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Fate of a
Cockroach: Masir Sarsar (notice
in Arabic)
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Artword Theatre,
75 Portland St, Toronto
April 1 to 17, 2005
AfriCan Theatre Ensemble and
Artword Theatre present
Fate of a
Cockroach
by Tawfik
al-Hakim (Tawfiq el-Hakim)
Translation by Ronald Weihs and Emad Nafeh
Directed by Ronald Weihs
Music by Thomas Baker
Drawings by John Williams
Design by Judith Sandiford
Cast: Tony Adah, Shannon Kitchings, Pasha Mckenley, Muoi
Nene, Kurt Spenrath, Aktina Stathaki
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Toronto’s AfriCan
Theatre Ensemble presents a comedy called Fate of a
Cockroach by Egyptian playwright Tawfik al-Hakim, one of
the most important authors in the Arabic world.
 "I
think this play will be surprising to many Canadians.
It’s funny, it’s crazy and satirical. Not at all
the image that most of us have about the Arab world.", says
Ronald Weihs, the director of the play.
 In
the first act, the characters are cockroaches, who live near
a huge lake – sometimes filled with water, sometimes
empty. The King falls into the lake (now dry) and cannot
escape. All the other cockroaches pray to the gods to rescue
him. In the second act, we see the gods – a married
couple getting up for work. The husband becomes fascinated
with the plight of the cockroach in his bathtub – to
the dismay of his wife. Will the gods rescue the cockroach,
or simply watch him struggle? With its pointed political
satire, Fate of a Cockroach, written in 1967, is one
of al-Hakim’s most popular plays.
Raised
in Alexandria, Tawfik al-Hakim (1898-1987), was sent to
France by his parents to complete a doctorate in law, but
fell in love with European theatre, and decided to devote
his life to the art form. Egypt has a long literary
tradition, but until al-Hakim, there was little Arabic
theatre. Almost single-handedly, al-Hakim created Arab
theatre in the twentieth century. His works are witty,
clever and thoughtful. He is a household word in the Arabic
world, but hardly known in North America.
Fate
of a Cockroach is the AfriCan Theatre
Ensemble’s first
play from Northern Africa, and represents the large Arab
population in Africa, as well as the Middle East.
Considering political events today, it is important for
Canadians to have a greater understanding and appreciation
of the rich Arabic culture.
The
ATE production of Fate of a Cockroach features a new
translation from the Arabic and adaptation by Ronald Weihs
and Emad Nafeh, an Egyptian writer and playwright now living
in Toronto.
Ronald
Weihs, Artistic Director of Artword Theatre, founded Artword
in 1993 with Judith Sandiford, and has written, directed and
produced many productions. In 2004, he became Resident
Director of the AfriCan Theatre Ensemble and directed their
production of Soyinka’s Death and the King’s
Horseman. He recently directed Toronto theatre artist
Donald Carr’s The Full Nelson, a tribute to
Nelson Mandela.
AfriCan
Theatre Ensemble was founded in 1998 by Modupe Olaogun, a
professor at York University. Production include: the
Nigerian writer Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not to
Blame (1999) and Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again,
(2000), And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses, by
South African author Zakes Mda (2001), Jean and
Dinah, a co-production with Trinidad’s Lord Street
Theatre (2002), and Anowa, by Ghana’s Ama Ata
Aidoo (2003, Dora award for Best Costume). In 2004, the
AfriCan Theatre Ensemble joined forces with Artword Theatre
to produce Death and the King’s Horseman, the
masterpiece of theatre by Nigerian Nobel prize winning
author Wole Soyinka.
Media contact: Josée
Duranleau, Duranleau Publicity,
416-652-7672.
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