Democratic Palestine : 21 (ص 38)
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- Democratic Palestine : 21 (ص 38)
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THE START OF AL
HAKAWATI
Al Hakawati theater was established
in 1977, by a group of amateurs orga-
nized by Francois Abu Salem. Al
Hakawati owes its Arab and interna-
tional fame to the play «Mahjoub,
Mahjoub» in 1981, but they had pro-
duced two other works before that: «In
the Name of the Father, the Mother and
the Son» in 1978, and «Bread and Salt»
in 1979-80. In 1982, Al Hakawati pro-
duced «One Thousand and One Nights
of a Stone Thrower», and filmed some
scenes of Emil Habibi’s play «Al
Mutasha’el». They produced «Ali of
Galilee» in 1983, and «The Story of the
Eye and the Tooth» in 1985. Al Haka-
wati ventured to establish a theater and
culture center in Jerusalem, named the
Arts and Theater Center.
«One Thousand and One Nights of a
Stone Thrower» is a good example of
the group’s innovative style and Pales-
tinian essence at the same time. Though
Al Hakawati means storyteller, the
group’s stories are not told in a tradi-
tional narrative way. Rather they
employ pantomime and special effects
to get their point across. Though about
the Palestinians under occupation,
«One Thousand and One Nights of a
Stone Thrower» is neither didactic nor
propagandistic in style. Rather the
relationship between the oppressed and
the oppressors is to a great extent con-
veyed by the structure of the play and
the set. The stage has two levels. On the
upper One reigns the governor. On the
lower one are the people, including the
stone thrower, upon whom _ the
governor is trying to get his hands. The
message comes across through the way
the play unfolds more than from dia-
logue.
Director Francois Abu Salem himself
chose his Palestinian identity. He is the
son of the Hungarian surgeon and
writer, Loran Gaspar, who held French
citizenship, and came to Palestine to
work. Francois was born in a village
near Bethlehem and grew up in Pales-
tine with his brothers, untii his father
was expelled by the Zionist authorities,
and the family went to live in Tunis.
However, Abu Salem chose the land
of Palestine, its people and language.
Moreover, he challenged himself to
play a leading role in the young and
growing theater movement. He started
as an amateur with Balaleen and went
on until establishing Al Hakawati. Al
Hakawati distinguishes itself by being a
Palestinian theater group that includes
artists of Muslim, Christian and Jewish
religion. They work side by side for a
dual cause: Palestine and theater.
Al Hakawati’s latest presentation is
called «The Slaves’ Banishment». It is
directed by Radi Shahada and based on
an idea by Ibrahim Al Khalili. The play
portrays Palestinian Arab workers in
Israeli factories and some in the facto-
ries of wealthy Palestinians. During the
lunch break, the workers’ gather,
38
expressing their common. troubles,
hopes and aspirations. They are all
looking for somebody to sympathize
with their problems, and to defend their
rights.
PERFORMING IN THE
VILLAGES
Though A! Hakawati has now toured
extensively abroad, its first perfor-
mances were in towns and villages of
Palestine where an exceptional expe-
rience was created in terms of introdu-
cing new national cultural forms and
audience participation. Francois Abu
Salem describes Al Hakawati’s expe-
riences performing in the villages:
«We had very close relations with our
masses, regardless of their liking
theater or not. We are not affiliated
with a specific political group, which
enabled us to maintain close relations
with different people in different areas.
In the Galilee, for example, the political
tendencies are public and very intense,
but we were able to work with every-
body and bring opposing groups to-
gether in our shows. We don’t claim
that we unite ‘them, but we bring them
together in joint work if only for a
week. This is exactly the role of the
theater we aspire to.»
The cities have traditionally been the
domain of the theater and fine arts, but
Al Hakawati has broken out of these
narrow confines and perfomed in vil-
lages before audiences with no previous
involvement with theater. Abu Salem
relates the details of such experiences:
«When we travel to perform in one of
the villages, we stay there for days.
Usually we are confronted with very
difficult circumstances. In most. vil-
lages, there is no stage. We take a
school yard or the village square. This
in itself gets us into trouble with the
occupation authorities who try to pres-
Sure us tO prevent us’ from
performing.»
«These problems, however, really
gather the villagers around us. All come
to help us overcome the obstacles. For
instance, the young men and women
help us build the stage.... In one inei-
dent, I remember that we needed the
school yard for the performance.
Although we had a permit from the
authorities to perform, we needed a
permit from the Education Ministry to
use the school yard. The school super-
intendent received a telegram from the
officials in the Education Ministry to
stop us from using the school yard,
because performing there was ‘a sort of
agitation.’ It was during the summer
vacation and the Education Ministry
had no authority over the vicinity, but
the authorities used the school budget
as a form of pressure. Since the play
had become the event of the year for the
people in the village, they all pressured
the superintendent to get a permission
for us to use the school yard.»
«Building the stage is another diffi-
culty we were always confronting. It
takes days of hard labor to build one,
and to fix the lighting and sound
systems. Our financial resources were
very limited, and the stage, for
example, requires a certain kind of
wood that is costly. We don’t own a
portable stage that is big enough. In
one of the villages, a few people took
apart the roof of their home to build a
Stage, and everybody worked all night
to build it. Everyone in the villages
shared the experience with us.»
«We eat and sleep in the people’s
homes when we are performing in their
villages. We live among them for days,
and a very warm relationship is esta-
blished among us.»
Abu Salem also described the people
as an audience: «Our audience is defi-
nitely spontaneous. People don’t watch
the shows with a critical view. They
may applaud when they are not sup-
posed to, or comment in a loud voice
and interrupt the actors; some may not
understand the meaning of the sound or
light effects. A lot of them stand behind
the stage throughout the whole show to
see what goes on behind the curtains...
Moreover, a huge number of children
come to our shows. In the Galilee, the
children arrive before all others. Many
run away from home and hide until the
show begins. Children are always more
spontaneous than adults. They just
forget everything around them and
Surrender themselves to the magic of
the show.»
«In Jerusalem, our audience is more
intellectual. They give us their com-
ments and critiques, and we benefit
from this. In the villages, our people’s
spontaneity is our only criterion. They
either get interested or bored. They wait
for the show to end to talk to us and to
celebrate. In some villages, women
come to the shows; in others, women
are the majority of the audience, and in
still others, only men attend.»
PERFORMING FOR
ISRAELIS
Abu Salem was asked if it was one of
Al Hakawati’s purposes to bring
Israelis and _ Palestinians togetner
through the theater. He prefaced his
answer by giving a picture of the reality
of living in occupied Palestine: «There
aren’t any meetings between the Pales-
tinians and the Jews, that are worth
mentioning. There are some meetings
between intellectuals... between us and
certain Jews who are supportive of our
cause, but not on the level of the ordi-
nary audience. What the Zionist
authorities try to depict about Jeru-
salem as a united city, is a big lie. The
city is split into East and West. The two
parts are separate and isolated from
each other. Israel has built huge
apartment buildings and universities on
the hills of East Jerusalem, but that
part of the city is kept completely iso-
lated from the West. A person living in
East Jerusalem doesn’t have to buy so
much as a match from West Jerusalem.
Therefore, there aren’t many Jews who
come to see our shows. If we want an - هو جزء من
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