Early twentieth-century Egyptian theater writers sought moral realism, not escapist entertainment

Evidence

Taymür believed strongly that the entertainment provided by short stories and the theater had to offer moral instruction and realistic reflections of current events, rather than an escape from the troubles of daily life. Egyptian audiences were unable to find anything of their lives or themselves in the translated Italian and French plays and musicals that filled Egyptian theaters and opera houses. In a work collectively called Muhakima mu´alifï al-riwaya al-tamthïlïya (translated by M. M. Badawi as Dialogue of the Dead), Taymür expressed the cultural ambivalence of Egyptian writers, adding another element to the debate about cultural selfrepresentation. These pieces take place as a dream of the narrator, in which artists both dead and alive gather in the hall of Dar al-Opera al-Sultaniyya. The occasion is a trial in which the artistic ability of contemporary and wellknown playwrights is to be judged by classical, canonical writers, all members of Muhammad Taymür’s personal pantheon: Shakespeare, Molière, Corneille, Racine, Edmond Roustand, and Goethe. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 946

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s broader interest in cultural self-representation under colonial influence; Egyptian artists negotiating European cultural models.
• QUESTION: Why were European (Italian/French) plays rather than British dominant in Egyptian theaters, given the British occupation? Worth chasing.