Performers in A Plastic Dream
When a black comedy about post-revolution Egypt opened this year it did so not in Cairo but in Berlin. The director of A Plastic Dream Shady El Dali had managed to show the work for a couple of nights in different venues in Egypt last year by passing them off as open rehearsals but the difficulty of getting a work past the censor had prevented it opening in a state-run venue.
After the Berlin season A Plastic Dream opened last month at the state-owned Al-Tali’a Theatre in Cairo but only with some complex political machinations which place it in an uncomfortable legal grey area.
The story of the production of A Plastic Dream is an indication of the uncomfortable world in which theatremakers in post-revolutionary Egypt live. To find the heart of their world, you need to go to Nadwa, a humble ahwa (traditional café) and the unofficial gathering spot for many activists and artists in downtown Cairo, including many involved with the thriving independent theatre scene.
There is a clamor of clinking glass cups and chatter. A small man with short sprouts of white hair carries a metal tray of tea and coffee and navigates his way around low tables and chairs congregated haphazardly on the narrow sidewalk where the theatre revolutionaries of Egypt gather.
Saidi is a mime and storyteller who has performed all over the country, including Upper Egypt and Sinai. He also acts on stage and offers theatre workshops to children. Ali is a street-performer, working with a clowning troupe who focuses their performances in low-income neighbourhoods and now, more specifically, those with a high concentration of refugees living in Egypt. H is a playwright and director who has been working on independent theatre in Egypt for the past fifteen years.
None is comfortable giving their full name to a journalist. The 2011 Egyptian Revolution unseated a president and destabilised a government but theatre in Egypt remains a risky business. It is both practically and politically difficult to perform in Cairo.
One of the reasons the small but diverse group of underground theatre-makers often gather at Nadwa, according to H, is that beyond the social aspects of the café, it allows for a meeting space which cannot be fulfilled elsewhere.
With most spaces state owned and requiring censor approval for performance, it is difficult for independent theatre to find a place to develop.
The spaces that do exist have been mired by increasingly exorbitant prices. ‘We performed at a theatre last year, who charged us 300 LE (Egyptian Pounds) ($46 AUD). Within less than a year, the rent for the same stage has risen to 1500 LE” ($230AUD),’ said H.
But avoiding rising rents and working in street performance can be dangerous. Saidi and Ali have both faced harassment from state authorities and from members of the public. Street arguments often lead to a situation where theatre is regarded as disturbing the peace. Worse, such conflicts ‘quickly devolve into personal threats against the actors themselves’,’ said Saidi.
Such threats create an atmosphere of self-censorship among Egypt’s street performers as they seek to avoid confrontations which begin with heckling but can lead the involvement of state authorities.
Mainstream theatre in Egypt was considered to be at its apex during the 1950s and 60s, which were heavy on big productions aimed at the then burgeoning middle-class. Theatre in the ‘golden years’ was heavily influenced by the sense of nationalism popular during the Nasserist era.
During this period, the state theatre adopted the slogan, ‘Theatre is the people’s school’ (al-masrah madrasat al-šah’b) a tool used by the state to ‘educate’ the masses and propagate ideas of socialism.
The State’s pervasive role in citizen’s lives, were one of the central reasons independent theatre began to emerge in Egypt in the late 1980s. By creating self-produced pieces on the margins of the mainstream, theatre groups returned to the crux of theatre; to provoke questions concerning society and offer audiences room to critique. It was a space carved out in direct opposition to the national theatre, which was overtly nationalistic and patriotic.
Even today, state theatre is largely seen by independent artists, as a thinly-veiled mouthpiece for the state. During the celebration of the 6th of October of this year, Egyptian children and their families flooded state theatres to watch a play bolstering the Egyptian army, in recognition of the 1973 war against Israel. The children wore t-shirts with the Egyptian flag with “Egypt, I love you” scrawled across the front and chanted songs and slogans declaring their support of the army. ‘We will be one of your soldiers to protect your land,’ they sang as they held small toy- pistols.
Children participate in state-sanctioned theatre celebrating militarism
On the other side of the spectrum, since 2000, and largely in response to the war in Iraq, independent artists began to delve into more critical content to offer their audiences alternative viewpoints. A few days after the 6 October performance, an independent company, Atelier Masrah, performed a show depicting an army general speaking about freedom and democracy to his citizens, juxtaposing scenes of a benevolent leader and cheering crowds with scenes of citizens raising questions of legitimacy and the generals shooting at them.
Since its creation, theatre has somehow been a harbinger for the times to follow. H performed a play in 2007, criticizing Gamal Mubarak’s potential succession of his father’s position as president. Questions raised about nepotism were in fact, a major reason for the ousting of Mubarak in 2011. H had the play performed in front of the Cairo Opera House, even though almost immediately after the show began, policemen in civil clothes were monitoring his work.
The theatre scene in Egypt remains small, but tight-knit. Despite limitations due to censorship and spaces to perform, the artists push one another to find alternative solutions to their problems. Sitting in Nadwa, H. laughs with the other actors ‘We don’t know where to rehearse, but we will play in Tahrir square for the anniversary of the revolution, on the 25th of January, a play that will speak about the military regimes in Africa, to remind everyone what we do not want any more for our country.’
