Irreconcilable with time: Lenin al-Ramlī’s theatre in times of crisis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to offer an insight into dimensions of institutionalised theatre in the 2011 revolution in Egypt through the example of two plays by one of the most distinguished contemporary Egyptian playwrights, Lenin al-Ramlī (b. 1945). I examine how the intellectual’s selfless advocacy for change dramatised in al-Ramlī’s pre-revolution 1989 play Ahlan yā bakawāt (‘Welcome Beys’) turns into the intellectual’s isolation from the scene of change in the post-revolution 2016 play Iḍḥak lammā tamūt ('Laugh When You Die'). I apply Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopias to explain how the times and spaces dramatised in al-Ramlī’s plays intersect with the spatiotemporal coordinates of their productions. I argue that through their representations of the characters of intellectuals, which are self-reflective of the Egyptian intellectual establishment, the plays challenge rather than justify the solutions adopted by intellectuals in their negotiations with political authorities and the public during two contrasting types of crisis: oppression and revolt. The choices of times and spaces in which the characters are introduced contribute further to this task.