Audience is a mysterious creature. Researchers and theorists often wondered about what makes people leave their dwellings and head to a place of entertainment at a given time.
In older forms of theater, this experience was somehow easier to explain. Watching Greek theater was part of the responsibilities and privileges of the citizens of ancient Greece. On the other hand, many forms of Asian theaters, especially in India and China, were considered an integral part of the religious practice, explaining the mythologies of creation and reenacting the triumphs and failures of the various Gods and Goddesses.
Moving to modern day Egypt, where many claim theater is dead, most performances in government-run theaters are so scantly attended that some shows end up performing to an audience of five. At the other end of the spectrum is the Artistic Creativity Center of the Opera House where masses of people line up in front of the box-office two hours prior to curtain time. Every day, numerous audience members fail to snatch tickets, which create even more interest in obtaining one of these hard to attain free bounties.
The success of the Center’s production “Ahwa Sada (Unsweetened Coffee) and the hype around it partly explains the audience’s soaring interest. The small theater and the free tickets could be culprits, especially with a large ensemble whose family and friends alone could easily fill the small auditorium. Facebook and other online youth forums have managed to create a buzz around the center’s plays. But the content of the performance provides little clue to this new-found interest in theater among young audiences.
The latest student presentation at the Artistic Creativity Center “Ward No. 1 offers more verve and spirit compared to the lethargy and slow pace of government-run theater plays. The performance’s trainees, all new to dance, show a good range of skill under the supervision and choreography of Diaa Shafiq and Muhammad Mustafa, while the strident music and enthusiastic movements seize the audience’s attention. Yet, these vintages lack both substance and a cohesive subject matter to qualify as theater or dance theater.
The episodic structure, true to the style of the center director, Khaled Galal, beads together a few dance numbers with a weak dramatic thread: a doctor in a psychiatric ward writes letters to his mother explaining his treatment methods which translate into dance numbers. The overstated routines of the doctor and the mother (a man in drag) offer witless comic relief through third-rate jokes jammed with slogans from various television ads.
The show creators even break this faintly believable thread when the performer playing the mother appears as a male nurse, and informs “the doctor that his mother died 20 years before, pushing him into the psychiatric ward no. 1.
The dance numbers vary from disco, techno and hip hop to slow dance, belly dance and salsa. Most of the well executed numbers, played to loud repetitive music and pop songs, offer nothing original in concept or choreography. Some of the dance numbers are borrowed from other works, with a particular emphasis on the off-Broadway hit “Stomp.
The performance’s signature beats – created via brooms, sweepers and other cleaning tools – are recreated in here. But this inferior Egyptian version falls short due to unsynchronized rhythms and lack of vitality. The choreographers turned to New York for inspiration, ignoring the original experimentation on unique Egyptian sounds, championed by the visionary director Intesar Abdel Fatah since the early 1990s.
What “Ward No. 1 lacks in innovation and originality of thought makes up for in the energy and dynamism of the 20 young performers and the stimulating visuals. The variations on the visual theme of black and white is successfully explored in the costumes, designed by student Marwa Ouda, who managed to create a wide range of possibilities and styles while sticking to the confinement of the two basic colors, with a dash of pink for the female dancers.
The festive atmosphere is enhanced by smoke, disco lights, and carnival-esque make-up, especially on the faces and bodies of the male dancers.
Apart from the engaging visuals, “Ward No. 1 does not provide any real addition to the Egyptian theater. This dance show follows the recipe clearly stated in Fred Ebb’s lyrics of “Rather Dazzle from the famous Broadway hit “Chicago.
“Give ’em the old razzle dazzle/ Give ’em the old hocus pocus/ How can they see with sequins in their eyes?/ Long as you keep ’em way off balance/ How can they spot you got no talents?/ How can they hear the truth above the roar?
This loud razzle dazzle 40-minute of a dance show is a good student production, showcasing the diverse talents of the ensemble. But as a theater performance, it does not meet the hype and certainly does not justify the agony of being pushed around in queues badly managed by some of the incompetent personnel who run the front office of the Creativity Center.
“Ward No. 1 plays daily, 8:30 pm at the Artistic Creativity Center at the Opera House grounds. Tel: (02) 2736 3446
