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The Retreating
World:
When the Suffering Goes Onstage
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The play does not deal with the war and Iraq as a political issue, but rather tackles it from a humanitarian perspective
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A
well-written script, a strong and lively performance, and a topic that is
extremely relevant to the audience in the Middle East. These are the only words
by which I can describe the recent production of The Retreating World, a
play written by the American playwright Naomi Wallace, in Howard Theater of the
American University in Cairo (AUC). The production was directed by Layla
Soliman, and performed by Yara Atef, both AUC theatre graduating seniors.
The
Play
The
play is a monodrama whose protagonist is an Iraqi man called Ali. However, the
role was performed by Yara Atef, as both Layla and Yara indicated that the sex
of the role does not matter, because this experience is not one of a male or a
female, but of a human being. The play starts in a very gloomy atmosphere when
this Iraqi woman starts to do different things with books and starts to mention
all the different benefits these books have: Books can make her taller by her
standing on them; she can learn about the world through them; she can sell them
so that she can live; and she even eats them when she is hungry. Throughout the
play, she goes on telling her story and the terrible things that happen to her
beloved ones. The most moving part, however, is when she tries to count the
Iraqis who have had similar stories of suffering and anguish, a moment when the
audience realizes the magnitude of the human disaster created by the war. In an
interview conducted with her earlier by The Revolutionary Worker, Wallace
pointed out that she used books because she was saddened by people having to
sell their books, their most precious things. Moreover, "Many Iraqis,"
said Naomi Wallace, "have told me that in their culture, books are the most
important thing, knowledge and learning."
Naomi
Wallace
Although
Naomi Wallace has never been to Iraq, she manages to tell the story as if it is
her own. Naomi started her career as a poet and only wrote her first play when
she was 32. Since then, her plays have been produced in Britain, across Europe,
and throughout the United States. However, the most fascinating thing about her
is her awareness of and active involvement in world issues and her understanding
of their interdependence with the everyday life of an American citizen. Naomi
believes that there is no such thing as apolitical theater. For art to call
itself apolitical means only that it allies itself with the ruling class. Last
year, as the US forces were getting into Baghdad, she wrote in an essay
published in the London Guardian, “Today it is, once again, war and
empire. And it is with these monstrosities that we [playwrights] should engage
in one form or another. What would Euripides, Marlowe or Brecht have done? They
would have made these times strange, to use a Brechtian formula, so that an
audience could see their society anew and possibly act on those new visions. Why
settle for a lesser goal?"
Naomi
is especially interested in the Middle East, which led her to contribute to
important collective efforts by different artists to bring today’s issues and
persisting questions to the theater. In 2001 she co-produced, with the Artists
Network of Refuse & Resist, "Imagine: Iraq," an evening of
staged readings of new plays that explored the connections between the people of
Iraq and the West in a time of US war and sanctions on Iraq. And in August 2002,
she organized a group of US playwrights to visit theater artists in Palestine.
The
Making of the Play
This
play is the combined graduation project of Layla Soliman (directing) and Yara
Atef (acting). They said that the search for a suitable play was one of the most
challenging experiences of this project because they were looking for a short
play with a female protagonist that also has social and political significance
in the Middle East.
There
were interesting directorial choices in staging the play. Having one player on
stage created a sense of the place and made the performance much more lively.
Also, a video portraying the suffering of Iraqis was displayed at the end of the
play and helped to illustrate the fact that this story is not one of a single
Iraqi; it is one of the millions of stories Iraqis have with consecutive wars.
The
Significance of the Play
The
play is significant not only because it tackles an issue that is relevant and
capable of moving an audience in today’s world, but also because of other
factors. First, the play is written by an American playwright, so this time, the
suffering of the Iraqi people and the magnitude of the war's catastrophe was not
described by Iraqis, or even Arabs. It is described by an American who has never
been to Iraq but who felt the suffering of its people and wanted to share it
with the rest of the Americans and the whole world. Second, the play does not
deal with the war and Iraq as a political issue, but rather tackles it from a
humanitarian perspective. It is not the story of the Gulf War or the regimes
involved in it; it is the story of the people, the ones whose suffering and loss
will never be forgotten and will remain a black spot in modern world history.
Last
but not least, the play is a strong message that a new generation of artists is
emerging, a generation who is not only concerned with creating meaningful art
that carries a message to the audience, but also with the relevance and
significance of this message to the Middle East. Layla Soliman, with this
project, has taken her first step as an aspiring director who is aware of world
issues, especially those of the Arab world and I sincerely wish that she
continues in this direction to inspire others to create art that is relevant to,
and not detached from, the community.
*
Mohammad Shawky,
A graduating
senior in The American University in
Cairo
majoring in business administration, but is more passionate about
education& learning, social development, performing arts, and creative
writing.
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