World Theatre

The Basics

E. J. Westlake

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317561828
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Categoría: Teatro

World Theatre: The Basics presents a well-rounded introduction to non-Western theatre, exploring the history and current practice of theatrical traditions in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Oceania, the Caribbean, and the non-English-speaking cultures of the Americas. Featuring a selection of case studies and examples from each region, it helps the reader to understand the key issues surrounding world theatre scholarship and global, postcolonial, and transnational performance practices.

An essential read for anyone seeking to learn more about world theatre, World Theatre: The Basics provides a clear, accessible roadmap for approaching non-Western theatre.

1

THE MIDDLE EAST

The first documented suggestion of a theatrical performance comes from the area commonly called the “Middle East.” It is worth noting that the first use of the term “Middle East” was by the India Office in Britain in the nineteenth century. Different cultural groups have different names for the area, although most names refer to this area as “east” in that it is both the eastern part of the Mediterranean and the historically eastern part of the Arab-speaking world. The modern-day nations from Egypt to Iran and the Arabian Peninsula to Turkey are included in this region.

ABYDOS AND THE PROBLEM OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD

Until recently, the account of the Abydos Passion Play, or the festival processional ritual of the death, dismemberment, and resurrection of the Egyptian god Osiris, had long been considered by theatre historians to be the first account of a theatrical performance in the historical record. Abydos, or Abdju as it was called, was an important burial site for many of the pharaohs beginning with the first dynasty (sometime between the thirty-fourth and thirtieth centuries BCE). Because of its significance as a burial site, it became a center for the worship of Osiris, the god of the underworld.

Osiris, the mythical ruler of prehistoric Egypt, is the son of the earth god Geb (and some say the sun god Ra) and the sky goddess Nut. He is dismembered by his jealous brother Seth who wants to take the throne from him. Seth scatters his body so that he cannot live in the afterlife. The wife (and also sister) of Osiris, Isis, gathers his remains and reassembles him so that he can live in the underworld. They then conceive a son, Horus, who after violent struggle, reclaims the throne from Seth. The themes of just kingship and coronation, death and resurrection, became ideal material for ceremonies for the burials of rulers, the succession of the throne, and the changing seasons related to the harvest. The latter association was the reason the Abydos procession was performed in conjunction with the annual flooding of the Nile.

While we can imagine that there has been theatrical activity for as long as there have been human beings, we have no record of this activity. And because we can imagine that this theatrical activity has existed, it is tempting to say Abydos is the first event for which we have a concrete artifact, an artifact that seems to be an eyewitness account. This is the reason that this procession has had such great importance in the history of the theatre. Indeed, there are a number of earlier texts of stories and myths that many historians believe were associated with a performance, but we have no record of the performance itself.

However, as Alan Sikes notes in his essay on Abydos, we must use caution when attempting to interpret the text as something “theatrical.” The privileging of Abydos as a “passion play” has its roots in the idea that theatre evolved from ritual. Therefore, Abydos, a funerary rite, provided theatre scholars who subscribed to the ritual origin theory with an ideal “missing link” between ritual and theatre. That this has left us with such an open question that continues to be debated makes Ikhernofret’s account, and what historians have made of it, worth discussing here.

The account appears on a stela (or stone) and belongs to the man Ikhernofret, a treasurer and “companion of the king” (according to the text) during the rule of Senusret III (reign 1878–1839 BCE). Egyptologist Jan Assmann notes that Ikhernofret’s account of the festivities can be divided into four sections: (1) The Procession of Wepwawet (the Opener of the Ways), (2) The “Great Procession” in the Neshmet-barque, (3) The Night of the “Battling Horus”: the Haker Festival, and (4) the Procession to the Temple of Osiris (227–229).

Most of the text of the stela sounds like any devotional procession:

I arranged the Great Procession and accompanied the god on his way. I caused the divine barque to sail, and Thoth granted that the journey went well. I outfitted the barque “Appearing in Maat” of the lord of Abydos with a cabin and put on his crown. How beautiful was his procession to the district of U-poqer! I sanctified the ways of the god to his grave at the peak of U-poqer.

(Assmann 228, note 74)

The sacred boat of Nun was adorned, and on it, Osiris was figuratively taken from the temple to his tomb and then back again. It is similar to the phallic processions from the temple of Dionysus in Athens or saint’s day processions where saints are taken from the church, paraded through the town, and then returned. These acts could be called “performative” in that they have many elements of a performing art such as costumes, a text with something of a narrative, and spectators.

Some passages on the stela do indeed sound theatrical and seem to indicate a reenactment of a battle or contest: “I arranged the procession of Wepwawet, when he went to the aid of his father. I beat back those who rebelled against the neshmet-barque and subdued the enemies of Osiris” (227), and “I took action for Wennefer on that day of the great battle. I subdued all his enemies on the sand bank of Nedyt” (228). We do not know, however, if these were merely recitations. Assmann suggests that this was a ritual that consisted of recitations accompanied by actions, such as mutilation and burning of figures, or “breaking the red pots,” or a ritual slaughter (228). But “action” does not equal “theatre.” Assmann adds in his end note that: “Scholars have pictured the beating back of rebels as a ritual drama, referring to Herodotus, who describes a ritual mock battle in Papremis. This seems unthinkable, however, for earlier periods in Egyptian history” (454, note 73). In short, the texts left behind by the ancient Egyptians do not support the idea that Abydos is theatre or even has many of the important elements of theatre.

Ta’ziyeh

With the spread of Islam throughout the Middle East, so too spread aniconism, the prohibition of the creation of images of people and any sentient being. While aniconism does not appear specifically in the Qur’an, it is taken up in the Hadith, the compiled record of the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammed. Islam forbids representations of God, Muhammed, the family of Muhammed, and the prophets, but the Hadith also mentions all humans and animals. With such a religious prohibition, the development of a representational art such as theatre would prove difficult. As with any religion, however, there are differences in interpretation and degree of a prohibition, and in some parts of the Islamic world, many performance forms persist. Ta’ziyeh is one such example that has flourished among Shi’ite Muslims.

“Ta’ziyeh” means “mourning” or “condolences” in Arabic. It commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein and has a long history in Iran and among Shia Muslims. After the death of Muhammed in 632 CE, a schism developed among Muslims along clan lines. Many Omayyad clan members believed his successor should be elected, which was a long-standing Arab tradition. An opposing clan, the Hashemites, thought that the successor should be someone related to Muhammed. This schism is now between the Sunni and Shia, respectively. The Shia wanted Muhammed’s cousin and son-in-law Ali to be caliph, but he and his eldest son were poisoned. The Sunni moved the center of the caliphate to Damascus and the Shia of Kufa enlisted Ali’s youngest son Hussein to come to join them against the Sunni. Hussein and his family and his followers, however, were attacked in the desert of Karbala. In 680 CE, the Sunni laid siege to the group, denying them access to water, a sure death sentence in the hot desert. They eventually attacked, cutting the men to pieces with swords and arrows and taking the women and children captive.

Commemoration of this martyrdom has redemptive value in Shia Muslim culture. It is believed that Hussein will intercede on your behalf if you observe and participate in the mourning rituals. In the Safavid dynasty (1500–1736), the mourning of Hussein during the month of Muharram received official support. Chelkowski notes that European visitors to Iran have written about the participants in colorful costumes depicting the death of the martyrs and the events leading up to their martyrdom (33).

These processions gradually evolved into mobile tableaux, each depicting the martyrdom. Some would have battle scenes, while others would show martyrs covered with blood with their limbs chopped off. These tableaux could be compared to English cycle plays or, perhaps, the Spanish autos sacramentales, moving through the village with separate scenes from the Bible. The processions would be accompanied by funeral music. At the same time, a form of recitation, taken from a book about the passion of Hussein, developed. These recitations were stationary, but the narration gradually became more dramatic. In the eighteenth century, the two forms were combined into the modern Ta’ziyeh. Chelkowski states that the practice of having the protagonists sing their parts while the antagonists merely recite theirs has been in place since the merging of these forms (33). Each scene focuses on individual heroes, including individuals who were martyred before the siege at Karbala. In the nineteenth century, under the rule of Naser al-din Shah of the Qajar dynasty, a permanent modern theatre was built, the Takiya-i-Dawlat. It was during this time that a British envoy collected and published the cycle under the title The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain.

The story of Hussein’s martyrdom was ideal for Shia as Rebecca Ansary Pettys notes: “unlike his father Ali, Hussein was not assassinated unexpectedly, but rather embarked on his fateful journey fully aware of the possible consequences. Thus, it was possible to characterize his eventual death as a willing sacrifice which not only gave his martyrdom tragic proportion, but also accorded well with the Shi’yah doctrine of free will” (344). The story is also especially important to the people of Iran for a number of reasons. As Ansary Pettys notes, the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims was not just a struggle for succession. It was a struggle that inflamed clan rivalry between the Hashemite clan, of which Hussein was a member, and the Omayyad clan (343). More deeply, it was a resistance by Persians to Arab rule.

At the time of the death of Muhammed, the Persian territory of Mesopotamia was still under Sassanid rule, and the Sassanid clan were Zoroastrians. The ruler Khosrow II famously tore up a letter from Muhammed warning him of the consequences of not converting to Islam. In 627 after a long war, the Persians were defeated by the Byzantines, a loss that pushed the Sassanid Empire into decline and chaos. Khosrow II’s rivals captured and executed him, leading to a crisis of succession that lasted several years. Eventually, things stabilized under his grandson Yazdegerd III, the last ruler of the Sassanid dynasty. Over the next two decades, the Arabs waged war against the Persians, eventually defeating them in 651.

While the Arabs succeeded in Islamizing the Persians, the Persians remained a distinct people and culture. This is probably in part due to the fact that the Persian language is not just distinct from Arabic, it belongs in a completely different language family. The language survived even after the Omayyad Caliphate made Arabic the official language. This may explain also the persistence of Ta’ziyeh and other figural arts despite the Islamic prohibition on figural representation. Another explanation might be the fact that commemorating the death or martyrdom of Persian spiritual figures had a long tradition that predates Ta’ziyeh and may have even served as the template for Ta’ziyeh performance. Mahani points out that Persians observed the commemoration of the passion of the Zoroastrian god Mitra by acting it out on a platform. More well known is the Yadgar-i-Zariran or the Memorial of Zarir where Zarir is martyred in battle for converting to Zoroastrianism, much in the way Hussein was martyred. It is believed these mourning rituals gave rise to the tradition of Ta’ziyeh. As the mourning ritual predates Islam in Iran, it seems understandable that it would remain an important part of Iranian tradition.

Today, Ta’ziyeh is performed throughout Iran, but also in countries with significant communities of Shia Muslims. The actors are sometimes amateurs, but as Beeman and Ghaffari note, there is a professional class of Ta’ziyeh actors. Because acting is suspect in the Muslim world, the actors face some stigma in society, but: “this is mitigated by the fact that so much of Ta’ziyeh performance deals with the sacred subject of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Even so, performers may have to endure occasional quizzical inquiries from friends and relatives about their activities.” For this reason, Beeman and Ghaffari explain, actors are generally from families that already support Ta’ziyeh.

THE AWAKENING: AL-NAHDA IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman-ruled regions of the Middle East began to undergo a renaissance known as al-Nahda. Although it can be said that it began with the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon (1798) and continued to be prompted with other imperialist incursions from Europe, the awakening is more the result of restructuring and reform within the Ottoman Empire itself. This cultural shift opened the way for the development of new literary forms, most notably a secular written drama.

Poetry in the Arab and Persian worlds has had a long and complex history with poetry being an important part of life at court, and storytelling has had an important place in Arab and Persian daily life. But forms such as the novel and drama were developed in places like Turkey, Egypt, and the other Mediterranean countries in the nineteenth century. Some of the earliest writers found inspiration in European, mostly French, literature as students from the Middle East traveled to France and Italy to study science, technology, and military tactics. The short story, on the other hand, was often used to address local social and political issues of the time.

Several writers in Egypt, Syria, and Iran began creating plays that were adaptations of European drama, plays based on stories from the Middle East, and plays that were original stories. One of the first dramatists was Marun al-Naqqash (1817–1855), a businessman from Beirut, then part of Syria. Marun al-Naqqash traveled on business extensively and saw, during one of his trips to Italy, the Italian opera. In 1847, he received permission from the Ottoman authorities to perform an adapted version of Molière’s The Miser where he cast male friends and family members to play all of the roles (men and women). Marun al-Naqqash also added music to the play. Verse makes up the majority of the text, meant to be sung to the tunes of popular Arabic and French songs. The plot includes two extra acts where the young lovers, in disguise as Turkish officials, punish the miser and take his money. Al-Naqqash also added in a few extra pieces of dialogue, including a lengthy explanation of how the drama promotes good moral behavior and provides warnings about engaging in vice.

Al-Naqqash based his second play Abu al-Hassan the Fool (performed in 1849 or 1850) on one of the tales of Scheherazade, a story where a foolish man is made the Caliph for a day, and it is probably the first truly original play in Arabic. Al-Naqqash then received permission to build a theatre by his house and performed another Molière-inspired piece there. After his death, his brother and then his nephew took over the theatre. His nephew Salim Khalil al-Naqqash (1850–1884) also wrote and directed plays and included women in his company of actors. Because he was critical of the government in his journalism, he was forced to leave Syria and go to Egypt.

Another Syrian helped to establish the conventions of modern Arabic drama, Ahmad Abu Khalil al-Qabbani (1941–1902). Al-Qabbani performed in plays written by others, as well as writing his own plays from both European and Arabic stories. Scholars of Arabic literature are relatively sure that al-Qabbani, though learned, did not speak or read any other language, but by then there were translations of European texts readily available and he no doubt saw the plays of Marun and Salim Khalil al-Naqqash. He also studied music and dancing. He performed his first play Nakir al-Jamil (1865) and several other events in the home of his grandfather.

Nakir al-Jamil (The Ungrateful) involves allegorical characters such as Halim (forgiving), Ghadir (treacherous), and Nasir (supporting). In the drama, Halim, who is the son of the vizier, finds a destitute Ghadir near death in the road. He saves him and makes him his dear companion, freely sharing everything he has. Ghadir resents being indebted to Halim and tries to kill him, but kills the son of the King instead. Ghadir feigns remorse and turns to Halim for help, getting Halim to hide the bloody dagger for him. Ghadir then tells the King that Halim is the murderer, prompting the King to have Halim executed. The King then dreams of Halim’s innocence and Ghadir’s treachery, whereupon he expresses his wish to bring Halim back from the dead. As it turns out, the executioner accepted a bribe from the vizier to let his son live and so the executioner is able to produce Halim for the King. All ends well as Halim, true to his name, forgives Ghadir. The characters then all praise the Sultan.

Encouraged by Turkish officials who commissioned the actor Iskandar Farah to work with him, al-Qabbani began a theatre in Damascus. Farah and al-Qabbani began staging both original plays and adaptations, and the work of playwrights such as al-Naqqash. The performance of Abu al-Hassan, however, sparked a furor among conservatives. Particularly opposed was the Shaykh Said al-Ghabra who, among other things, objected to the portrayal of Harun al-Rashid, the Caliph, in the play. As Muḥammad Muṣṭafá Badawī notes in Early Arabic Drama, the or...