The Dramatic Middle East: Performance as History in Egypt and Beyond

Abstract

This article highlights a limited but rich literature focusing on the history of theatrical performance in Egypt and surrounding countries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, people throughout the Middle East consciously wrestled with the incoming flow of Western technologies and ideas in relation to their local contexts, experiences, and desires. Performative spaces offer unique vantage points to more carefully examine the changing worldviews of everyday people. I demonstrate here that theatrical texts, performative spaces, and audience responses all provide insight into the imaginings, hopes, and sufferings of diverse people in the region. Theatrical performance offers a unique lens into the process of identity formation not least because it incorporates a broad array of the population as agents in the process. I argue that the subfield of drama in the Middle East is underdeveloped but full of potential for unearthing histories of individuals, ideas, and artistic production largely unheralded by extant studies.