The 8th Masrahid Festival for monodramas in Arabic took place from August 11 \u2013 13 in Acco. Seeking not only to provide a stage, but to encourage the creation of new works in Arabic, this year\u2019s festival was preceded by a six month series of writing and staging workshops directed by Firas Rubi. As an additional encouragement to aspiring playwrights, a prize was awarded for the best play among the seven participating monodramas. “Not the Ship of Noah” by Marwan Makhoul, received the award for Best Play at the festival’s closing ceremony Thursday night. First Prize in the festival went to “Herzl Said” by Iyad Barghouti, directed by Munir Bakhri and performed by Ghassan Abbas.<\/p>\n
The first Masrahid festival took place in Haifa in 1992 and after a long interval; the festival was re-launched in Acco in 2001. Art directors for the festival are: Smadar Yaaron, Usama Masri and Firas Rubi, and the artistic committee includes: Jerias Tanos,Smadar Yaaron, Moni Joseph, Usama Masri, and Abu Ali khald. In addition to the competing monodramas there were several guest performances: Mizmar Band, Zaman Band, Ibraheem Khalil Band, and the Rimaz Dance Ensemble. Two additional plays were invited to participate in the festival: Hassem Yassin\u2019s \u201cHello Peace\u201d performed in Hebrew, and \u201cHeld on the Threshold\u201d directed by Prof. Shimon Levy and performed in English by Henriette Ceipek.<\/p>\n
The Old City of Acco with its beautiful courtyards, stone arches and ancient buildings transformed to theatrical halls, creates an inviting atmosphere for the festival, which attracted a diverse, multi-age crowd. The two plays I attended on the first night of the festival \u2013 \u201cHerzl Said\u201d and \u201cNot the Ship of Noah\u201d \u2013 were performed to a full house. Standing in front of the entrance to the theatre before the first play, I chatted with another person waiting before the door, who turned out to be the playwright, Iyad Barghouti. I didn\u2019t have a chance to ask him about the play before he was deep into a political discussion with Elizur Reuveni, whose photographs accompany this article, about the existence of different narratives of history. The atmosphere was somehow charged yet friendly, the two agreed to disagree and we entered the theatre.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/embed><\/object>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nBarghouti\u2019s play \u201cHerzl Said\u201d relates the story of an Arab man who has taught history, Jewish history, in the Israeli school system for 27 years. Performed with a perfect combination of passion and restraint by Ghassan Abbas, the teacher Haled confronts his past and attempts to resolve his crisis of identity within an absurd situation. Directed by Munir Bakhri, the play was performed in Arabic, with Hebrew superscripts.<\/p>\nI then saw \u201cNot the Ship of Noah,\u201d the first play written by poet Marwan Makhoul. Director Norman Issa describes the play as being about \u201ca young man closed in a room. His mind is unquiet because of his relationship with his brother who is physically handicapped, yet there exists a healthy mind and spirit within. He takes upon himself a great deal of guilt for his brother\u2019s condition.\u201d The set consists of four poles set on each corner of a square stage covered with white paper. Piles of newspapers surround the stage and figure prominently in the performance. Issa says \u201cthe newspapers symbolize the bullshit that surrounds and nurtures us. The protagonist makes paper boats out of the newspapers; he has a dream of making a large boat to take his brother away, out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\nTranslation was not provided for this play, which created an interesting situation for audience members like me, whose knowledge of Arabic is extremely limited. Rabii Khoury was fascinating to watch, as he entered into dialogues with his father and brother (two words I could identify) in the course of the play, emotions dancing on his expressive face as he navigated the troubled waters of those relationships. Listening to the plays made me acutely aware of how rare it is for me to attend a performance in Arabic, how these two cultures, Hebrew and Arabic exist in such close proximity, yet remain worlds apart. Talking with the playwright and director about the question of translation after the play, Issa commented, \u201cMasrahid is plays in Arabic, the fact that you do not understand Arabic is your problem.\u201d<\/p>\nIt is a problem that most cities in Israel avoid fairly easily, as the two cultures usually live in different places; Acco is exceptional in that regard. Mayor Shimon Lankry said, \u201cWe live one inside the other. It\u2019s not like Tel Aviv \u2013 Jaffa or Nazareth where there are really two separate communities geographically and socially. I lived in an apartment block for five years where we were six Jewish families and six Arab families. Acco is a challenge, an experience. It\u2019s an amazing place, multi-cultural \u2013 and I see this as an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\nLankry, who spent ten years as director of youth activities and sport in Acco before becoming mayor, does not deny the difficulties: \u201cWhen different cultures live together, especially living through so many wars in such a short time frame, reading reports in Al-Jazeera on one hand, and Israeli media on the other, there are tensions and these tensions rise to the surface. I was a platoon leader in the IDF, my approach is practical \u2013 to find a solution to the problem. Culture is very close to my heart, we strongly support the arts in Acco and Acco is constantly improving itself, both in appearance and socially, but there is still much to be done.\u201d<\/p>\nIn the festival\u2019s opening ceremonies a prize for lifetime achievement was awarded to Samir Khoury, director of the Jbeneh Theatre. Khoury addressed the audience in Arabic and later commented to me, \u201cI didn\u2019t realize that it would feel so exciting to receive a prize.\u201d<\/p>\nThe plays participating in the competition:<\/p>\nHerzl Said by Iyad Barghouti\nDirected by Munir Bakri, performed by Ghassan Abbas\nProduction: Theatre Al LaJune<\/p>\nNot the Ship of Noah by Marwan Makhoul\nDirected by Norman Issa, performed by Rabii Khoury.\nMusic: Mira Awad\nProduction: Al- Saraia Jaffa<\/p>\nBisher (Straight) by Adnan Trabshi\nDirected by Amar Hlihl, performed by Shaki Fakher Al-Din.\nProduction: Theater Al-Mraia.\nBisher, a young man approaching adulthood, reflects on sexuality and the \u201cfuture\u201d.<\/p>\nPresident Sadat & Masters by Naji Dahar\nEdited & directed by Hisham Suleiman, performed by Iyad Shity\nProduction: Theatre Ensemble Fringe-Nazareth\nA Palestinian actor portrays President Anwar Sadat in the Masrahid Festival yet feels conflicted about the role he must play\u2026can he effect a change?<\/p>\nThe Teacher by Roberto Athayde\nEdited & directed by Arie Yas, performed by Mahmoud Mora.\nProduction: Theater Al-Ajial- Tamra.\nCamel, who wanted to be a pilot, has ended up as a teacher of Arabic. He wants the respect he deserves from his students, and tries to teach them something about life.<\/p>\nThe Dark Side of the Moon by Bayan Antir.\nDirected by Bayan Antir, performed by Kity Yaakob\nPlay by- Director: Bayan Antir.\nWe cannot see the dark side of the moon and critique of our society is carried out in whispers \u2013 except on the stage where it is presented through the memories of a woman.<\/p>\nDiary of a madman by Nikolai Gogol\nEdited & Directed by Tayeb Sidiki, performed by Muhammed Zoher\nProduction: Theater Al-Nas- Morocco\nA simple clerk in love with the boss\u2019 daughter discovers that he is the heir to the throne of Spain and fights for his crown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 8th Masrahid Festival for monodramas in Arabic took place from August 11 \u2013 13 in Acco. Seeking not only to provide a stage, but to encourage the creation of new works in Arabic, this year\u2019s festival was preceded by a six month series of writing and staging workshops directed by Firas Rubi. As an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barghouti\u2019s play \u201cHerzl Said\u201d relates the story of an Arab man who has taught history, Jewish history, in the Israeli school system for 27 years. Performed with a perfect combination of passion and restraint by Ghassan Abbas, the teacher Haled confronts his past and attempts to resolve his crisis of identity within an absurd situation. Directed by Munir Bakhri, the play was performed in Arabic, with Hebrew superscripts.<\/p>\n
I then saw \u201cNot the Ship of Noah,\u201d the first play written by poet Marwan Makhoul. Director Norman Issa describes the play as being about \u201ca young man closed in a room. His mind is unquiet because of his relationship with his brother who is physically handicapped, yet there exists a healthy mind and spirit within. He takes upon himself a great deal of guilt for his brother\u2019s condition.\u201d The set consists of four poles set on each corner of a square stage covered with white paper. Piles of newspapers surround the stage and figure prominently in the performance. Issa says \u201cthe newspapers symbolize the bullshit that surrounds and nurtures us. The protagonist makes paper boats out of the newspapers; he has a dream of making a large boat to take his brother away, out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Translation was not provided for this play, which created an interesting situation for audience members like me, whose knowledge of Arabic is extremely limited. Rabii Khoury was fascinating to watch, as he entered into dialogues with his father and brother (two words I could identify) in the course of the play, emotions dancing on his expressive face as he navigated the troubled waters of those relationships. Listening to the plays made me acutely aware of how rare it is for me to attend a performance in Arabic, how these two cultures, Hebrew and Arabic exist in such close proximity, yet remain worlds apart. Talking with the playwright and director about the question of translation after the play, Issa commented, \u201cMasrahid is plays in Arabic, the fact that you do not understand Arabic is your problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a problem that most cities in Israel avoid fairly easily, as the two cultures usually live in different places; Acco is exceptional in that regard. Mayor Shimon Lankry said, \u201cWe live one inside the other. It\u2019s not like Tel Aviv \u2013 Jaffa or Nazareth where there are really two separate communities geographically and socially. I lived in an apartment block for five years where we were six Jewish families and six Arab families. Acco is a challenge, an experience. It\u2019s an amazing place, multi-cultural \u2013 and I see this as an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lankry, who spent ten years as director of youth activities and sport in Acco before becoming mayor, does not deny the difficulties: \u201cWhen different cultures live together, especially living through so many wars in such a short time frame, reading reports in Al-Jazeera on one hand, and Israeli media on the other, there are tensions and these tensions rise to the surface. I was a platoon leader in the IDF, my approach is practical \u2013 to find a solution to the problem. Culture is very close to my heart, we strongly support the arts in Acco and Acco is constantly improving itself, both in appearance and socially, but there is still much to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the festival\u2019s opening ceremonies a prize for lifetime achievement was awarded to Samir Khoury, director of the Jbeneh Theatre. Khoury addressed the audience in Arabic and later commented to me, \u201cI didn\u2019t realize that it would feel so exciting to receive a prize.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plays participating in the competition:<\/p>\n
Herzl Said by Iyad Barghouti\nDirected by Munir Bakri, performed by Ghassan Abbas\nProduction: Theatre Al LaJune<\/p>\n
Not the Ship of Noah by Marwan Makhoul\nDirected by Norman Issa, performed by Rabii Khoury.\nMusic: Mira Awad\nProduction: Al- Saraia Jaffa<\/p>\n
Bisher (Straight) by Adnan Trabshi\nDirected by Amar Hlihl, performed by Shaki Fakher Al-Din.\nProduction: Theater Al-Mraia.\nBisher, a young man approaching adulthood, reflects on sexuality and the \u201cfuture\u201d.<\/p>\n
President Sadat & Masters by Naji Dahar\nEdited & directed by Hisham Suleiman, performed by Iyad Shity\nProduction: Theatre Ensemble Fringe-Nazareth\nA Palestinian actor portrays President Anwar Sadat in the Masrahid Festival yet feels conflicted about the role he must play\u2026can he effect a change?<\/p>\n
The Teacher by Roberto Athayde\nEdited & directed by Arie Yas, performed by Mahmoud Mora.\nProduction: Theater Al-Ajial- Tamra.\nCamel, who wanted to be a pilot, has ended up as a teacher of Arabic. He wants the respect he deserves from his students, and tries to teach them something about life.<\/p>\n
The Dark Side of the Moon by Bayan Antir.\nDirected by Bayan Antir, performed by Kity Yaakob\nPlay by- Director: Bayan Antir.\nWe cannot see the dark side of the moon and critique of our society is carried out in whispers \u2013 except on the stage where it is presented through the memories of a woman.<\/p>\n
Diary of a madman by Nikolai Gogol\nEdited & Directed by Tayeb Sidiki, performed by Muhammed Zoher\nProduction: Theater Al-Nas- Morocco\nA simple clerk in love with the boss\u2019 daughter discovers that he is the heir to the throne of Spain and fights for his crown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 8th Masrahid Festival for monodramas in Arabic took place from August 11 \u2013 13 in Acco. Seeking not only to provide a stage, but to encourage the creation of new works in Arabic, this year\u2019s festival was preceded by a six month series of writing and staging workshops directed by Firas Rubi. As an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}