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In the presence of Ahmed Aburehaima, Director General of Theatre Department at the Department of Culture and Director of the Festival, the “11th Sharjah Theatre Research Forum” was held on Monday morning. The forum annually hosts a group of new graduates from Arab universities’ postgraduate theatre studies programmes and was moderated by Dr Nozha Haikoun (Morocco).
The first presentation was delivered by Ali Al Alawi (Morocco), who earned his PhD from Hassan II University in Casablanca for his dissertation titled “The Philosophy of Theatre: Towards Deconstructing the Mechanisms of Arab Theatrical Thought.” Al Alawi stated that his study aimed to bring about a shift in the study of Arab theatrical geography by applying the “deconstruction” method developed by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. He criticised the current state of Arab theatre, which he described as constrained by “inwardness, imitation, ideology, and metaphysics,” factors that have limited thinking about the essence of theatre.
He emphasised the importance of employing philosophical and critical concepts and methods to answer the question “What is theatre?” noting that previous attempts were inadequate because they overlooked “looking inward.” In his view, the essence of theatre depends on the duality of “idea and spectacle,” as theatre comprises both text and performance. His dissertation raised questions about the notion of origins in a globalised world, the meaning of tragic awareness, and the validity of claims that Arabs were unfamiliar with Greek theatre despite their familiarity with Greek philosophy.
The second presentation was given by Heba Barakat (Egypt), who earned her PhD from Ain Shams University in Cairo for a study titled “Cultural Debate between the European Text and the Arab Performance: A Study of Selected Contemporary Performances Based on Shakespeare’s Works.” Barakat examined the conflicting relationship between modern Arab theatre’s rejection of Western dominance and the allure of Shakespeare’s texts, which colonial culture has promoted as a Western ideal.
Her research analysed five contemporary Arab plays through cultural criticism, organised into three chapters focusing on dramaturgy and stage space, gender roles and the cultural body, and the negotiability of discourses shaping the performance. She concluded that Arab performances tend to reframe Shakespeare’s texts through omission, addition, and the use of colloquial language, with performative bodies playing a central role in merging modern Western techniques with local aesthetics — reflecting Arab theatre’s paradox of both resisting and utilising Western symbols.
Rafika Ben Mimoun (Morocco) delivered her PhD dissertation from Ibn Tofail University titled “The Effectiveness of the Relationship Between Performance and Audience in Contemporary Moroccan Theatre.” Her research, structured in three chapters, explored the historical and theoretical background of audience–performance interaction, global models of audience engagement, and a case study of Morocco’s Aphrodite Theatre Group.
She argued that low audience turnout in Moroccan theatres is not only about artistic quality but also about the lack of a comprehensive cultural policy focused on fostering people’s appreciation of theatre, particularly through education. Her study also highlighted successful Moroccan theatrical experiences in attracting audiences. It included field research to assess public opinion, while noting a scarcity of specialised studies and official statistics on theatre attendance.
In the second session, Hatem Al-Talili (Tunisia) presented his dissertation, “Latent Critical Discourse in the History of Theatrical Writing,” which earned him a PhD from the University of Tunisia. He argued that criticism does not solely stem from critics but can also exist within the creative texts of playwrights, functioning as “discourse on discourse.”
His research was divided into three chapters: the first on the “creativity of critical discourse” and its shift from being independent to merging with theatrical texts; the second on Aristophanes’ plays, where comedy was used to critique philosophers and poets from within art itself; and the third on Luigi Pirandello’s works, focusing on “the death of the author” and how texts reflect on themselves to produce self-criticism, linking this to Aristotle’s “Poetics.”
The final presentation was by Iman Yass Khudair (Iraq), who earned her PhD from Mohammed V University in Rabat for her dissertation “Representations of Exile in Iraqi Theatre Between 1992 and 2015: The Dialectic of Text and Performance.” She examined how Iraqi artists artistically portray the experience of exile on stage, analysing the interplay between text and performance.
Her theoretical section traced the rise of Iraqi theatre since 1880 and the factors that pushed Iraqi theatre practitioners into exile, employing cultural criticism and postcolonial studies. The practical section analysed three plays by exiled Iraqi writers — Echo of Silence by Qasim Matroud, I Came to See You by Kareem Rasheed, and The Light Journey by Fadel Al Sudani — highlighting major themes and artistic features used to depict exile. She stressed the importance of cultural criticism in addressing exile within its social, cultural, and artistic contexts.
The evening programme featured three plays. The first, Dear Departed by Stanley Houghton, directed by Aisha Al Qassab, tells of an elderly father presumed dead by his family, who plan to divide his estate. When he awakens, he discovers their greed and announces that he will bequeath his property to whoever lives with him at the time of his death. In the post-show discussion, Jordanian artist Heba Abukweik praised the director’s inventive solutions and the actors’ strong performances.
The second play, Good Morning, based on John Irving’s For My Son and directed by Jassim Al Tamimi, focuses on a chemist trying to invent a weapon to shorten wars and his sister, who lost her husband and son in conflict. Jordanian artist Osama Al Jarrah facilitated the post-show critique.
The third play, Two Blind Men, adapted from Mathurin Dondo’s Two Blind Men and a Donkey and directed by Nada Hatem Nada, depicts two blind beggars fighting over a begging spot. The plot unfolds as a series of tricks, involving a man searching for his donkey, a travelling actor who sells the donkey to a greedy restaurant owner as a “supernatural” animal, and culminates in the actor wearing a donkey mask to declare his transformation into a human. Jordanian artist Abdullah Ubaidat spoke during the post-show discussion.
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