The Masrahid 2010 festival of monodramas in Arabic closed on Thursday, July 29, 2010, with Hamlet and the Machine winning this year’s Best Play Award. If you weren’t able to go to the festival, don’t worry – the festival will soon come to a neighborhood near you. This year the festival will go on tour, performing in 20 towns in the Arab sector throughout Israel – a joint initiative of the Ministry of Culture with the World Zionist Organization and ‘Culture for Israel’ – bringing the best cultural events and art to the periphery.
This year’s awards:
Best Play: Hamlet and the Machine, inspired by Shakespeare, Heiner Moller and Maduch Aluwan, adapted and directed by Samech Chegazi, performed by Ihab Salame. Chegazi noted, “I try to show the paradox of the intellectual…the government creates corruption and political, economic and cultural prostitution, and the people create castrated ‘Hamlets’. The ghosts speak when you speak, they are within you, they are your conscience, they are your responsibility.”
The play Shemot (Hebrew: names) by Roy Rashkas, directed by Adi Aduan and performed by Bian Antir, received an honorable mention from the judges.
Artist Iyas Natour received an honorable mention for his lighting and set design for both Hamlet and the Machine and Shemot.
Judges for the competition included: Kassem Sha’aban, Director of the Beit Gefen Theatre, actress Samia Kazmuz Bakhri, actor/director Haled Awad, and director Samech Basul. Chairman of the jury, Sha’aban, noted the importance of the Masrahid Festival, which reflects the thoughts and feelings of the Arab residents of Israel through original artistic work and expressed the wish that in future years the festival will grow to become an international festival of Arab theatre, and will include all genres, not only monodramas, and show Arab theatre from other countries as well.
The judges explained their decision: “Hamlet and the Machine was selected for the high quality of all its compenents, the impressive acting of Ihab Salame and the fascinating adaptation of the director Samech Chegazi who combined different sources to create a coherent work. The directing is perfect, the set design and lighting poetic and complex. All these made for a unanimous choice.”
A student of Heiner Moller, Samech Chegazi has been active in Palestinian Theatre for many years, beginning in the Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah, and later in the Palestinian National Theatre.
The team of judges further noted that the play Shemot, originally written for the festival by the Israeli playwright Roy Rashkes, then translated and adapted by Adi Aduan, is an excellent example of the kind of collaboration the festival hopes to see, and a realization of its vision.
Another welcome first this year – selected plays from the Masrahid festival will be guest performances at the Acco Festival for Alternative Theatre. Hamlet and the Machine and Shemot will be among the plays to be performed accompanied by Hebrew subtitles.
