Giant puppets, a fire show, Sufi-inspired dancing and mimes on stilts; in its second consecutive year, the “Spectacle on the Nile, a street-art project sponsored by the Goethe Institute in collaboration with the French Cultural Center, succeeded in bridging the gap between performers and ordinary Egyptian audiences.
On Monday night, five groups – two Egyptian, two German, and a French one – performed to a diverse audience, from various cultures, nations and social classes, from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am on the bank of the Nile at the public Gezira Garden.
Hoping to introduce the activities of both culture institutes to people who might not otherwise be exposed to them, the free event focused on street theater. Sherif Abdel Samad, press officer for the Goethe Institute, told Daily News Egypt that “because of the language [barriers], we are relying more on groups who use motion to perform, that convey their art in a non-verbal way.
The first act of the night was Les Grandes Personnes, an eight-person French group operating five puppets of varying sizes. Towering above the crowd, the puppets were 2-4 meters in height and accessorized to look Egyptian (one carrying a Ramadan lamp, another wearing a tarbush) with the help of the Cairo Puppet Theater. Les Grandes Personnes, a play on words in French, can mean either “the grown up or “the tall one.
The name belies the theme, according to Christophe Evette, group director. “When you are a child, you don”t say ‘the adult,’ you say ‘the grown person.’ So the idea with these puppets is you have child-eyes again, because you are small again. True; the audiences were indeed dwarfed the moment the puppets came walking down the garden amongst the crowd and began to dance. Some viewers scurried to get out of the way, as the enormous puppets spun among them, while others joined the dancing.
The Pyrostyxx, a German group of mimes on stilts, were out next. The four men walked through the crowd, lifting children, shaking hands, and blowing bubbles. Les Grandes Personnes came back again as the two groups mingled with each other and the crowd as well. They were all shortly joined by Bunte Hunde (The Colorful Dogs), a German marching band, and all three groups jammed together to the Hunde’s upbeat compositions. The crowd loved it, cheering as they raised their hands to capture the festivities on their cell phones cameras.
Next, an area was sectioned off for the performance of the Tanoura troupe, the Sufi-inspired dance troupe, whose two dancers twirled their hoop costumes to the awed eyes of the crowd.
Shouldn’t street art be completely participatory? I wondered. My critique was immediately countered, as after the exhilarating display of dancing, the performers removed the barricades and pulled members of the crowd in to form a long conga-line, which degenerated into a mass of dancing bodies.
The Egyptian puppeteers of Lamasat ensemble performed next. Their puppets were presented from a raised stage, while the crowd watched from below. Children climbed on stage and one young woman jumped up as well to dance with the puppeteers.
The open space of the venue allowed people to come and go whenever they wished, so by the time Lamasat presented their performance, the numbers were already dwindling. Those who remained though continued to dance and enjoy the fun. Dr Friedrich Dahlhaus, director of the Goethe Institute, felt the event had been perfectly timed. “The best month for this [event] is Ramadan. Everyone is in the mood to celebrate in a joyful way. You don’t want to hear a panel discussion; you want something lively and interesting.
Lamasat disappeared after the end of their performance, with the Bunde Hunde and Les Grandes Personnes returning to entertain the crowds once more. Meanwhile, Pyrostyxx were preparing the anticipated final act of the night: the fire show. Although the crowd was jubilant and the scene jovial, I could not help feeling disappointed that the foreign groups had jammed together, while the Egyptian groups merely performed separately, both from each other and the foreign groups.
The fire show was the final act of the night, the Pyrostyxx performers twirled blazing batons, burning ropes, and poi in synchronized routines as the crowd formed a circle around the ground stage. Techno-beats enhanced the atmosphere and my adrenaline levels surged as I watched. The crowd oohed and ahhed at the grand finale as the performers lit up the night in a blaze of light.
Although it was not really staged on the street, the second street-theater performance felt as spontaneous and energetic as the old perishing performances of the 60s and 70s it has successfully emulated.
