Some people find it difficult to come to terms with the idea of death – especially if it takes away those dearest to their hearts. Sometimes the attachment is so strong that the bereaved see their own death as the only to be reunited with the person they lost.
This is the premise underlying ‘Ruaa’, a new play now running at Al Talia Theater in Cairo.
Written by Nadia Al Banhawi, starring Hanan Soliman and Tarek Ismael and directed by Amr Qabil, the play is an example of psychological theater where the main character is caught in the peak of a psychological dilemma.
In “Ruaa the troubled heroine grapples with the complex and unfathomable mechanisms of the self as well as both the friendly and antagonistic external forces.
Although dismal in its atmosphere and melancholic in its approach, “Ruaa absorbs you, triggering a slew of philosophical questions most people overlook, preoccupied as they are with material welfare.
The protagonist, Ruaa, is a married young woman who can’t reach a compromise with her husband on the direction their marriage should take.
She refuses to fulfill the role of the typical oriental wife and she is too refined to accept the routine of married life. The reason, we are told, is Ruaa’s deep attached to her father, who just died.
While the rest of the family prepares for the funeral, resigned to his loss, Ruaa is in denial. She speaks to his dead body lying on the bed and imagines he is talking back to her.
She shudders when they tell her it is time to bury him because for her they would be burying him alive.
Throughout the performance we are make to think that he’s half-alive and half-dead. He recalls years of suffering with a wife who had consistently irritated him over petty domestic issues. Of all his children, Ruaa was the least materialistic.
When her father dies, she begins to question the meaning of life and death.
But men of religion accuse her of heresy for daring to ponder the workings of the Almighty and the logic behind human existence.
Her husband was no help, with nothing on his mind but food and sex.
She envies simple people their naïve chatter and their provincial mentality which spares them the agony of torturing themselves over such big questions.
Yet the only question on her mind was: “How can my father live twice and die twice?
Because she thinks he is alive, she tries to find ways to protect him from a new death.
“Ruaa is unique, noted actor Tarek Ismael “but she isn’t eccentric. Unlike most people who are immersed in their daily routine which is a different type of death marked by monotony, inertia and the lack of communication with spiritual values, she defines her existence in a different way.
To the rest of the world, she is simply crossing too many red lines.
But could Ruaa’s dilemma be resolved realistically? Is her father truly alive? If so, how will she confront a family that are likely to brand her a lunatic when she’s the only one who can see this other reality? Will she reconcile herself to his death or will death alone give her peace?
