Silicone Bombs Hit the Stage
Outside, a wind is blowing off the sea against the new library, a disc-shaped building set at an angle into the ground. Inside, the Gallery Theatre in the Congress Centre is full to bursting. The Palestinian Harah Theatre is performing "I Have a Dream". But anyone expecting intifada slogans and martyrs' ideology is disappointed. This dream is a shimmering blaze of colour, sounds like Shakira and tries to find its way out into the world via computer keyboards.
A young woman jerks her hips as loud pop music plays in the background, completely abandoning herself and the audience to the movements of her body on the stage. In the next scene, a teenager turns the pages of a porno magazine, engrossed in the images. Startled by the sound of approaching footsteps, he hurls the magazine under his stool.
Then we see four young people in an Internet café. They are all busy constructing an identity for the World Wide Web, one that will be globally applicable and not compromised by the ongoing Palestinian fight. The young woman, for example, dons a blonde wig for her Facebook photo, so that she might look like Shakira, or some other icon from the world beyond.
Free from the constraints of a Palestinians identity
"Young Palestinians have had enough of the battle for their own state, of war and the daily drudgery of life in the occupied territories," says Marina Barham, who leads the theatre group from Beit Jala on the West Bank. In Internet chatrooms they are free from the constraints of a Palestinians identity, and can travel through a virtual world and live out their dreams, which are very similar to the dreams of other young people anywhere in the world, she says.
"It used to be the case that our young people were more interested in the Palestinian cause than they were in themselves. That has changed radically. They no longer believe that they are needed here, and want to emigrate, to see the world, live," says Marina Barham after the performance in Alexandria. The piece is based on the theatre's own research. Writers used questionnaires and interviews to find out what makes young people tick.
"Young people are tired of everyday life in an unstable political situation. They try to escape this reality by linking up with young people outside their constricted world via the Internet," says Marina Barham.
Resurrecting the spirit of openness and dialogue
The play "I Have a Dream" was one of the highlights of the 7th Creative Forum for Independent Theatre Groups, which took place in February in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. Festival director and theatre director Mahmoud Aboudoma aimed to present young theatre representatives from Europe and the Mediterranean region with a forum for encounters and exchange. Three hundred people were invited this year to show their productions, or to take part in workshops and podium discussions.
The Forum is supported every year by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, opened in 2002 in a provocatively modern building not far from the original classical library that was gutted by fire. By demonstrating that apart from serving academic research and the pursuit of knowledge, it also champions exchange with the world's cultures, the library is managing to resurrect the spirit of openness and dialogue that characterized the old library and made it famous. What better place to host the Creative Forum for Independent Theatre Groups.
The library not only makes several performance rooms available in its conference centre, Aboudoma also says it also contributes 20 percent of the forum's budget, a sum last year totalling 2.4 million Egyptian pounds (320,000 euros).
The 10-day festival is essentially financed by European cultural institutions from Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Spain, The Netherlands and France, as well as Germany's Goethe Institute and Pro Helvetia.
Aboudoma emphasizes the event's character as a forum, which gets by without any stars or competitions, but encourages new impulses in discussions and workshops. For example, a five-hour session on generational dialogue in theatre took place at the Swedish Institute on the Corniche. It was attended by Lebanese director Lina Abyad, who has herself worked with many leading lights such as the Egyptian feminist Nawal al-Saadawy. Abyad told the gathering how nervous she was at the prospect of staging one of her student's first plays.
War and superficial beauty obsessions
"I was so afraid I would disappoint my student, who had learned from me and shows me respect." The student's name is Abir Hamdar, and her play "Silicone Bomb" was given a rapturous reception at the Alexandria gathering.
Written in the form of a telephone conversation between two women against the backdrop of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon in the summer of 2006, it tells of the fears one woman has for her silicon breasts. She thinks the silicon has exploded in the omnipresent hail of bombs, and that it is now poisoning her body. This dynamically performed piece highlights the absurd proximity of the daily impact of war and superficial beauty obsessions.
Apart from the theatre performances, podium discussions and workshops, the publication programme for Arab female playwrights also looked promising. Plays by seven female writers from Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco and the Palestinian territories were translated into English and presented at the forum in the form of bi-lingual books. All the writers except one managed to attend the forum and signed copies of their books. The opportunity to hold a podium discussion on the female presence in Arab theatre was however not seized upon.
As the forum's artistic director explained, one of the meeting's declared goals is to break down mutual distrust between East and West. In view of this, it is a shame that the idea of inviting theatre representatives from Israel is obviously taboo. "Then I would have politicised the forum, and I didn't want that," said Aboudoma. Despite an official peace between the two neighbours, Israel is viewed with great mistrust in Egypt – even in matters of a cultural nature.
Susanne Schanda
© Qantara.de 2010
Translated from the German by Nina Coon
Qantara.de
Interview with Juliano Mer Khamis
"Politically-Speaking, I Am Palestinian"
Juliano Mer Khamis is an Israeli actor and director. His father was a Palestinian, his mother a Jew. Igal Avidan spoke with him about political radicalism, the traumas of Palestinian youths, about his most recent film and his "Freedom Theatre" project
Cultural Exchange between Egypt and Israel
Anti-Normalisation as a Way of Life
The flags have been flying over the respective embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv for 30 years, but as far as culture is concerned there is as little sign as ever of any normalisation of relations between Egypt and Israel. Amira El Ahl takes a look at the problem from an Egyptian perspective
The Drama Academy in Ramallah
Hope for an Open Window on the World
Good news from the West Bank is rare. But at last there is some: Ramallah is celebrating the opening of a new "Drama Academy", a unique drama school project in the Palestinian territories. Ruth Kinet reports