being aware of the war happening outside their house. In the Egyptian adaptation, Fouad gets the couple to always sit on the sofa where they quarrel about anything and are scared of everything. They thought there was a war, but they didn't even try to move from the sofa to see what was happening. Fouad's adaptation sheds light on the percentage of Egyptians who don't want to take a role in what is happening around them and are known to media as Hezb el-Kanaba (the Sofa party), as they prefer to view the changes and speak about them while siting at home without sharing or participating. The two protagonists participating in the play are Bassem Kenawy and Sara Magdy. The third play is Black directed by Mohamed Nasha'at. It is taken from a 2005 Indian film with the same title. Black revolves around a blind and deaf girl, and her relationship with her teacher who tried his best to teach her everything. The film, so as the play, draws inspiration from the life and struggle of the American author, political activist Helen Keller (1880 – 1968) who was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The actress who plays the deaf-blind girl is Alhan el-Mahdi while the teacher is Mohamed Mohamedy, both being very emotional and playin their roles with love. Shakespeare also was a guest in Special Performance II, as director Mohamed Habib chose to adapt his Romeo and Juliet to a staging of just 10 minutes. As a dancer and choreographer, Habib presents in his play a mixture between acting and modern dance. He retained some of Shakespeare's text and replaced text with dancing in most scenes. The director himself played Romeo while Sara Adel played Juliet. Habib also played the main role in the fifth play Matlob Arousa (Bride Wanted) directed by Ahmed Abdel-Fattah. His play featured a man who is searching for a bride, but unfortunately he finds that each one has a major default, which leads him to refuse the idea of marriage. However, he eventually finds the bride he is searching for. Sara Salam played all the female roles and knew how to be different in every character. The last play is the Egyptian writer Mahmoud Diab's masterpiece Bab el-Fotouh directed by Sherif el-Shalakamy. It tells the story of a knight who came a long way to meet the Sultan to hand him his book Bab el-Fotouh, which contained some principles that would allow his people to live happily if the Sultan followed these principles. The play is a message to every king charging him to respect his people and treat them as free people, not his property or an inherited fortune. The knight, played by Hamdy el-Tayeh, who enjoys a touching voice and performs credibily. Bab el-Fotouh was chosen by Director and supervisor Essam el-Sayyed to be the end of Special Performance II to finalise the six-play, all of which have been exposed to politics, but in a non-political way.
