Theater in the Middle East: Between Performance and Politics ed. by Babak Rahimi (review)

Reviewed by: Theater in the Middle East: Between Performance and Politics ed. by Babak Rahimi Q-mars Haeri Theater in the Middle East: Between Performance and Politics. Edited by Babak Rahimi. Anthem Press, 2020. Hardcover $125, E-book $40. 184 pages. 7 illustrations. Theater in the Middle East: Between Performance and Politics is a long overdue and necessary book on the topic of Middle Eastern theatre. Theatre and performance studies in the Global North have been dominated by a narrative that theatre does not exist in the Middle East, largely due to a certain interpretation of Islam that does not allow representational art. Scholars have been working to change that narrative for the past two decades, but prior to this book, no collection has brought together the work many have done to depict the true diversity of the region’s performance traditions. From court festivities in 1850s Iran to radio drama in the Syrian diaspora of the 2010s, this anthology presents diverse forms of performance that address notions of nationalism and transnationalism, gender performativity and representation, and the interconnectivity of Indigenous “traditional” and “modern” theatre. Babak Rahimi’s introduction to Theater in the Middle East serves two important purposes. On the one hand, it offers a brief yet comprehensive history of theatre in the region. It provides immense knowledge on the topic to the general reader and to the specialist alike. While it may be impossible to write about all forms of theatre in the region, Rahimi has managed to put together interconnected theatre histories of North Africa, the Levant, Iran, and the Gulf countries. In doing so, he provides necessary context for the chapters that follow. On the other hand, this introduction is a reflection on the concept of translation and the ways in which translation (both literary and embodied) have shaped performances in the region. He argues that theatrical performances occur “under changing conditions that reflect both local and trans-local influences” (9). With this in mind, he problematizes the identifier “Middle East” as itself “a geographical imaginary of a Eurocentric bias” (4) and attempts to redefine Middle Eastern theatre in terms of practices that are experientially and hermeneutically complex as well as transcultural. Theater in the Middle East is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Pedagogy and Tradition,” is about pedagogues of the Middle East as well as how Middle Eastern theatre is taught in North America. For example, in chapter 1 Michael Malek Najjar [End Page 79] describes his process of co-teaching Middle Eastern theatre with Sahar Assaf. Najjar provided students with materials that accurately reflected different perspectives on areas of transnational conflict. Throughout the chapter, the course is discussed as both made possible and limited by the number of English translations of Middle Eastern plays. For those teaching courses on Middle Eastern theatre, this chapter serves as a great reference, as it categorizes and presents valuable resources and a list of plays. Authors in part 1 also explore the interplay between “traditional” performance forms and “modern theatre.” As Rahimi mentions, cultural progress in the Middle East has been attributed to European colonization and the Westernization of art. As a result, the term modern theatre, in a regional context, usually refers to productions of European plays in proscenium theatres. Rana Salimi challenges these preconceived notions about modernization in Iran by focusing on women’s performances in the nineteenth-century Qajar court. In her view, such court performances paved the way for the women’s movements that followed in the twentieth century and beyond. Salimi acknowledges that many performances carried out under the Shah were not empowering; nonetheless, the court of the 1850s–1890s also featured performances by and for women, including cross-dressing traditional religious roles, which for centuries had been exclusively performed by men. Similarly, Khalid Amine’s Moroccan case studies reveal women’s empowerment in and the political potential of traditional forms. Amine focuses on the contemporary theatrical utilization of al-halqa, a storytelling genre performed in a circular format with a narrative similar to Shahrzad’s One Thousand and One Nights—a story within a story. In this fascinating chapter, Amine argues that this form is “self-generating” and, as exemplified by...