Al-Ahram Weekly Online 20 - 26 September 2001 Issue No.552
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

photo: Abdel-Hamid Eid

FROM shows that substitute dialogue with barely human shrieks to modern renditions of the Greek classics, the 13th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (CIFET) this year respected no boundaries of form or content.

Following the performances, however, it was the conflation of politics and theatre that solicited the most commentary. The triumph of Palestine's Qissas Taht Al-Ihtilal (Stories Under Occupation), a series of monologues narrating the events of the year-long Intifada, met with almost unanimous approval on the part of those attending last week's closing ceremony. That it was perceived as a political statement should not obscure the show's artistic merit, to which the fact that jury members were mostly from the West was thought to testify. Many have noted that the victory of Ramallah's Al-Qasaba Theatre draws attention to the plight of the Palestinians at a time when the disasters befalling the US have obscured it.

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