The people's theater of Yusuf al-Ani.

AuthorYousif, Salaam
PositionModern Iraqi Literature in English Translation

Drama as it is known in the west (a mimetic performance set on stage, requiring conflict, plot, and dialogue exchanged by actors impersonating characters) appeared in Iraq in the closing decades of the Nineteenth Century, some thirty years after its appearance in Lebanon and Egypt. Between 1880-1920, drama in Iraq was confined to parochial and public schools, its purpose being the edification of moral character. Performances were infrequent, consisting mainly of historical and religious plays, with a comedy or a social play occasionally. In addition to local and a few Lebanese plays, the school theater availed itself of translated plays from French and occasionally from Turkish or English. In the 1920s the theater ventured into the public sphere, thanks to literary and nationalist clubs that put on historical plays glorifying the Arab and Muslim past. It was not until the end of the decade, however, that professional companies began to emerge. The Egyptian troupes of George Abyad, Fatima Rushdi, and Yusuf Wahbi, which visited Iraq in the 1920s and 1930s, played a significant role in generating interest in the theater. Haqqi al-Shibli (1913-1985), an Iraqi amateur actor, spent a year with Fatima Rushdi's troupe in Cairo to polish his acting skills; upon his return to Iraq he formed his own troupe. During its next phase of development in 1920-1950, the Iraqi theater drew inspiration from the Egyptian theater. Plays by Egyptian poets and playwrights like Ahmed Shawqi and Tewfiq al-Hakim provided models for Iraqi playwrights. Moreover, the Egyptian actor Yusuf Wahbi gained popularity in Iraq; his bent for melodrama was to dominate the Iraqi theater well into the 1950s.

During the 1930s and 1940s the Iraqi theater was taking root: local texts became more available (though most writers produced just one play), interest in the theater grew, numerous plays were published and many plays performed, and the Iraqi government provided financial incentives for troupes and established a theater department at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 1940, headed by Haqqi al-Shibli, who had just spent four years studying dramatic art in France. However, the Iraqi theater made only modest headway, and then only among a limited section of the educated strata in the major cities of Baghdad, Mosul, and Basrah. There were several reasons why, despite half a century of existence, the Iraqi theater lagged behind that of Egypt or Lebanon. In addition to high illiteracy, limited contacts with the West, and the fact that Iraq caught up with modern ideas and the Nahdha (Arab Renaissance) later than Egypt and Syria/Lebanon, the conservatism prevailing in Iraqi society at the time was not conducive to a flourishing theater. Put simply, the acting profession was not viewed with much respect, and theatrical activity was all but closed to female participation. There was also competition from the movies, which gained an immense popularity among the Iraqi public.(1) Moreover, Iraqi theater by and large was a theater of amateurs who not only lacked adequate training in dramatic art, but who also were grappling with a new genre whose techniques they were not acquainted with. Acting during the period basically meant a show of one's skill in oratory. The mise-en-scene was rudimentary; indeed, there was hardly any director from the first half of the Twentieth Century whose name is mentioned in the annals of Iraqi drama, let alone remembered today. Local plays were generally mediocre and suffered from structural defects and inadequate characterization, with many of them written essentially for reading by writers who viewed the play as a literary text rather than as a dramatic one to be performed on stage. More often than not ornate language and flights of rhetoric characterized the dialogue, sometimes with long poems interspersed infelicitously in between. Lastly, playwrights had to confront the thorny issue of the language medium, their compromises between classical and spoken Arabic were not always satisfactory.

Perhaps one major factor for the slow growth of the Iraqi theater was the absence of eminent playwrights and actors during the period. Indeed, the Iraqi theater lacked powerful figures of the caliber of Marun al-Naqqash (Lebanon), Abu Khalil al-Qabbani (Syria), and Yaqub Sanua and Tewfiq al-Hakim (Egypt), icons who contributed immensely to making the theater an integral and salient part of the cultural scene, especially in Egypt. It was only by the mid-twentieth century that comparable figures began to emerge in Iraq. The playwright-actor-director Yusuf al-Ani is one such figure. In him the Iraqi theater found a dedicated professional who, for over three decades, contributed immensely to the rise of a modern Iraqi theater in the second half of the Twentieth Century. Al-Ani acquired fame as one of Iraq's premier playwrights and stage actors. His play al-Miftah (The Key) is the only Iraqi play to be translated into English; it is included in Modern Arabic Drama: An Anthology, which appeared in 1995.(2)

Yusuf al-Ani was born in 1927 and grew up in one of Baghdad's working class quarters. Al-Ani's love for acting, as he explains in his collection of articles on the theater entitled al-Tajriba al-Masrahiyyah (The Theater Experience), dates back to his childhood years. When he was young, he played games with his peers, creating situations and impersonating people.(3) As a young student, the performances he saw at school or by famous Egyptian actors in the movies nourished his passion for the theater. He was particularly inspired by the Egyptian actors Yusuf Wahbi and Najib al-Rihani, and to a certain extent by Charlie Chaplin in his silent movies. Al-Ani relates an interesting episode that took place at his junior high school. Haqqi al-Shibli, Iraq's foremost theater personality at the time, visited the school in order to conduct auditions to select members for the school's Theater and Oratory Committee. Al-Ani, as expected, was excited about the opportunity. His performance (he chose to recite a poem), however, did not impress al-Shibli, who advised him to channel his energies away from the theater.(4) Fortunately, al-Ani was not dissuaded from his course. His persistence paid off when in 1944, while still in al-Markaziyyah High School, he composed a short play, al-Muqamirun (The Gamblers), which he acted on the school stage.(5) The play dealt with the social vice of gambling, exposing it in a manner that was both lively and humorous. Significantly, the characters were ordinary people, speaking the common dialect of the people and not the fusha or literary Arabic. In both content and style The Gamblers set the tone for al-Ani's early plays. The success of his first appearance in public gave al-Ani the boost that he needed to persevere in his love affair with the theater.

Al-Ani finished high school and went on to major in law, but he attended concurrently the Institute of Fine Arts to study drama. During his college years, al-Ani was active in college theater troupes as an actor and a director, acquiring valuable practical experience and polishing his theatrical skills in the process. Along with a number of theater students and enthusiasts, al-Ani formed a theater group called Jama'at Jabr al-Khawatir (The Goodwill Reconciliation Group), which staged its shows at the various colleges at the University of Baghdad. It was during this formative period that his long association with the actors-directors Ibrahim Jalal and Sami Abdul-Hamid began. Both Jalal and Abdul-Hamid were young and enthusiastic theater professionals who had studied theater arts under the direction of Haqqi al-Shibli at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and pursued their studies abroad. The collaboration between the three figures, which was to last for some three decades, marked the beginning of a new phase for the Iraqi theater. Indeed, the rise of the Iraqi theater in the 1950s cannot be envisioned without the contributions of all three: they pooled their talents and established al-Masrah al-Hadith (The Modern Theater) troupe. Formed in 1952 by Ibrahim Jalal (192491), with the collaboration of Sami Abdul-Hamid and Yusuf al-Ani, who became the troupe's secretary (i.e., manager), The Modern Theater troupe (renamed later as The Modern Artistic Theater troupe) was the first Iraqi troupe established by professionals who had actually studied dramatic art and had academic training in stagecraft. The Modern Theater troupe not only acquired a following but also became a veritable school for the Iraqi theater for the next generation, truly one of the cultural landmarks of Iraq. Its three founding members became Iraq's towering theatrical figures for decades to come.

The rise of al-Ani and the Modern Theater troupe can only be understood within a historical and cultural context. The post-World War II years in Iraq were marked by political turmoil and cultural struggle. Worker strikes, student demonstrations, and popular uprisings against the British-supported monarchical regime were the order of the day. A restive Iraqi intelligentsia, left-leaning and militant, was on the rise, determined to forge a new and more equitable society. Change and progress were the buzzwords of the day, and the cultural ambiance was conducive to fresh ideas.(6)

In this climate which was marked by discontent, literature and the arts developed with a clear orientation toward works of social realism and local color. The theater, in particular, was invigorated by the graduates from the Institute of Fine Arts and drama institutes abroad. Egyptian plays and translations by Egyptians and Lebanese of masterpieces of Western drama helped arouse the interest of a growing number of literate Iraqis. And, of course, Egypt was an example to emulate how an Arab country could build a successful theater. Newly graduated Ph.D.s who were rising stars in letters and literary criticism, like Safa Khalusi and...

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