One-act plays have become a fixture of every theatrical season in Egypt. Over the past few years, few have succeeded in striking a chord with theater-buffs who are more accustomed to long performances.
“Doaa El Karawan (The Nightingale’s Prayer) – currently showing at El Salam Theater – proved to be an exception, attracting both theater-lovers and critics.
The one-act play, based on a novel by the late novelist and critic Taha Hussein, spawned a massively successful film adaptation in 1959 starring Faten Hamama and Ahmed Mazhar. The film was recently named one of the best 10 Egyptian movies in history.
The popularity of the film and novel contributed to the success of the play as fans of classic cinema deemed it a must-see performance. Others simply came to see how the story could be translated into a theatrical performance.
What piqued people’s curiosity even more was the announcement that the production will be a one-act play, one of the most difficult genres of theater.
The short performance – adapted by Mitwali Hamed and directed by Mohsen Rizk – didn’t disappoint, capturing the essence of the story while stressing its sharp criticism of Egypt’s male-dominated society.
“When I began to work on the [play] I was definitely aware of the movie’s influence on viewers, said Rizk. “Therefore, I had to drop the engineer’s character and focus on that of the girl’s uncle.
“The man, who seduces the leading character, is an upper class engineer, unlike her uncle who was born and raised in an Upper Egyptian tribe.
“The uncle has always been depicted as an evil figure that yearned for an honor killing. Starting with the uncle’s character, we attempted to give the work a fresh look by exploring the values that governed the tribesman’s behavior.
But the director mistakenly fell into the trap of skipping a few plot details, relying heavily on the audience’s familiarity with the story. For example, he introduces the character of the engineer quickly without explaining his position within the context of the story.
“The Nightingale’s Prayer tells the story of a small Bedouin family: sisters Hanady and Amna as well as their parents. Known as a womanizer, the father is murdered in an honor killing, which forces the rest of the family to move to another town.
They settle in a city where Hanady is hired as a maid in the wealthy engineer’s home. The tragedy begins when she loses her virginity to him and is consequently murdered by her uncle, a common practice that stems from age-old traditions that condemn sexual relations out of wedlock.
In the theatrical adaptation, Rizk bares the uncle’s inner self for the first time. The murderer is revealed as a loving, caring man who looks after his sister and nieces. He’s the first to predict that his libertine brother-in-law’s life would end tragically.
He banishes his sister and nieces following the father’s death to prevent them from suffering the consequences of their father’s wrongdoings, which he believed was inevitable. Little did he know that fate was waiting for them elsewhere.
Later on, the uncle is forced to kill Hanady, following the same honor-preserving tribal code of ethics. As he kills her, he stresses his belief in predestination, which is reiterated through the fortune-teller’s character.
The story is set in a world where women’s lives are affected by male-chauvinism and Bedouin traditions. The set, designed by Amr Hassan, shows a typical house in the village, where the three women reside in harmony before tradition wreaks havoc onto their lives.
