THEATRE FESTIVAL KHARTOUM - SUDAN
Location: Khartoum - Sudan - Africa
Ambassador: Sara ter Beeke
Sara ter Beeke
5th April 2010
Theatre Festival Khartoum - Sudan
In the past week I was a guest at the Bokaha Festival in the National Theatre in Omdurman, Khartoum. At first I have to say that I was very surprised seeing such an event in Sudan! A program of 14 selected theatre groups from Khartoum, West-Sudan, Chad and even an African-American actor from New York were present at the biggest festival in Sudan.
I saw 12 performances and my general impression is that a single definition of what is Sudanese theatre can not be made. There is a variety of styles: from traditional theatre forms such as dance, storytelling and drums, European text theatre to even performance theatre and new media.
The majority of the plays were based on a written text. In some cases this led to an uninteresting performance in which the actors just acted out the story with a lot of gestures (in Holland we have an expression for this: “to paint red roses red”). I did not like this kind of performance because it felt that the actors were not so much in contact with the audience, it was if they just followed the instructions of the director.
Fortunately I also saw some very surprising pieces which I could not have imagined coming across in Sudan. I saw a play that was quite abstract because the actors played animal like creatures while building the stage full with bright colored blocks. I saw another movement theatre play in which the actors were in a huge box of plastic, surrounded by the public, moving inside the box in a very brutish and violent way; fighting with each other, moving on the floor, smashing fake blood against the transparent walls.
The play with the highest expectations was that of director Mohammed Naim. His idea was to use video projections and live cameras. Unfortunately the technique did not always work properly and also there were some scene changes that took away the rhythm of the beautiful dance between male and female actor.
Strangely enough the most innovative play in my opinion was the one to be said ‘most traditional’ or ‘African’. This play was made by director Abdel Rhman Mhadi and his students of the drama school Youth Palace. The audience was put outside the theatre in a big square. The actors were playing inside the square, using all sorts of disciplines (dance, drums, songs, movement, etc.) to transmit the story to the public. The audience definitely liked this piece, laughing and shouting as they did.
At the end of the week the winners were announced by the jury of the festival. Not surprisingly, Mohammed Naim won the price for Best Director, and both his actors won the prices for Best Actor and Best Actrice. Further, there were prices for Best Writer, Best Designer, Best Musician, and so on. It seemed unfair to me that the play with the plastic box did not win any price.
I felt very lucky to be a guest at this festival, being welcomed in the Sudanese hospitable way, seeing so many performances in such a short time. I hope to return back some time!
