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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 May 2000 Issue No. 483 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 May 2000 Issue No. 483
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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SATURDAY marked the 50th anniversary of the death of George Abyad (1880-1950), actor, director, pioneer and legend of the Arab stage. Paradoxically, the occasion is likely to receive little media attention at a time when the struggle between regressive sectarianism and "enlightenment" (in the Arab, rather than the western sense of the word) has reached a disappointing, if ultimately frivolous head. The Islamist extremist hubbub surrounding the first Egyptian edition of a Syrian novelist's masterpiece provides a painfully ironic backdrop for celebrating the achievement of a Lebanese icon of the modern Arab renaissance who lived and worked in Egypt. 
Levantine tunes
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Along with Salama Hegazi (also a major musician) and the Okasha brothers, Abyad is invoked in connection with the earliest foundations of Egyptian theatre, a turn-of-the-century affair closely connected with music (the only respectable form of public performance to be acknowledged before the end of the 19th century) and involving the adoption of western models of production and classic western dramatic texts.
With Abyad (1912 onwards), theatre acquired an impressively intellectual edge. For the process of "Arabising" the classics he solicited the talents of well-respected Levantine writers, notably his life-long collaborator Farah Anton and the famous poet Khalil Mutran. His troupe was likewise co-founded by two of the greatest names in the as yet short history of Egyptian acting: Aziz Eid (also a major director) and Omar Wasfi. It was thus that he utilised the overlap between the literary and performance, occupying a place of eminence among those who were struggling to turn theatre into a respectable art and for the first time applying "scientific" performance principles to the stage. The troupe's first -- short but wildly successful -- season in Alexandria (1912) is said to have drawn to theatre intellectuals and royals who had never before attended an Egyptian play.
Born in Beirut, with a diploma in telegraphy (1897) -- the Sidi Gaber railway station master since 1899 -- Abyad was the kind of person to be sent by Khedive Abbas Helmi "on a study mission to the greatest drama schools in Europe," according to Al-Ahram of 21 March 1912, "where he proved his excellence in this art." The viability of theatre as respectable art was in the process of being tested when he performed before the Khedive in 1904. In 1910 he returned, performing for two seasons with the French troupe he had been associated with, in both Alexandria and Cairo.
When the French troupe left Egypt, in the words of Al-Ahram, Abyad "formed a theatre troupe and, selecting the finest plays to present to the Egyptian audience, he demonstrated the fruits of his education, efforts and expertise," comprising both "a group of literati or lawyers who had left their original profession, not as the result of failure or financial loss, but in pursuit of the honour to serve their nation in a manner that is not yet fully appreciated by the general public, and a group of professional actors, whose natural talents have been honed by lengthy training under the tutelage of Sheikh Salama Hegazi and then perfected under their new director." The troupe was to be a permanent fixture of, among other venues, the Ezbekiya (now National) theatre and the Opera House Theatre in Cairo.
1913 saw Abyad's first fully Egyptian play, partly in response to demands for starting an indigenous theatrical tradition by the public and in the press. Masr El-Gedida, also known as Working Girls and Salon Girls, written by Anton, tackled the issue of women's liberation.
While presenting both viewpoints on the extent to which women should be allowed to assume a public role and participate in professional life, the play sensibly sided with the liberal and progressive view that such liberation should not be an excuse for lack of virtue nor take away from personal and moral integrity. The virtuous woman who is fully educated, socially and professionally active was hailed as the exemplary Egyptian woman of the future. Responses were predominantly positive.
The play helped define the Abyad school of acting, to which subsequent generations of actors, even to the present day, remain indebted. And thus a long and astounding career took off.
Abyad's best-known plays include Oedipus, Othello, Louis XI. His efforts off-stage helped lay the foundations of the acting profession: in 1933 he formed an actors' union; and in 1942 he became the first head of the independent actors' syndicate. He also participated in the budding film industry during the 1930s and 1940s. Abyad married actress Dawlat Abyad (1894-1978), to whom he remained attached till the end of his life.
For exhibition details, see Listings.
