If I Weren`t Egyptian, press-dossier 12 EN.pages

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Press-Dossier
“If I Weren’t Egyptian, ...”
Studio Moroni｜Omar Ghayatt (CH/EG)
Theater/Performance
Duration: 50 min.
>>> Tryout: September, 2011, Dampfzentrale, Bern.
>>> Premiere: April, 2012, Festival D-CAF, Cairo.
Other Dates:
22 and 23 November, 2012, Les Bancs Publics, Marseille.
14 and 15 February, 2013, Dampfzentrale, Bern.
If I Weren’t Egyptian,...
Hoping for a better life, young Egyptians flee to Europe where, paradoxically, suicide rates are very
high – especially in Switzerland. Paradise for some, hell for others? This is a question posed by
Cairo-based director Omar Ghayatt in his performance entitled «If I Weren’t Egyptian,...». Together
with dramaturge Nicole Borgeat and Egyptian bestseller author Alaa Al Aswany, he looks for
motives behind the yearning for a better place elsewhere.
In 70 minutes of visual theatre, the real and fictional characters in “If I Weren’t Egyptian,...” take us
on a journey to their personal paradise. It is a journey along the narrow ridge between illusions and
reality – a journey that makes us see everything, including ourselves, in a new light.
Credits
From the world of: Alaa Al Aswany. Director: Omar Ghayatt. Dramaturgy: Nicole Borgeat.
Soundscape: Maxime Denuc. Video: Christoph Oertli. With: Alessia Coldesina, Emad Ismail,
Said Hafez. Light: Saber El Sayed. Technical Director: Tarek Shalaby. Administration: Leonie
Aeschimann, Naomi Richner. Production: Studio Moroni. Coproduction: Festival D-CAF Cairo.
Supported by: Pro Helvetia, Kultur Stadt Bern, Kanton Bern, Stiftung Ernst Göhner. Guest
Appearance supported by Burgergemeinde Bern.
© Hamdy Reda
Point of departure
„To look at, a drop of water is as pure and transparent as crystal, but if you magnify it under a lens,
a thousand impurities appear. The moon is beautiful and unsullied as long as it’s far away, but if
you get close it looks like a filthy, deserted beach. Even the face of the one you love, whose fresh,
rosy complexion captivates your heart, appears – as soon as you have learned to see it properly –
like ugly, wrinkled cloth. You can test this truth every time. Our love of beauty is merely a trick
produced by the way we look, and the broader the vision grows the clearer the wrinkles are seen. “
– Alaa Al Aswany
After the success of «Made in Paradise» (2008) – a collaboration of Omar Ghayatt, Yan
Duyvendak and Nicole Borgeat that is still touring Europe – Omar Ghayatt and Nicole Borgeat
meet again for a new cooperation, this time with the internationally bestselling author Alaa Al
Aswany.
Omar Ghayatt got the idea for «If I Weren’t Egyptian,...» in 2008, on a train ride from Bern to
Geneva, when there was an abrupt stop. Someone had thrown himself in front of the train. Omar
Ghayatt suddenly thought of all the Egyptians who are ready to risk their lives just to reach Europe.
Their dream seemed to be someone else’s nightmare. That’s when Omar Ghayatt started thinking
about what this could mean, when heaven and hell are the same place; when one man gives up a
life that another would be willing to die for. Aren’t then heaven and hell just delusions in our head?
Isn’t the way we perceive our surroundings a very personal decision?
In search of «Elsewhere»
«If I Weren’t Egyptian,...» is a performance built on the idea that each and every one of us has his
or her very own «Elsewhere». «Elsewhere», therefore, means all the places, people and objects
that we desire to such an extent that our peace of mind and happiness seem to depend on
reaching or owning them.
Omar Ghayatt analyzes and illustrates this »Elsewhere« in «If I Weren’t Egyptian,...». Thus «If I
Weren’t Egyptian,...» is ultimately not about Egypt or the Egyptians, nor about Europe or the
Europeans – rather, it is a performance in which each and every one of us recognizes his or her
own personal Elsewhere.
Media
Swissinfo Report, 3min video
Tryout version, Dampfzentrale, 30 min video
Trailer, 2:30 min video
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Promising Try-Out
By Nicolette Kretz on Sunday, September 25, 2011. "Der Bund"
Omar Ghayatt is a performance artist from Cairo; he has a city-sponsored studio in the
Progr in Bern. He is known from his co-operation with Yan Duyvendak in the wonderful
performance "Made in Paradise". When he started his own project, "If I Weren't Egyptian,
…" in 2010, the situation in Egypt was very different. Most Egyptians did not identify with
their country, they wanted to be anything but Egyptians. Then the Revolution came, and
overnight everything changed. The project became secondary, and it was only a few
weeks later that Ghayatt started work again – under radically different circumstances. A
try-out version of the project, that is to have its premiere in Cairo in April, can be seen this
weekend in Dampfzentrale.
With expressive visual language, Ghayatt composes an evening with four performers
about identity and belonging. The try-out showed that the performance can still develop in
several directions, yet it is clear that this team has a good feeling for composition: For
instance, when a young woman belly dances in the first row with all eyes fixed on her,
while behind her we hear the revolution raging over five megaphones. The 30 minutes
arouse curiosity and an appetite for more, and it is to be hoped that the completed project
will be shown not only in Cairo, but in Bern as well.
Translation: Naomi Richner
www.ghayatt.com
Thu, 5 April, 2012
What would you rather be if you 'weren't Egyptian'?
Many people excitedly followed the clownfish air swimmers' ads when they first
came out a few years back. Few expected to see one last night on the Falaki
stage as part of the “If I Weren’t Egyptian” performance. Halfway through the
show, a brightly orange-striped clownfish floated over the stage migrating through
the Mediterranean Sea. Trained as a visual artist, director Omar Ghayatt
constructs his performances through visual motifs that mediate experiences,
rather than sticking to a strict narrative.
His latest performance, which premiered on Wednesday night, takes it name from
the famous statement by anti-colonial leader Mustafa Kamel around the turn of
the 20th century: “If I weren’t Egyptian, I would have wished to be Egyptian,” a
statement that has gained new meaning since the January revolution began. But,
“If I Weren’t Egyptian” is not revolution-themed. It does not tell of the inspiring
stories of Tahrir Square, nor does it relay the hardships protesters faced later at
the hands of Egypt’s ruling military junta. In fact, Ghayatt first started working on
the performance months before people decided to take to the streets, inspired by
a different experience, one of hope, disappointment and migration. It, however,
remains engaging and relevant given the way things have been developing over
the past year.
Ghayatt has been following closely the news of thousands of illegal immigrants
fleeing the northern coast of Egypt to Lampedusa Island in Italy, with hopes and
dreams of a better life. At the same time, in Bern, where he has moved since
2007, he found a bridge covered with mesh wire to prevent people from jumping
off. It is these two phenomena that inspired the performance. And by following the
experiences of three Egyptian men, and a European woman, dreams of
"paradise" are explored in a more humanistic light. But, like in Ghayatt's awardwinning “The Passengers,” the narrative is loose, and it is the visual language
that Ghayatt, along with his crew at Studio Moroni, deploy that makes the
audiences' experience so rewarding.
“If I Weren’t Egyptian” is not a play in the conventional sense; and it is not a
collage of stories either. It is rather a selection of carefully constructed
experiences that trigger emotions through the dialogue, soundscape and images.
The performance starts off with the stage almost dark, spotlights highlighting from
above only that which Ghayatt wants us to see: A man in his fifties, his clothes
soaking wet. He does not utter a single word throughout the show. But, he comes
off very familiar, like the average person one would see on the city’s much
crowded streets, only he is devastated, worn out from a long journey in the sea.
As we see him staring in vain silently, the sounds of people mumbling echo from
the many bullhorns scattered on the stage’s floor. You can’t really tell what they’re
saying no matter how hard you try, until they are switched off one by one, making
the phrase clearly heard: “If I weren’t Egyptian…I would have wished to be
Egyptian.”
“Kamel’s statement is the most ridiculous one I’ve ever heard,” is how the
protagonist starts off, who is practicing some Italian phrases while being served
an infinite trail of cups of tea. “Bambino,” he repeats a few times in a stereotypical
Italian accent before reciting a common description of Egypt’s climate from the
state's middle school social studies curricula: “Hot and dry in the summer, warm
and rainy in winter.” Egypt has been blessed, among many things, with an ideal
climate. Yet he’d still like to leave.
We get to learn of the young man’s frustrations, shared by many others,
particularly before the revolution which triggered a new sense of pride among the
country’s 80 million residents. The protagonist has no name until the very end. He
is simply an exemplar, echoed by the other characters, whose frustrations and
hopes we follow. Perhaps one of the wittiest scenes that takes the question out of
the specifics of the local context is that of the old fairy who tells us the story of
man who asked God to take a trip from heaven to hell and back, twice.
"If I Weren't Egyptian" is open-ended, requiring audience interaction to complete
the story. And through the subtle relations suggested, it works nicely, leaving us
with more to reflect on on our own.
Studio Moroni performs "If I Weren't Egyptian" again tonight at 8 pm at the Falaki
Theater.
Mai Elwakil
Gallery
© Olivier Christe
© Ahmed Mohsen Mansour
© Ahmed Mohsen Mansour
© Ahmed Mohsen Mansour
Omar Ghayatt
Omar Ghayatt was born in Cairo in 1976. In 1998 he received his Bachelor degree from
the Faculty of Arts and Education in Cairo.
In 2003 he founded the Theatre Company «Studio Moroni» and presented his first major
art work, «Night Traveller», at Townhouse Gallery in Cairo. He won the first prize for
performance art at the 15th Egyptian Youth Salon in the same year. In the following years,
Omar Ghayatts work took him to various countries including France, Bosnia, Turkey,
Poland and Korea.
In 2007, he came to Bern for an Artist-in-Residence program of Pro Helvetia. He has since
then returned to Switzerland to do a Masters degree in Scenography at the Zürcher
Hochschule der Künste.
Since 2010 he is based in Stadtgalerie Bern with a sponsored Studio from the City of Bern
(Kultur Stadt Bern), besides still being an associated artist of Townhouse Gallery Cairo.
Nicole Borgeat
Born in 1966, she is a scriptwriter, director and playwright. Very young, she tends to
theater and attends classes at the Popular Academy of Geneva as well as those of the
Drama Studio in London. At the age of 18, she decides for the cinema and enters at
INSAS (Upper National Institute of Performing arts), in Brussels.
In 1991, she realizes «Eperdument oui», a short film that was presented and rewarded in
numerous festivals. She works then as a production assistant and as a realization
assistant, before returning towards live arts and personal creations.
In 2003, she writes and realizes «Demain j’arrête!», a comedy on dependencies, rewarded
in the Festival of Locarno and nominated for the price of the Swiss Cinema. She co-writes
two comedies for television, «Pas de Panique» (2006) realized by Denis Rabaglia, and
«Sauvons les Apparences!» (2008) realized by herself. She works at present on her first
full-length feature film, FUN.
Since 1997, she collaborates with Yan Duyvendak as a playwright, as well as with other
artists of whom Alexandra Bachzetsis. Since 2007, her collaboration with Yan Duyvendak
strengthens and she cosigns the most recent creations, «Side Effects», «Made in
Paradise», «SOS (Save Our Souls)».
Alaa Al Aswani
Educated at the Lycee Francais Cairo, Al-Aswany is fluent in French, English and Spanish.
He graduated form the Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University, 1980. Later accepted to a
masters program in dentistry at the University of Illinois in Chicago and graduated in 1985.
At present he practices at his clinic in Garden City, Cairo.
Al- Aswany has written articles, stories and novels in most of the Egyptian Quarterlies. He
has also written a weekly column for literary critique entitled «Gomla e’teradeya» in Al
Shaab newspaper and later became responsible for its cultural page. He also writes a
monthly a political article for the Egyptian edition of Al Araby Al Nassery.
Al -Aswanyʼs «The Yacoubian Building» remained the number one seller in the Arab world
for five successive years, taking second place only after the issuing of his subsequent
novel «Chicago», which has sold almost 20 editions to date. The French translation of
«Chicago» has been very well received and is on the best sellers list in France. «The
Yacoubian Building» a best seller in Italy, sold over 160,000 copies in one year. It was also
number six on the list of the most important twenty books issued in France in 2006 by Lire
Magazine. Considered the most important translated novel of 2006 in the US by Newsday
Magazine. In Denmark «The Yacoubian Building» saw unprecedented success for a novel
by a foreign author.
«The Yacoubian Building» has sold over one million copies in 100 countries, and has been
translated into over 25 languages, while «Chicago» has been translated into almost 20
languages.
He has also received many awards; «Bashraheel Award» for Arabic Novel in 2005, «The
International Kavafi Award 2005», «Fête du livre du Var» in Toulon, France 2006,
«Grinzane Cavour Award 2007» in Torino, Italy and the Austrian «The Bruno-Kreisky
Award 2007».
www.ghayatt.com