In the packed Howard Theater of the American University in Cairo, the lights are suddenly turned off after a peculiar interlude of songs that sound strangely familiar.
For about three or four minutes, a voice-over of an aspiring author called Bobby Brown bursts out of the darkness in a pensive monologue about an idea for his work.
He s a big fan of James Bond. He has read the novels, seen every single movie and considers himself a Bond maniac. He believes that each of the previous six actors who played the famous secret agent has embodied one aspect of the character, but none of them has succeeded in becoming the ultimate Bond.
It s Bobby turn to fulfill his burning desire to be the one and only James Bond, even if it s only a figment of his imagination.
A man dressed in a sleek Bond suit appears on the small stage when the lights are finally turned on. From then on, we are subjected to cryptic monologues, dialogues, lots of blabbering and barrages of swearing that emphasize the male genital organ.
Initially there seems to be a plot, but this gradually turns into a series of random thoughts peppered with a few incongruous, emotional impulses.
This concept behind director Robert Beshara s new play Mr Black Testicles has triggered a minor buzz among both AUC students and young theater lovers in general.
Testicles is Beshara s first full-length play. The 22 year-old director/writer/ composer previously directed several short plays that include Jack on the Submission for Unesco and an adaptation of Harold Pinter s The Lover.
Testicles loose plot is a futuristic dystopia with no women, value or beauty; a world where futility and vanity dominate; where individuals find themselves in an ill-fated quest for meaning in life.
Mr Black Testicles, the alter ego of the fictional play writer and the lead character, is an egotistical maniac who is energized by the frustration of others.
Black s victims are Not Mr Black Testicle, Not Me and Me.
What these three characters represent is not easy to figure out. It s up for the audience to decipher the ideas behind each and the interpretation is entirely subjective.
Is it possible that none of these characters signify anything? Perhaps. In the theater of the absurd meaninglessness takes center stage.
Mr Black Testicles believes there s a certain pattern of numbers related to some particular, unrelated notion, which needs to be decoded to reveal a higher mystery that might grant him his freedom and help him attain a much-coveted alternative type of salvation.
Beshara cites Aristotle, Strindberg, Samuel Beckett, Brecht and filmmakers Terry Gilliam, Mel Brooks and Charlie Kaufman among some of the artists and thinkers who influenced the play.
Beckett and Brecht are the most obvious influences, especially traditional conventions of plot structure; creating unsympathetic anti-heroes; and breaking the third wall (by speaking directly to the audience and cutting the illusionary line that separates the performers from the viewers).
Beshara told The Daily Star Egypt that Testicles is built around the three elements that make up any human being: body, mind and soul. The play meanders back and forth within these elements to form an atypical theatrical experience rather than a dramatic tale.
My play is targeting the instinct and not reason, Beshara said. The play is the dream of a [fiction] writer and some of what happens is just pulses in his subconscious which don t always make sense.
There are many witty, even farcical parts with political and religious subtext. The play could essentially be interpreted as one strange journey to conquer the limits of one s ego and finally be independent.
Beshara based the concept play on an obnoxious person who used to constantly bug him. He said he doesn t expect everyone to like or even understand it.
This is a subliminal play. I want people to enjoy it and feel it but not understand everything about it.
I m not sure if you ll enjoy Mr Black Testicle. It s hard to like a play when you can t empathize with any of the characters. Some will find the play pretentious, exasperating or self-important perhaps. Come to think of it though, these were the same adjective used to describe the works of avant-garde filmmakers like Stan Brakhage or Jean-Luc Godard.
The play lacks any immediacy, the monologues aren t always engaging and the sub-plot drags noticeably in the second half.
But despite these flaws, I would definitely recommend the play. You may not enjoy Black Testicles but you will be intrigued for sure.
Mr Black Testicles is running today and Saturday Feb. 10 at 8 pm. Howard Theater, Main Campus, The American University in Cairo.
