The Theatres of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia: Performance Traditions of the Maghreb

267 Pages·2012·6.03 MB·English

by  Khalid Amine

Studies in International Performance
Published in association with the International Federation of Theatre Research
General Editors: Janelle Reinelt andBrian Singleton
Culture and performance cross borders constantly, and not just the borders that define
nations. In this new series, scholars of performance produce interactions between and
among nations and cultures as well as genres, identities and imaginations.
Inter-national in the largest sense, the books collected in theStudies in International
Performance series display a range of historical, theoretical and critical approaches to
the panoply of performances that make up the global surround. The series embraces
‘Culture’ which is institutional as well as improvised, underground or alternate, and
treats ‘Performance’ as either intercultural or transnational as well as intracultural
within nations.
Titles include:
Khalid Amine and Marvin Carlson
THE THEATRES OF MOROCCO, ALGERIA AND TUNISIA
Performance Traditions of the Maghreb
Patrick Anderson and Jisha Menon (editors)
VIOLENCE PERFORMED
Local Roots and Global Routes of Conflict
Elaine Aston and Sue-Ellen Case
STAGING INTERNATIONAL FEMINISMS
Christopher Balme
PACIFIC PERFORMANCES
Theatricality and Cross-Cultural Encounter in the South Seas
Matthew Isaac Cohen
PERFORMING OTHERNESS
Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905–1952
Susan Leigh Foster (editorr)
WORLDING DANCE
Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo
PERFORMANCE AND COSMOPOLITICS
Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australasia
Helena Grehan
PERFORMANCE, ETHICS AND SPECTATORSHIP IN A GLOBAL AGE
Judith Hamera
DANCING COMMUNITIES
Performance, Difference, and Connection in the Global City
James Harding and Cindy Rosenthal (editors)
THE RISE OF PERFORMANCE STUDIES
Rethinking Richard Schechner’s Broad Spectrum
Silvija Jestrovic and Yana Meerzon (editors)
PERFORMANCE, EXILE AND ‘AMERICA’
Ola Johansson
COMMUNITY THEATRE AND AIDS
Ketu Katrak
CONTEMPORARY INDIAN DANCE
Creative Choreography Towards a New Language of Dance in India and the
Diaspora
Sonja Arsham Kuftinec
THEATRE, FACILITATION, AND NATION FORMATION IN THE BALKANS AND
MIDDLE EAST
Daphne P. Lei
ALTERNATIVE CHINESE OPERA IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
Performing Zero
Carol Martin (editorr)
THE DRAMATURGY OF THE REAL ON THE WORLD STAGE
Alan Read
THEATRE, INTIMACY & ENGAGEMENT
The Last Human Venue
Shannon Steen
RACIAL GEOMETRIES OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC, ASIAN PACIFIC AND AMERICAN
THEATRE
Joanne Tompkins
UNSETTLING SPACE
Contestations in Contemporary Australian Theatre
S. E. Wilmer
NATIONAL THEATRES IN A CHANGING EUROPE
Evan Darwin Winet
INDONESIAN POSTCOLONIAL THEATRE
Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces
Forthcoming titles:
Adrian Kear
THEATRE AND EVENT
Studies in International Performance
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The Theatres of Morocco,
Algeria and Tunisia
Performance Traditions of the Maghreb
Khalid Amine
Professor of Theatre, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Morocco
and
Marvin Carlson
Distinguished Professor of Theatre,
The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
© Khalid Amine & Marvin Carlson 2012
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
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and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-32657-0 ISBN 978-0-230-35851-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230358515
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Series Editors’ Preface viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Part I The Pre-Colonial Maghreb
1 The Roman Maghreb 9
2 Orature 16
3 TheHalqa 28
4 Shadow Plays and Costumed Performers 38
5 Carnival and Ritual Performance 44
Part II Colonial Theatre in the Maghreb
6 Nineteenth-Century European Theatres 57
7 The First Arab Performances 71
8 The Developing Maghreb Stage 82
9 The Theatre of Resistance 94
10 Islam and the Colonial Stage 102
11 From World War II to Independence 113
Part III Post-Colonial Theatre in the Maghreb
12 The Early Theatres of Independence, 1956–1970 131
13 Developing National Traditions, 1970–1990 150
14 Entering a New Century, 1990–2010 176
Conclusion 217
Notes 222
Bibliography 240
Index 247
v
List of Illustrations
1 Al-halqain Jemma-el-Fna, Marrakesh, Morocco (photo courtesy
of Association Jemma-el-Fna) 31
2 Al-halqain Assila, Morocco (photo from Khalid Amine’s
collection) 37
3 The Municipal Theatre in Tunis, 1921 (photo courtesy of the
Municipal Theatre, Tunis) 68
4 Teatro Cervantes, Tangier, Morocco (photo courtesy of
Abdelaziz Khalili) 84
5 The National Theatre of Algeria, 2010 (photo from Khalid
Amine’s collection) 126
6 Mamoura’s production of Molière’sLeBourgeois Gentilhomme
(photo courtesy of the Moroccan Ministry for Youth Archives) 136
7 Mamoura’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlett (photo courtesy
of the Moroccan Ministry for Youth Archives) 138
8 Al-Majdub, byTayeb Saddiki (photo from Tayeb Saddiki’s
personal archive) 140
9 Kateb Yacine,Mohammed, prends ta valise (photo courtesy of
Rajae Alloula) 152
10 Abdelkader Alloula,Al-Agouwâl, 1985, Performers: Alloula
and Haïmour (photo courtesy of Rajae Alloula) 162
11 Abdelkader Alloula,Al-Agouwâl, 1985, Performers: Alloula,
Haïmour and Belkaid (photo courtesy of Rajae Alloula) 163
12 Mohammed Driss and Tawfiq Jebali, L’Héritage, at the Tunisian
National Theatre, 1976 (photo courtesy of the Tunisian National
Theatre Archive) 174
13 Mohammed Benguettaf,Le Cri, 1989 (photo courtesy of the
Tunisian National Theatre Archive) 178
14 Medjoubi memorial plaque next to the entrance of the Algerian
National Theatre (photo from Khalid Amine’s collection) 179
15 Sonia in Mohammed Benguettaf’s Fatma (photo courtesy of
the Algerian National Theatre) 191
16 Tayeb Saddiki, Al-fil wa sarawil(photo courtesy of the Center
for Performance Studies Archive, Tangier, Morocco) 194
vi
List of Illustrations vii
17 Kidtu Arah by Abdelhaq Zerouali (photo from Khalid Amine’s
collection) 198
18 Zober Benbouchta,Lalla J’mila (photo courtesy of the Center
for Performance Studies Archive, Tangier, Morocco) 200
19 A scene fromRajel Wa Mra, written and directed by
Mohammed Driss, 1995 (photo courtesy of the Tunisian
National Theatre Archive) 214
20 A scene fromRajel Wa Mra, written and directed by Mohammed
Driss, 1995 (photo courtesy of the Tunisian National Theatre
Archive) 215
Series Editors’ Preface
The “Studies in International Performance” series was initiated in 2004
on behalf of the International Federation for Theatre Research, by Janelle
Reinelt and Brian Singleton, successive Presidents of the Federation. Their
aim was, and still is, to call on performance scholars to expand their disci-
plinary horizons to include the comparative study of performances across
national, cultural, social, and political borders. This is necessary not only
in order to avoid the homogenizing tendency of national paradigms in
performance scholarship, but also in order to engage in creating new per-
formance scholarship that takes account of and embraces the complexities
of transnational cultural production, the new media, and the economic and
social consequences of increasingly international forms of artistic expres-
sion. Comparative studies (especially when conceived across more than
two terms) can value both the specifically local and the broadly conceived
global forms of performance practices, histories, and social formations.
Comparative aesthetics can challenge the limitations of national orthodoxies
of art criticism and current artistic knowledges. In formalizing the work of
the Federation’s members through rigorous and innovative scholarship this
Series aims to make a significant contribution to an ever-changing project
of knowledge creation.
Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton
International Federation for Theatre Research
Fédération Internationale pour la Recherche Théâtrale
viii
Acknowledgements
The present book is a collaborative project that addresses the history and
politics of Arab theatre and performance cultures with a particular focus on
the countries of the Maghreb. As such, it is part of the research trajectory
of the Arabic Theatre Working Group at FIRT (Fédération Internationale
pour la Recherche). We would like to acknowledge the support of all the
wonderful members of our working group. Erika Fischer-Lichte, Director
of the Interweaving Performance Cultures International Institute at the
Free University of Berlin, has been absolutely unflagging in her encourage-
ment. Khalid Amine also benefited from a one-year research fellowship at
the Interweaving Performance Cultures Institute; and most of his input in
this book was developed during his stay in Berlin. Janelle Reinelt and Brian
Singleton, Series Editors of Studies in International Performance at Palgrave
Macmillan, have been very supportive throughout the journey leading
to the present undertaking. We also offer our warmest thanks to Edward
Ziter, Christopher Balme, Paula Kennedy and Ben Doyle. Last but not least,
many people helped us with illustrations and permissions; among them are:
Rajae Alloula, Mohammed Driss, Mohammed Benguettaf, Hafedh Djedidi,
Abdelaziz Khalili, and The International Center of Performance Studies in
Tangier.
ix