Chapter 9 - Theatre Festivals in Post-Arab Spring Countries

Summary

The Arab region has boasted an enormous range of theatre festivals throughout the last three decades. The most important ones, Carthage Theatre Days and Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre, are organized under the auspices of government institutions such as ministries of culture. These temporary events are often caught within an ambiguous compromise; that is, the paradox of sanctioning dominant power structures through heightening the continuum of normal time while subverting hierarchies by interrupting the flow of life. The focus of the present undertaking, however, is more a revisiting of the most visible festivals after the Arab Spring, and the current theatrical co-motion. Concepts such as ‘theatrical co-motion’ (Al-Hirak Al-Masrahiy) have gained new momentum among young performers within the context of the recent popular protests (Al-Hirak Chaibi). Despite the fact that most of these organized events are instrumentalized to control dissent, they are also scenes whereupon revolutionary praxis and detour are mapped.