Arab Theatre Research Articles

Towards an Egyptian Theatre: Syncretic Aesthetics in the Works of Tawfiq al-Hakim and Yousuf Idris

Tawfiq al-Ḥakīm (1898-1987) and Yūsuf Idrīs (1927-1991) are two towering figures in Egyptian and Arabic theatre, not only for their poignant social commentary but also for their bold theoretical and theatrical innovations. Their contributions served to decolonize the Egyptian stage and paved the way for subsequent generations to reclaim an Egyptian identity. The objective of the current research paper is to investigate how the two playwrights syncretized elements from Western and Eastern theatrical traditions that created unique and impactful theatrical experiences which are neither Western nor indigenous but amalgamation of both. Moreover, the paper delves into the dramatic world of al-Ḥakīm and Idrīs, specifically al-Ḥakīm’s Agamemnon (as revisited and reworked in Qālibunā al-masraḥī [Our Theatrical Mold (1967) and Idrīs’s al-Farāfīr (1964). Through an examination of these plays, the analysis explores the playwrights' experimentation with dramatic form, which draws upon the rich tapestry of Egyptian folk culture, while simultaneously engaging with the universality of content found within the Western dramatic canon. The research paper is grounded in a multifaceted theoretical framework that integrates several theoretical concepts. Deploying Christopher Balme’s “syncretism,” along with Homi Bhabha’s “third space” and Erika Fischer-Lichte’s “interweaving” as analytical framework, this paper examines the transaction between indigenous and colonial theatrical productions that led to the emergence of new dramaturgies by al-Ḥakīm and Idrīs that bridge the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial paradigms. The paper concludes that the playwrights’ incorporation of syncretic forms in their plays represents the recognition of multifaceted cultural heritage.

Representations of Experimentation in Contemporary Arabic Theatre

Art is a dynamic and renewing aesthetic vision. Since the dawn of creativity, arts have sought to break away from tradition and embrace new forms and elements in response to intellectual and other changes. Theatre, in particular, has experimented with its structure and content due to its inherent flexibility and transformative nature. Social and environmental conditions in the Arab world have driven theatre practitioners towards innovation.Many Arab playwrights responded to the events of 1967 by adopting an experimental approach in theatre. Egyptian playwright Sayyed Hafez is a key figure who emerged in the 1970s, contributing significantly to the renewal of theatrical composition. Realizing that traditional theatre was no longer effective in engaging society, Hafez introduced innovative ideas.Until the early 1970s, Arab and Egyptian theatre was predominantly traditional. However, new efforts to revitalize it began with Hafez's experimental play "The Pride of Triviality in the Land of Meaninglessness," which broke classical norms and offered new perspectives on characters, settings, and heroism.Hafez continued his experimental approach in subsequent plays, such as "It Happened as It Happened but No Event Happened," "Silent Drums in the Blue Valleys," and "They Are as They Are but Not the Vagabonds." These works reflect his desire for rebellion and passion for experimentation in theatrical writing.This study aims to analyze the features of experimentation in Sayyed Hafez's theatrical texts and their impact on the construction of the theatrical text. The significance of the research lies in exploring these experimental tendencies, benefiting specialists in theatrical criticism. The objective is to identify representations of experimentation in Hafez's plays.

Ceremonial preoccupations in the performances of the Iraqi playwright

The research deals with (the ceremonial preoccupations in the performances of the Iraqi playwright) the Iraqi ceremonial theater with a specificity that emerges as an Arab theatrical style that relied on reviving the legacies and popular folklore drawn from mythology and tales, as what was called quasi-dramatic phenomena as the foundations of an authentic Arab theatrical style employed in harmony with dung overlap with the ritual manifestations of The ceremonial dimensions are seen as one of the most important formative elements of the Arab ceremonial theater and one of the foundations of rooting. Those appearances, which came as constructive foundations, produced an idea that was reflected in the theatrical show with its festive style with an Arab identity, and that this reflection was represented in the operational structures of the theatrical show according to the Arab theoretical vision, and the research had focused on the representations of the festive appearances.
 The methodological framework came to review the research problem, the need for it and its importance in addition to defining and defining the terms. As for the second chapter, it came on two sections. Under the title (Celebratory Visions in Arab Theater Performances), the researcher went to create an approach between celebration and celebration in its philosophical dimension and the theatrical artistic work in Arab theater performances.
 The researcher adopted the descriptive, analytical and intentional approach in selecting and processing the sample in the third chapter of the research, and adopted the indicators that resulted from the theoretical framework as a tool for measurement.

The Technical Mediator in Arab Theater: Their Tools and Skills

The artistic mediation in theater connects the human elements with the material elements in the theatrical production process. The human artistic mediator plays a crucial role in achieving the artistic and expressive goals of the theatrical work, requiring high skills and expertise. Their role involves coordinating and executing the technical aspects of production, such as lighting, sound, set design, costumes, and acting, using their skills and techniques to transform the theatrical text into a successful stage performance. The artistic mediator significantly impacts the quality of the theatrical work and creates a distinct viewing experience for the audience. Technological advancements and continuous updates in theater contribute to the development of the artistic mediator, expanding their capabilities in creative embodiment and artistic creation. This evolution leads to improved reception conditions and opens up new horizons for viewing and interacting with theatrical productions.

Interaction between Modern Arabic and European Drama and its Role in Removing the Language Pattern Limits With Special Reference to the playwright Saadallah Wanous

It is well known that there is an effects of the same area language accents, dialects, traditions and customs, in the Arab World, because of the same area language effects on them, for example the Egyptian theatre have more effects on other Arabic countries, but there was no more studies on the effects of other cultures and language in Arabic theatre, so this research will cast light on Interaction between Modern Arabic and European Drama and its Role in Removing the Language Pattern Limits. The study aims at investigating the factors behind interaction between Arabic and European theatre, and to study the role of interaction in filling the gap between the formal and slang Arabic. The researcher followed the descriptive, analytic and critical approach. The research come up with many results, the important of which is: the Arabic theatre represented by Saadallah Wannous makes understand that the theatre writings is non-completed, otherwise than it is completed by the wholly presentation, as such the ultimate relation between theoretical writing and the practical, Sa’adallah Wannous need really a political theatre discharge and either partially daily and in the same time, make and enhance audience for changing., Wannous needs an audience theatre towards the working public strata, after studying its situations and life circumstances, he needs for this group to go on breaking of the classical work, so as to jump on experimental continuous way for building a mission theatre. The study recommend that, there should be more focus in studying contrastive studies between Arabic and English in theatre language, also faculty of arts should practically pay attention to teaching comparative drama for their students.

Performance Approach between Theatrical Improvisation and the Ceremony of Iraqi Clannish Segregation

The study aims to find a Performance approach between theatrical improvisation and the ceremony of Iraqi clannish segregation from artistic aspects, the clan structure in Arab life has a basic system that has its own constitution and legislations that are used by individuals, the clan segregation is one of them. Where it is carried out by a team known for its special characteristics performance among the clans and takes place according to the current and contested situation, such as murder, and theft. The proceedings of the segregation are formed within a performance plot carried out by a team assigned by the perpetrator and the victim. Where the roles and emotional states are distributed among the members of the same team before reaching the opposing clan corresponding to them, and perform roles when the two chorus meet, typical characters with names that have a well-known social connotation such as: The obligatory, the master, the troublemaker, the discrimination, the reputed, and others.., The obligatory or (knowledgeable) personality leads the clan segregation and he almost plays the role of (director) with his directives, dividing roles and allowing to speak, and the presence of these stereotypical characters in every clan segregation, in comedy, dell'arte is matched by stereotypical characters with connotations of sociopolitical and artistic reality. This study, which was not previously covered by any Arab researcher, could constitute an Arab research attempt to create new theatrical appearances and approaches to be added to the pioneering attempts to root Arab theater.

Arab theatre and plays: developmental stages and challenges

Arab stage plays took their time in the development and making their place in the world throughout the ancient times. The article shines a light on the phases and struggles Arab theatre went through in making such majestic art and performances that are a source of entertainment for people from all over the world. Mainly the struggles were because of religious issues that initiated many other issues like the censorship and not having enough popularity in the Arab states that put up a limit to the theatre establishments forcing the artists to make journeys in order to seek their audience as many things did not sit well in the mindsets of the religious Arabs. However, later on, the theatre started stretching its roots in the hearts of the audience. Performances like Shadow Puppetry and Passion plays took over many viewers and became an important part of the Arab culture. One of the most important eras in the history of Arabic drama development was that of the Egyptian era, which holds a reputation to this time and tells a lot of religious and historic stories through its innovative art play. The article also highlights the great contribution of Ibn Danyal Al-Khuzai to the plays through his three phenomenal theatre scripts that were enacted upon by many diverse cultures and ethnicities, furthermore, the influence Western drama culture made in Arab states and its impact that came with series of events.

Comparative of Two Scheherazade from Arab Theater

Binbir Gece Masalları, bir çerçeve hikâye ve onun etrafında oluşturulan masallardan meydana gelen bir masal külliyatıdır. Kökeni itibariyle Doğu edebiyatını temsil eden bu masallar, Batı dillerine çevrilmesiyle birlikte orada da meşhur olmuş ve böylece Dünya edebiyatında önemli bir yer işgal etmiştir. Bu masallar gerek Doğu’da ve gerekse Batı’da birçok edebiyatçıyı etkilemiş ve onlara ilham kaynağı olmuştur. Birçok edebi eserin, doğrudan veya dolaylı olarak bu külliyattan beslendiği görülür. Modern Arap Edebiyatının önemli ve üretken iki yazarı Tevfîk el-Hakîm ve Ali Ahmed Bâkesîr de bu masallardan esinlenerek birer tiyatro eseri yazmışlardır. el-Hakîm, yetmişi aşkın tiyatro eserinden biri olan Şehrâzâd eserinde binbirinci geceden sonra yaşananları bir kurgu ile okuyucuya sunmuştur. Bu eserde Şehrâzâd’ın anlattığı hikâyelerle Şehriyâr bambaşka bir insan olmuştur. Daha önce her türlü maddi zevki tatmış olan bu kral, artık bilgiyi aramakta ve mekânın sınırlarından kurtulmak istemektedir. Şairliği ve romancılığının yanı sıra Arap tiyatrosuna da önemli katkıları olan Bâkesîr ise, kırkın üzerinde tiyatro eseri yazmıştır. O, bu eserlerden biri olan Sırru Şehrâzâd adlı eserini Binbir Gece Masalları’nın çerçeve hikâyesinden hareketle kaleme almıştır. Yazar eserinde modern bir yorum geliştirerek, kadının sadakatsizliği üzerine kurulan çerçeve hikâyeyi değiştirmiş ve yeni bir kurgu ile ele almıştır. Buna göre Sırru Şehrâzâd adlı eserde Şehriyâr’ın ilk eşi, masum bir karakter olarak canlandırılmış ve olay örgüsü bunun üzerine bina edilmiştir. Bu çalışmada öncelikle orijinal Binbir Gece Masalları hakkında genel bilgiler sunulmuş ardından el-Hakîm ve Bâkesîr’in bahsi geçen tiyatro eserleri edebi açıdan incelenmiş, son olarak her iki yazarın eserindeki Şehrâzâd karakteri karşılaştırılmıştır.

Trans*versal Afterlives of Comedy: The Queer Arab Plays of Raphaël Amahl Khouri

Abstract This article explores No Matter Where I Go and She He Me, two plays by Raphaël Amahl Khouri, a contemporary queer and trans playwright of Arab and German heritage. After charting the histories of comedy and Arab theatre, it examines the dialogue of the two plays with Greco-Roman, Arab and German avant-garde theatre through Abraham Weil’s notion of trans*versality, a queer reformulation of Félix Guattari’s concept. It proposes that Khouri’s plays enact trans*versality thematically, by depicting characters of various gender identities and sexual orientations, and aesthetically, in their eclectic deployment of dramatic conventions from various cultural traditions. It is argued that Khouri’s comedies outgrow a Eurocentric understanding of what constitutes ‘theatre’, while they also shed light on the specific intersection of trans and queer gender identities, sexual orientations and Arab identities in a world that is keen to erase or ignore these anti-normative subject positions.

The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual ed. by Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers

Reviewed by: The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual ed. by Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers Samar Zahrawi (bio) Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers (eds). The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. xxi + 233. $99.99 hardback, $80.00 ebook. The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous is the first book in the English language to paint a well-rounded picture of the dramatic art, intellectual background, and theatrical impact of the most significant modern Arab dramatist, Sa’dallah Wannous (1941–97). Generally speaking, the book first situates Wannous within Syrian, Arab, and world contexts and analyzes Wannous’ use of Brechtian techniques to induce critical thinking and promote social and political change. Second, it provides a reading into the thematic content of Wannous’ drama caused by his frustration with the multiple political failures of his time. Third, it delves into the directors’ theatrical experience while staging Wannous’s plays. Fourth, it profiles Wannous the intellectual, the man, and the father through surveying his library and recording memoirs about him by two of his close friends and daughter. Editors Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers have adeptly brought together the work of multidisciplinary experts, including literary scholars, directors, creative writers, and close acquaintances. The resulting volume will appeal to scholars in the field of theatre, literature, culture, and the relation of authority to social change. It will also be of value to anyone interested in contemporary Syria and the Arab world. The book is unique in critiquing Wannous’ theatre and thought and tracing the organic connection between political, social, historical, and personal factors that contributed to Wannous’s creativity. It studies the role of Wannous’s theatre in envisioning and impacting culture during postcolonial and contemporary Syria and adjacent countries. It also registers changes in societies and measures the extent to which theatre and literature still matter today Locating the work of Wannous within the theatrical movement in the Arab world and world theatre, this book allows readers to define the disciplines and modes of thought in a new way. It identifies the post-colonial struggle with authoritarianism and the political events that influenced Wannous such as the partition of Palestinian Land upon the creation of the State of Israel (Nakba), the loss of more land to Israel due to the war of June 5th 1967 (Naksa), the Camp David Accords (Egypt and Israel peace treaty in 1978), and the continuous struggle for peace and political equity. In “Part 1 - Situating Wannous,” Marvin Carlson surveys the history of the Arabic world since the Arabic renaissance (Nahda) in Cairo, Damascus, and Beirut, starting with Marun al-Naqqash and Abu-Khalil al-Qabbani and moving up to Wannous’s time. Carlson studies the influence of European [End Page 336] theatre practitioners on Wannous and his inclination to favor Brecht’s methods over Ionesco’s, at the same time drawing from folkloric tradition to develop a genuinely Arab theatre. He also considers Wannous as a major author not just in the modern Arab world but in the theatre repertoire around the world. Robert Myers and Nada Saab study, in more detail, the influence of Bertolt Brecht and other Brechtian practitioners on Wannous, as well as Wannous’ innovative use of Arabic traditional modes while adapting Brechtian techniques. Myers and Saab investigate the way Wannous used Brechtian techniques in his Theatre of Politicization such as estrangement effect, frequent use of metatheatre, the use of narrations, and characterization through class and profession as opposed to the creation of character through psychological development. They also point to Wannous’ break away from the direct influence of Brecht and Marx in the later plays of the 1990s, when he drew upon Chekhov, Shakespeare, Sufi rituals, and other sources of inspiration. “Part 2 - Reading Wannous” studies the significance of Wannous’ best-known and most-produced plays about politics, history, and theories of theatre. Zeina Halabi provides a post-structural study of Wannous’ ten-year silence that came as a reaction to multiple political and personal catastrophes culminating in the Camp David peace treaty accord between...

An emerging nation, its Arabic theatre heritage and the influence of English-language stage drama

The authors analyse and decode several unique features of theatrical culture and the teaching and performance of Shakespeare in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf nation of Qatar. What could be described as a traditional and conservative Bedouin society, Qataris have with little native tradition of the performing arts nevertheless uneasily allowed the development of both an Arabic-language and English-language theatre culture. Parallel to national theatre efforts has been an equally prominent English expatriate drama tradition stretching back to the 1950s in Doha. As part of economic diversification strategies (since almost all government revenues are derived from petroleum and natural gas production), the government of the State of Qatar has embarked on a number of cultural development projects, including new museums, heritage preservation, book publishing, music and theatre, and educational development (for example, the higher education hub called Education City). Some of this social and economic development focuses on local culture, while other initiatives encourage international engagement with well-known Western cultural icons such as Shakespeare, as well as contemporary visual artists including Damien Hirst, Richard Serra and Luc Tuymans, to signal Qatar's desire to brand itself as an emerging, sophisticated and cosmopolitan nation. This study examines the ambivalence in Qatar towards the Western artistic influence as a form of cultural imperialism and erosive of Muslim values, yet the local fondness for English culture in part due to Britain's protectorship over the Gulf states in the form of the maritime truces and Political Resident system. Tracing the history of the Doha Players troupe, as well as the state-sponsored Qatar National Theatre, provides the context for the difficulties in presenting The Tempest to a local audience in November 2015. The directors faced the challenges of censorship, logistical concerns and the tradition of gender segregation that permeates all layers of society and education. This study presents a complex and conflicting portrait of Qataris’ ambivalent attitudes not only towards Shakespeare, but also towards Qatar's colonial heritage, Western literature, modernity, the newly dominant Anglo-American paradigm of education (related to the rise of global Englishes) and the extraordinary transformation of Qatar from a traditional mixed beddu/hadar culture to a significant regional power broker within two generations.

A Perspective on the Progress of the Theatre of Saad al-Faraj, with Emphasis on Censorship in Kuwait and the challenged Play Custom is Second Nature

This study is an examination of the life and work of the Kuwaiti dramatist Saad al-Faraj (1938 - ). al-Faraj’s name is virtually unknown in the West – particularly in the English-speaking West, although he is well known in Arab World. Only one academic study of any significance has appeared in Arabic on this eminent and fascinating dramatist, who was honoured by NCCAL and the Arab Theatre Institute at the end of his life. This study do not attempt to be comprehensive but focus on particular stages of al-Faraj’s career. This study is, therefore, the only one to attempt to see al-Faraj whole. To do so it combines an account of his life which seeks to comprehend the various forces that shaped his thinking with an analysis of one of his main dramatic work. The study concentrates on the years following the trauma inflicted on the Arab world by the catastrophe of the defeat of June 1967. Al-Faraj’s career can be divided into two phases: the immature plays of his young manhood; his late period – the ‘Epic theatre’, when his Nasrism politics were the main factor shaping his drama. The study places al-Faraj in his historical and sociocultural context and provides a brief background explaining the literary and theatrical traditions of the Arab world that influenced his activity as a dramatist. His late work is then examined in turn and his play Custom is Second Nature is analysed in accordance with the focus of the study. This means that special attention is given to the late period, but no significant work is neglected. The study aims to trace the trajectory of al-Faraj’s development using a variety of sources: the plays themselves, al-Faraj’s own journalism and critical writings, interviews with him, and his close friends and colleagues, in addition to a number of journals, books and articles, some of which contain important interviews with al-Faraj that shed light on his thought and ways of working. Conclusions will be drawn but, more importantly, questions will be raised, and it is hoped that scholars will consider this playwright and his work a subject meriting further research.

Рання арабська драма

The purpose of the article is to investigate the issue of Arabic or Islamic drama (both of which are not necessarily synonymous), which existed in the pre-modern period: that is, between the birth of Islam in the seventh century and the rise of theater in European models in the nineteenth century. The selected issues determined the broad context of the research. In particular, the author draws attention to the lack of a stable tradition of theater in the Western sense, which has become a problem that has for many years caught the eye of critics and scholars of both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. The research methodology is mainly based on the analytical-comparative-art-scientific approach, which provides a cultural and anthropological study of the evolution of the Arab theater, in particular, the ways of the early Arab drama formation and its development until 1847. Scientific novelty of the article. For the first time, with the involvement of extensive research material, early Arabic drama was systematized and scientifically conceived as a milestone component of the evolution of theater in the Muslim world. Conclusions. The Arab Theater certainly existed until 1847, but for a variety of reasons, its various manifestations did not grow into high art, as it did in Europe during the Renaissance. Some scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, Arab and non-Arab, have sought to find the causes of this situation, although most have proven to be speculative and not worthy of scrutiny. It is likely that the drama did not develop beyond embryonic forms for two main reasons: the hypocrisy to which the theater was exposed by religious figures, and the contempt shown by the literature figures. Ibn Danyal's dramatic work could not be fruitfully developed because the genre for which the works were created – the Shadow Theater – was technically restricted, and the so-called "Caliph Trial" remains the only example of Islamic theater that can only be regarded as a development of the art of worship. Later comedies tended to be either rude farcical or gross satire, which usually emphasized the corruptions, cruelty and arrogance of powerful power-holders, and the helplessness of the poor, naive and vulnerable peasant. These short improvised works did not contribute to the plot development or character. However, this does not mean that such plays have disappeared with the development of high European theater; on the contrary, and especially in Egypt, they continued to be popular until the twentieth century, despite the contempt that many educated Arabs felt for them.

Andalusi Contests, Syrian Media Content: the Poetic Ritual Ijāzah

Abstract This article moves the poetic ijāzah from the periphery, where modern scholars have generally placed it, to a central position in Arabic poetry and mass media. The ijāzah was well developed before its adoption in the western Mediterranean, but Cordoban, Sevillian, and expatriate Sicilian poets distinguished the competitive improvised poem from corollary works in the Middle East, where it had first been invented. I argue that it is precisely the Andalusi innovations to the ijāzah’s formal development that have allowed traditional criticism to minimize its importance, against a larger trend of popular audiences appreciating performed ijāzahs, on stage and in mass media. Modern Arabic theatre and television have found enthusiastic audiences for the Andalusi poetic dialogue, a phenomenon that frames my Classical research. Media outlets, including those working closely with government officials, stage the ijāzah in ways that maximize its ideological value. As they use it to promote secularism and putatively benevolent dictatorship, propelling Andalusi literature into current Middle Eastern politics, we critics should seek to understand the dialogic form in its contemporary, insistently political phase of development.

Arab Patriotism: The Ideology and Culture of Power in Late Ottoman Egypt

Arab Patriotism: The Ideology and Culture of Power in Late Ottoman Egypt

La modernità nel teatro egiziano: l’esempio di Naǧīb al-Rīḥānī

Abstract Arab modernity, in theatre, is characterized by the foundational discourse that grew out of the encounter with European theatre and culture. Traditional types of dramatic representation, some even going back to the pre-Islamic period, were largely neglected by authors and critics, between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. They preferred to overlook the influence of popular Arabic theatre and reconnect to the ‘Italian’ theatre. Egyptian playwrights imported the structure of the plays, but they adapted it to the Arabic social context and used it for their own cultural project. This study deals with the themes, the reference samples and the characters, in their relationships with the Egyptian cultural field. After a presentation of the major models in the modern Arab theatre, I will focus on Naǧīb al-Rīḥānī in order to investigate which were the paradigmatic references and characters for one of the main actor and playwright of Egyptian modernity.

Introduction: Nahḍah Narratives

Abstract In the last decade, the field of Nahḍah Studies has been gathering momentum. Scholars from different subject-areas have highlighted several aspects of the 19th–early 20th century cultural fervor in the Arab and south Mediterranean area. Accordingly, the whole set of Nahḍah narratives has been readdressed. By “Nahḍah narratives” we mean both the set of theoretical readings, definitions and views developed by the nahḍawī groundswell, itself and the metacritical narratives developed by international scholarship on the Arab Nahḍah. In dialogue with the recent scholarship, the papers collected here represent a contribution in questioning the “Arab awakening”: their theoretical approaches, crossing comparative literature, literary analysis, history of ideas — achieve a broader understanding of the movement, dwelling especially on intersections with other disciplines and widening the research on the Nahḍah from the point of view of cultural production. The focus on modern Arab journalism, theatre, translation, political essays, prose and poetry writing which characterizes this special issue of Oriente Moderno attempts at going beyond the critical perspectives of a Nahḍah molded on Euro-centric modernity, on a diffusionist model of text circulation and on a “retrospective” idea of a modernity-to-be.

Arab Theatre Festival

Arab Theatre Festival

Mental models, (de)compressions, and the actor’s process in body-swap movies

AbstractThe body-swap comedy, where someone finds themselves inhabiting an entirely different body, is a well-established Hollywood tradition. Crucially, American filmmakers have tried every twist and contortion of this genre premise at a point or another over the past few decades. And yet, other countries, such as Egypt, Japan, and South Africa, seem to have just now put different spins on the theme. Nevertheless, this genre is under-theorized and under-explored. Drawing on insights from blending theory (Fauconnier and Turner 2002), mental models (van Dijk 2014), and the actor’s process as described by, among others, Stanislavsky (1995,2008) and Brecht (1964,1970), this article provides cognitively plausible answers to the perennial questions: What is so funny in body-swap films? How do spectators make sense of this genre? How do blending processes operate in body-swap movies? Do spectators “live in the blend?” What patterns of compression or decompression are at work in body-swap templates? Can humor be a strong determiner of moral-political cognition? And what connections can be drawn between acting and cognitive neuroscience? A discussion of English and Arabic examples (i) points to some of the cultural concepts involved in body-swap films, (ii) shows how conceptual blending in humorous films serves to both perpetuate and modify culturally relevant concepts, and (iii) highlights the necessity to expand the current scope in compression, embodiment and identity research. More generally, then, this article presents a new cognitive theory of how cinema, television, or theatre communicates meaning. The most important aim of this study is thus to contribute to the small but growing number of publications that use the cognitive sciences to inform scholarly and practical explorations in theatre and performance studies, as well as to the study of Arab theatre and cinema, which are among the most neglected subjects in the field.

Formation of Arabic Theatrical Speech Culture in the Context of Language Situation

The Arabic world’s language situation is characterized by bilingualism (diglossia), as alongside the written language (Fusha), there exist many spoken languages. This situation rai­ses important theoretical and methodological issues before the theatre in general and theatrical pedagogics in parti­cular. The article deals with the problem of orthoepic norms’ lacking in spoken Arabic, which affects both the teaching methods in theat­rical high schools and the speech culture in ge­neral. In this context, the author gives a short review of language development in Arabic theatre and considers some points of view of Arabic theatrical directors and playwrights of different periods. The article represents a table of phonetics’ compa­rison of Arabic literary and spoken languages. Furthermore, the article raises the problem of spoken language codification and also considers the issue of theatre language. Emphasizing the importance of both the written and spoken langua­ges, the artic­le concludes on the ambivalent approach to forming the theatrical speech teaching methods in the Syrian theatrical school, provided that local dialects are standardized and actors-students master the capital dialect along with the literary language. In practice, teachers have to combine the written language acquisition basing on the rules, and that of the spoken language using audio samples.