State theatre in postcolonial Egypt and its role in affirming Egyptian cultural identity

Abstract

The revolution of 23 July 1952 in Egypt was not only a revolution to change political situations; it was a revolution that brought about radical changes in Egyptian society at all levels. In the post-independence Nasserite period, Egypt represented an example of highly significant anticolonial nationalism, aimed to resist first World cultural hegemony. This article seeks to investigate how State theatre in postcolonial Egypt addressed the issue of Egyptian cultural identity, within the cultural project of the new emerging republic. An analytical descriptive study is conducted to identify how the Egyptian cultural project addressed the magnitude and complexity of the predicaments of the colonial experience. Furthermore, this study serves not only to identify authentication literary trends in modern Egyptian theatre, but also investigates how these trends reconciled authenticity and contemporaneity while affirming Egyptian cultural identity. The study reached the conclusion that emerging authentication trends were predominantly Reality and Heritage. The article also offers analytical case studies of State theatre productions during the Nasserite period, affiliated with the mainstreams of authentication. In addition, we examine how State theatre presented society’s visible and underlying needs in the post-independence period. The article thus seeks to bring together two areas of inquiry that are related to postcolonial studies: the question of cultural identity, and the role of theatre production in national liberation movements.