CIFET awards
Controversy over the choice of entries in the international competition, which often extends to the composition of the three-member international selection committee itself, has become one of the abiding features of CIFET. In previous years, the objection was that it was an all-white, all-male committee. This year, though still all- white, at least (with Marta Coigney from the US and Margaret Walters from the UK, plus Richard Martin from France) women are in the majority. The task they faced was daunting -- wading through 59 productions from 46 countries to nominate a reasonable number of competitors for the international jury to see. Any process of exclusion invariably raises the question of criteria, and this year, the nomination of countries like Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- fledglings where theatre is concerned -- for the contest (while old hands like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Tunisia were ignored) caused general confusion and some bafflement. Was it a gesture of encouragement, an attempt to persuade those countries to pay more attention to theatre? But whatever the logic behind the choice, the 11- member international jury committee ( led by Ginka Tscholakowa-Henle from Germany, with two more women on the panel) was landed with 18 productions from 16 different countries, including Egypt. Their verdict, announced in the closing ceremony yesterday, provoked the predictable controversies. But then, CIFET would hardly be CIFET without the fights. It is part of being experimental, one might say.
The Awards:
Best Production: The Hamlet Summit
(England)
Best Director: The Anglo-Kuwaiti Sulayman Al-Bassam for The Hamlet Summit
Best Scenography: The Brides of Charon -- photo, left --
(The Czech Republic)
Best Actress: Hua Xianghong (China) for her performance in Wuchang and Nudiao
Best Actor: Zhao Zheng (China) for his performance in Wuchang and Nudiao
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