10 - Arabic drama since the thirties

Summary

By the 1930s the theatre had become firmly rooted in the Egyptian soil: seeds sown in the previous decades now began to shoot up and bear some fruit. Egyptian theatregoers were getting used to the presence of good actors and actresses, particularly the talented Jūrj Abyaḍ who had received a proper training in Paris. They were also introduced to the concepts of a director (ʿAzīz ʿĪd), a theatre-manager and producer (Yūsuf Wahbī), and a highly disciplined company (Ramsīs, founded in 1923). A national company was formed under government auspices (1935), was given financial support and placed under the joint management of a poet with wide and varied cultural interests, Khalīl Muṭrān, and some of the most prominent men of letters of the day, including Ṭāhā Ḥusayn. No less important was the emergence of a gifted playwright who dedicated his best abilities to dramatic writing and who was soon to become, by dint of hard work and continuous presence on the scene, Egypt's national dramatist, Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm. The forties brought with them further consolidation. The High Institute of Drama, which had been forced to close down after a brief appearance in 1931, was reopened in 1944, headed by the properly trained Zakī Ṭulaymāt.