- ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAlūllah’s (1939 – 1994, Algeria) uses elements of Brecht’s theater (such as the epic theatre) next to traditional forms of Algerian theatre in his plays (reference). One example is al-Ajwād (‘The generous’, 1985), which depicts the daily hardships of the working class during the economic, political, cultural, and social changes in Algerian society in the 1970s and 1980s (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Class and Social Change). ʿAlūllah also made an adaption of ‘Arlequin Valet de Deux Maitres’ by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni’s (1707 – 1793) with the title Arlūkān Khādim al-Sayyidayn (‘Arlequin, servant of two masters’, 1993).
- Walid ʿAbdalraḥmān al-Qādir (known as ‘Kākī’, 1934 – 1995, Algeria) adopted Brecht in his play al-Qurrāb wa al-Ṣāliḥīn (‘The water carrier and the righteous’, 1966). Three righteous guardians come back to life to fulfil the wish of a man who works as a water carrier, but when they arrive at the miserable poor village he lives in, no one welcomes them expect for a prostitute (reference). They turn the village into a place for practicing their superstition and sorcery, causing corruption to spread, which is then fought against by the prostitute who is disguised has her brother (reference). The play is an adaptation of Brecht’s play The Good Person of Szechwan (1953).
- Alfrīd Faraj (1929 – 2005, Egypt) play ʿAlī Janāḥ al-Tabrīzī wa Tābiʿuhu Quffah (1969, English trans. The Caravan, or Ali Janah al-Tabrizi and His Servant Quffah, 1989) is an adaptation of Brecht’s Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (1940) that also uses elements of One Thousand and One Nights. Hero of the play is ʿAlī, a lord who has wasted all his money and talks a poor cobbler into serving him by fantasizing wonderful feasts and dining. Quffa, the cobbler, falls under his spell, finding in the company of the imaginative ʿAlī a liberation from his misery (reference). They travel to the east together while pretending that the lord is a rich man whose caravan is still to come, ʿAlī even manages to convince a King of his wealth and marries his daughter (also in this section in Folktales: One Thousand and One Nights).
- Yūsuf Idrīs’ (1927 – 1991, Egypt) play al-Farāfir (1964, Englisht trans. The farfoors / the flipflap) combined “traditional comic forms of dramatic presentation with Brechtian effects such as the presence of an ‘author’ as stage character and the use of theatre-in-the-round staging” (reference). al-Farāfir is also an adaptation of Brecht’s Puntila and his Man Matti (1940), in which the relationship between Farfūr and Sid is one of exploitation (reference). By describing the tensions dynamics between the master and the servant and the inability of the servant to escape from the master’s yoke, the play provides a critical look on politics.
- Yūsri al-Jundī’s (1942-, Egypt) play Baghl al-Baladīyyah (‘The Mule of the Country Council’, 1971) is another adaptation on Brecht’s play Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (1940). It is set in Dumyāt, a small provincial town on the northern side of the Nile Delta, during the new social relations that were developing in Egypt after the 1952 land reform laws and the abolition of large-scale land ownership. The main character becomes a member of the Socialist Union after having his land property reduced. Although he is very much a socialist when he is drunk, when he is sober, he immediately returns to his original class adherence, with all its opposition to the interests of the poor (reference) (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Changes: Class and Social Change).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Balīṣaq ʿAbd al-Nūr and ʿIqāb Bilkhayr. 2017. “Masraḥ ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAlūllah al-tajrībī wa tʾathirahu bi-Brīkht. Masraḥiyyah al-Ajwād Anmūdijan.” Jāmiʿah Muḥammad Būḍiyāf al-Musīlah, http://dspace.univ-msila.dz:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/5497 p. 13 and 16
- Alaraby. 2015. “‘al-Qurrāb wa al-Ṣāliḥīn’: Tadqīr Brīkht.” www.alaraby.co.uk 15 October 2015, https://www.alaraby.co.uk/”القرّاب-والصالحين”-تدوير-بريشت (last accessed 2 December 2022)
- Elmaouid. 2017. “Masrḥiyyah ‘al-Qurrāb wa al-Ṣāliḥīn’ li-Masraḥ al-ʿIlmah … Kākī Yaʿūd Rifqah Brīkht fī Thūb Jadīd.” www.elmaouid.dz, 3 March 2017 https://elmaouid.dz/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%AD-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A9 (last accessed 2 December 2022)
- Rasheed el-Enany. 2000. “The Quest for Justice in the Theatre of Alfred Farag: Different Moulds, One Theme.” Journal of Arabic Literature 31(2): 171-202, p. 193
- Roger Allen. 2022. “Arabic literature”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 January 2022, https://www.britannica.com/art/Arabic-literature (last accessed 15 February 2022)
- Ahmed Cheniki. 2018. “Présence de Brecht dans le théâtre des pays arabes.” Horizons/Théâtre 12: 60-68, p. 62
- Magdi Youssef. 2014. “Brecht’s Theatre and Social Change in Egypt (1954-71).” Arab Stages 1(1). Retrieved through https://arabstages.org/2014/12/brechts-theatre-and-social-change-in-egypt-1954-71/ (last accessed 2 November 2023)
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