In many European and American cities, the summer season means one thing – outdoor festivals. Mimes and musicians perform on the sidewalk in busy beach towns; large concerts are held in manicured city parks; and in many smaller towns community theater troupes perform for evening picnickers. Even the phrase “outdoor festival evokes idyllic scenes.
During the month of May, a coalition of European cultural centers is trying to bring this tradition to Egypt in the form of the first annual Egyptian-European Street Theater Festival. A troupe of German, Austrian and Egyptian performers are touring the country from Cairo to Minya, under the auspices of the European Commission, the Goethe Institute and the Austrian Cultural Forum.
While most of the cultural events organized by the European Union (EU) Delegation are excellent, their venture into the realm of street theater in Downtown Cairo last Saturday has produced disappointing results. While the musical acts were entertaining, the story-telling and theater pieces were harder to enjoy.
The event was conducted only in German and Arabic, and often the simultaneous translation could barely be heard over crackly speakers. This meant that the audience was often made to listen to two men speaking in two different languages at the same time. Throw in technical problems and street noise, and it was very difficult to follow each story. While translating one line after the other would have been more time-consuming, it ultimately would have improved the quality of the event.
The troupe’s Downtown performance on May 19 attracted between 50 and 100 people at any one time. The crowd was overwhelmingly composed of foreigners and young men between the ages of 16 and 25. Few families, and even fewer women, turned out for the event, which despite the meager turnout managed to maintain the pushing-and-shoving atmosphere of a rush hour metro car.
The small size of the crowd may have been due to the sweltering 40-degree Celsius heat, but its overwhelmingly young male demographic was more likely a result of the location. The troupe set up its stage in the pedestrian mall on Sharia Alfy, a Downtown street known as the home of seedy nightclubs where patrons throw LE 1 notes at half-naked dancers until all hours of the morning. It is not the kind of place where children or young women spend their afternoons.
Despite these problems, the EU Delegation maintains that the program has had strong positive feedback and is a victory in cross-cultural communication. The event was organized mainly by the EU, the Goethe Institute and the Austrian Cultural Forum. They were joined by local partners.
The program began in Cairo on May 19 and Alexandria on May 20, before moving on to Assiut and Minya this week.
