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Comedy Play Creates a Stir in Bahrain
Arab News - 25/10/2006 - 14:50 | Hits: 45



Comedy play entitled "Ana Bakrah Israel" (I hate Israel) - a name shared with an Egyptian song that caused a diplomatic fiasco five years ago - has created a stir in Bahrain.



The play that was debuted in Manama on Monday night features Bahraini and Kuwaiti actors lashing out at Israel and applauding the victory of the Lebanese Hezbollah against Israel in the 33-day war.

The play, produced by Bahrain Scope Production, was performed at the Al-Ahali Club, which is located a few hundred meters from the US Embassy in Manama.

"This play is dedicated to Hassan Nasrallah, the general secretary of Hezbollah, for his victory on our nemesis, the Zionist entity. ... As actors, our talents are the tools that we have at our disposal to express the views of the public and to show support for the resistance," said producer Mamdooh Abbas Al-Saleh.

Speaking about the venue of the play being close to the US Embassy, Al-Saleh explained that the performers had used the stage many times previously. He insisted that the play was not directed at the Americans. "Bahrain and the US enjoy good relations, but we are exercising our right to express our views... we do not hate Jews, but we hate the Zionist government that is occupying Arab lands," he said.

Ana Bakrah Israel is one of three new plays taking place in the island kingdom to mark the Eid Al-Fitr celebration.

Al-Saleh said that the play was an attempt to refute the Western media's habit of associating terrorism with Arabs and Muslims.

Director Mohammed Al-Gaffas said that in the past they introduced social satire plays with political references, but this year they had opted to go for a play where political issues dominate.

Al-Gaffas added that a deep sense of suspicion of Israel in the Arab world was the result of decades of seeing daily images of the sufferings inflicted on fellow Arabs in Palestine, Lebanon and other parts of the Arab world by the brutal Israeli war machine.

Renowned Kuwaiti actor Sameer Al-Gallaf, who is one of the 45 cast members, said that this was his first full-fledged political play. "In the past plays would focus on social issues with references to political matters, but this the first play for me where the focus is on politics," he said.

Al-Gallaf, who plays four different characters in the two-hour comedy show, added that the West has always sided with Israel and failed to be neutral. "To us the real threat is Israel which continues to kill innocent people using illegal weapons with their own admission as it was the case in the last war, but the world fails to see that."

Bahraini actor Mansoor Al-Gedawie, who in one of the scenes plays the role of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said that the play was an attempt to reflect the reality of the situation. "We are not trying to mock people, but we are trying to reflect the reality of the situation with the audience being the final judge," he said.

The cast includes Kuwaiti actress Shouq and Bahraini actors Fawzy, Sadiq Al-Shabani, Ameer Dismal and Jassim Al-Damin. The play, written by Ahmed Fardan, also touches on issues such as unemployment and housing in Bahrain.

In 2001, the year of the second Palestinian Intifadah, Egyptian singer Shaaban Abdel-Rehim released a song carrying the same title as the play. The same year in Ramadan Kuwaiti actor Daoud Hussein released a serial entitled "Sharoniat - Tales of Terror," which depicted the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a bloody terrorist. Both the song and the show drew strong criticism from Israel and the West