The 21st Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater (CIFET) closed its curtain on Tuesday night after a nine-day surge of theater activities, lighting many stages in downtown Cairo with plays participating in the international competition and other less fortunate ones performed on the fringe.
Eleven international jurors watched the 26 performances presented in the official completion. The South Korean performance “Macbeth by Jaranda project won the best performance award, while the popular Koon Theater Group’s production of “Don Quixote from Syria earned a well deserved best directing award for director Osama Halal.
The best actress and best actor prizes went to Arab performers. Iraqi actress Boshra Ismail took the best actress award for her role as the mother in “Sada (Echo) presented by National Acting Group of Iraq, whereas, Egyptian actor Mohamed Fahim snatched the award for best actor, in the title role of “Ana Hamlet (I am Hamlet) by the Artistic Creativity Center that is run by the Egyptian Cultural Development Fund (the authority that sponsors the Experimental Festival.)
The best scenography award was given to the Polish performance “Façade by Bialostocki Teatr Lalek, while Mexico’s “The Houses of Bernarda Alba by Compania de Teatro del Espacio Cultural Metropolitano won the best ensemble award.
Two of the most popular performances of the fest – opening performance “Don Quixote from Poland and “Ascent and Ruin of the City of Mahagonny from Italy – went home empty handed.
The Experimental Festival has ended, but several questions remain unanswered: Where are the exciting experimental performances? Where is the Egyptian audience? Why is the festival dying at the young age of 21?
While some expected a better festival this year, many soon had resigned their hopes of improvement, and accepted that the festival that once infused the Egyptian artistic scene with energy and vitality cannot be rescued from the sliding slope of mediocrity.
The mediocrity was evident this year in the poor quality of most performances. Many of the offerings in the official competition do not qualify as theater, let alone professional, cutting-edge, avant-garde, experimental theater that merits participation in an international festival.
Most performances lacked even a minimum level of audience engagement; audiences chose to be seated next to the exit in case they need to escape the dreariness of the performance, which happened more often than one hopes for in an international festival.
The low audience attendance in most of this year’s performances is a very different picture from the early years of the festival, when audiences clamored around festival venues, sometimes even breaking doors to get in to have a whiff of international theater and experimentation. The audiences of the 21st edition consisted mainly of other participants in the festival and a few Egyptian theater artists and critics.
After many a disappointment, year after year, the general audience lost faith in the festival and the quality of the plays it offers. Also the changed timing of the festival, from early September during summer vacation, to mid-October during the academic year is another reason for lack of attendance in this year’s performances.
The quality of the performances is another story. Since its inception, the festival did not actively recruit plays; it passively waited for submissions from theater companies around the world. The last minute acceptance of plays did not allow many of these independent companies to raise funds for their travel expenses in time to join the festival. (The festival covers the expenses of the participating companies and speakers while in Egypt, but not their airfare).
Each year, fewer international plays of substance and quality make their way to Cairo, which compels the selection committee to accept submissions of poor quality just to populate the festival schedule.
To date, one of the lasting achievements of this festival is its translation efforts, which enriched the Arabic library over the past 20 years with translated texts about theater, including a number of contemporary plays. This year, the festival presented 20 new books translated from eight different languages into Arabic. If the festival did not succeed on any other level, it can take pride in adding 300 translated books to the theater library.
Is it possible to save the Experimental Festival and restore artists and audiences’ faith in it? There are a few suggestions to help the rescue efforts:
Invite renowned international theater makers, not wait for submission from second and third rate theater companies.
Change the role of the selection committee; give it the facility to travel to other countries and festivals, actively choosing exciting new work.
Do away with the pointless official competition.
Broadcast the proceedings of the panels and discussions.
And dare I suggest that it is time for a new leadership that could revolutionize the way the festival is run to regain its position as a major hub for international cutting-edge theater in the region?
