JEDDAH, 9 June 2005 — The real beginning of Saudi theater occurred in 1973 when the government founded the Saudi Arabian Society of Culture and Arts. Branches were opened all over the Kingdom and the society’s stated purpose was to support art, including theater.
The dreams and struggles of Saudi artists, however, had begun long before 1973. The first attempt to establish Saudi drama goes back to the year 1932 when the first script was written by Hussein Siraj, a Saudi poet living in the Western Province. In 1960, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Sibea attempted to set up a theater group in Makkah; he established an acting school known as the Quraish House for Islamic Acting. His efforts unfortunately came to naught when rehearsals for the first production were stopped and the group was disbanded.
The Saudi Arabian Society of Culture and Arts, Jeddah, cooperates with the students’ dramatic group at King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU). Though the society has its own drama group, it encourages and supports students from the university. Ironically, the society performs its plays on a KAAU stage since it lacks one of its own. Abdullah Bahattab, the theater manager in the society and also the general supervisor of the KAAU students’ group, said, “The door is open to anyone who feels that he has the talent and potential to participate.”
The society in fact holds a performance every two months and “there is a published schedule for performances that will take place,” Bahattab added.
Acting is not the only task of the group; writing the script is as well and the society regularly holds script-writing competitions. At the same time, this does not keep them from performing well-known plays by world-famous playwrights. In fact, a play by the American writer, Eugene O’Neill, was recently performed at the university.
Bahattab stressed, “The most important thing is that we perform genuine plays for the love of the stage.”
One of the main problems facing Saudi dramatists is the lack of a professional approach to drama in the Kingdom. To begin with, virtually all actors are amateurs who must have other jobs in order to survive financially. Most of them have never studied drama. King Saud University in Riyadh is at present the country’s only institution offering drama as a course of study.
Another problem is the absence of professional writers. The scripts produced here tend to be somewhat shallow and as Abbas Al-Hayek, a Saudi playwright, commented, “Saudi playwrights usually write about current social issues in a very superficial way and throw in a touch of comedy in order to attract an audience.”
Another problem here is the relative indifference of the government. The absence of a well-equipped stage is the major difficulty facing dramatists and actors. At least in Jeddah, the groups have a stage at KAAU.
The Saudi Arabian Society of Culture and Arts, Madinah, does not even have a stage of its own. The groups are thus restricted either to stages belonging to the Ministry of Education or the Presidency of Youth Welfare or to whatever may be available privately. The well-known actor Yousif Al-Yousif explained, “The excessive supervision of theater has prevented its development as much as has the lack of financial support from both the government and businessmen.”
Despite the many obstacles, Saudi dramatists are both hard working and persistent. Bahattab pointed out, “For the past four years the society’s drama group in Jeddah has managed to present seven plays.”
Particularly conspicuous when one looks at Saudi theater is the absence of women on stage. Women perform but only before all-female audiences in schools and universities. A commendable effort made by the girls at KAAU was a performance of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” directed by Dr. Maysa Al-Sobahi, professor of English and American Drama in the Department of English.
