Theatrical conflagration?

Who is to blame for the Beni Sweif theatre tragedy? Nevine El-Aref noses around the ashes

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In what is likely to be one of the more unforgettable incidents in the history of modern performance art in Egypt, the Beni Sweif Cultural Palace gallery caught fire during a 15th Amateur Theatre Festival performance last week. The initial cause of the tragedy is thought to be candles used as part of the set of the play on show that evening, while the fire found in the materials of the set -- mostly coloured paper and wood -- an easy target. Spectators, actors, theatre critics and intellectuals stampeded towards the door as the flames lashed about; since the main door was locked, many were trapped inside. Some found their way through a small exit at the other end of the hall, but the inferno managed to kill 32 people and injure 38. The deadly blaze extinguished, nothing was left of the interior except the burnt out corpses of the victims and plenty of ash.

The cultural centre was on the fifth day of a nine-day event featuring performances from around the country. About 150- 200 people were watching a theater troupe from nearby Fayoum performing a play entitled "Grab Your Dreams" when the fire broke out about 11:45 pm, Monday. Perhaps to downplay the true dimensions of the tragedy, security officials had declared that around 1,000 people were in the audience, but the venue appeared too small to hold that many people. The play was set in a zoo, and the stage was made to look like a cave inside one of the animal cages. Ceiling, floor and walls were covered with paper bags painted to look like stone, and on centre stage there was, in addition, a paper mountain. There were candles all over the set, survivors testified. And determining who is responsible for the disaster has proved very hard.

The incident has given way to a fierce campaign directed at the Ministry of Culture, which is -- perhaps rightly -- accused of negligence, especially in the fire-hazard department. Writers, artists and intellectuals -- both individually and in groups -- have been speaking vehemently out against the ministry; and the nascent Writers and Artists for Change rally, a peaceful political force, even filed an official appeal for investigation with the general prosecutor, pointing out that, in the light of the very low budgets allocated to such performances by the ministry, the theatre people in question could only have afforded a readily combustible set - in which case the ministry could at least make the effort to install proper anti-fire equipment. Effective alarm and fire extinguishing equipment might have contained the fire and limited the scope of the disaster, they explained.

For his part, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni dismissed the accusations levelled at him as unfounded. "I have the most to lose," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The critics, students and actors who died formed part of the cultural wealth of the country, and they helped boost awareness of the arts, to boot. No one can imagine my grief. They were colleagues and friends, my children and the ministry's assets. They are martyrs of Egyptian culture. But such is fate and destiny," he went on. "If the fire fighters had arrived two minutes later, you realise, there would have been even more victims. And instead of blaming the ministry, those intellectuals who were there would have done better to warn the performance against using candles on stage, which practise is prohibited by international law. Where were the head of the cultural palace and the head of the festival? Where were the security personnel? How could they allow the use of candles? Those who are in charge, I promise you, will be severely questioned." He went on to describe the Writers and Artists for Change's appeal to the prosector as an instance of "political profiteering", undertaken in the wake of the presidential elections -- to breathe (subversive) life back into a defeated opposition.

"I have myself demanded a criminal as well as administrative investigation to find out who is responsible," Hosni went on. "No one is above the law. If the investigations end up indicting me, I will be more than ready for trial." He also set up a special committee to look not only into the incident but in safety procedures throughout Ministry of Culture venues, and to distribute a printout the international theatre law. Limited budgets are only to be expected in a realm generally referred to as "the poor theatre", he added, through which amateurs have always performed - on stairs as well as small stages, in administrative rooms and even in the open air: a kind of talent incubator that should not require more than the most basic financial support - LE1,500 a year, per troupe - in addition to Cultural Palace facilities. In addition to the customary compensation provided to the victims' families by the governement, the Cultural Development Fund will provide the families of the dead and the injured, respectively, with LE10,000 and LE5,000. Besides, the names of the "martyrs" will be honoured in a major Ministry of Culture event to mark their misfortune.

For his part Mustafa Elwi, head of the Culture Palace Authority, blamed the director of the play, who died in the blaze, for, first, performing in an art gallery not properly equipped as a theatre and, secondly, insisting on locking the main gate in order to use it as part of the set. His institution is properly equipped, he asserted, explaining that the 32 extinguishers used by fire fighters to put out the fire actually belong to the Beni Sweif Cultural Palace. "But what happened was beyond all expectations," he went on. "This is a space normally used for exhibiting art." Compensation aside, Elwi promised to provide the closest relatives of the deceased with employment - to help delimit the ultimate financial impact of the incident on the bereft families. While the law provides for safety measures throughout the country, he added, they are not strictly enforced.

In a telephone interview Yosri Hassaan, the general secretary of Egypt's Writers Conference, however, blamed the Beni Sweif security authority. For it is that institution's responsibility, he explained, to provide public venues with what is needed. "A witness told me," he recounted, "that on hearing of the incident Beni Sweif's civil defence forces sent out only two policemen with a fire extinguisher." Such events require proper security measures, he insisted, such as an ambulance and a fire engine, should be placed outside the venue, at the ready; such measures are especially necessary, he added, in the light of Beni Sweif being a hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism, which makes terrorist strikes quite likely: "In fact, the civil defense administration and the public security had been informed that a festival would be taking place in town but failed to secure the event." Actor Ashraf Zaki, the head of the Theatre Art House, attributed the incident rather to the lack of periodical maintenance, calling for regular security checkups at public and private venues throughout the country. He described the insouciance with which public venues are treated as a time bomb that could explode any minute, pointing out that, in the absence of proper storage facilities, backstage spaces in many theatres are used for storing old sets, which makes a fire all the more likely to spread.