I
was in the minority in being underwhelmed by Hassan Abdulrazzak’s first
play
Baghdad Wedding five
years ago; I am not much more enthused by his latest offering. At a
moment when the Egyptian revolution seems once more balanced upon a
knife-edge, with (I declare an interest) mutual friends of mine and
director Christopher Haydon’s hourly tweeting updates from Cairo on a
myriad civil, political and military upsets, you would expect a play
set during the initial revolt of January 2011 to carry an air of urgent
topicality. This simply doesn’t.
Nearly 20 Egyptians were interviewed in researching the play, but
instead of taking the verbatim route Abdulrazzak has written a more
conventional drama. Layla works for Vodafone Egypt, which is about to
turn its network off at government request to hinder communications
between protesters; her husband Hisham is a former dissident
journalist-turned novelist due to meet a literary agent who is dangling
before him the prospect of a breakthrough into the English-reading
world. We see versions of each one’s day, as Layla joins the chaotic
street protests and Hisham… let’s just say he also has an eventful time
of it.
But when I say this is a conventional drama, I mean that there are a
plethora of conventions on show here: from domestic strains and
extra-marital temptations on both sides right through to a
philosophical torturer who uses explanations of his own approach to
disorient and pressure his victim, there is little to make this story
demand a recognition of its individuality like the Cairo protesters of
whom Layla speaks. Paradoxically, these accounts of the demonstrations
are the most dramatic scenes of all, as actress Sasha Behar stands
alone on stage recounting Layla’s experiences of tear-gassing, bullets
and popular solidarity, against a video backdrop of footage from those
“days of rage”. Abdulrazzak and Haydon clearly wanted to get away from
one-note testimony theatre, but apart from that one note the tune they
have composed as playwright and director isn’t a terribly appealing one.
Written for the Financial
Times.