Naguib Sorour’s masterpiece Yasin and Bahiya is produced at al Hanager Theater in Cairo, directed by Syrian Rola Fattal. The production stars Muhsina Tewfik, Nourhan, Sayyed al Roumi and Ahmed Ezzeddin.
The text of the play was re-written by the Egyptian Yusri al Khamisi through a new vision, according to the daily Syria Times.
The play deals with the issue of the social and political oppression. The author of the play sheds light on the repressive practices of the landlords in the 40s against ordinary people through a real incident that took place in 1950 when one of the landlords used to rape the daughters of the farmers working for him. An angry farmer set fire in the fields of this landlord causing the devastation of the wheat crops.
The author also made a mixture between reality and the myth of the lovers Yassin and Bahiyya which dates back to the 17th century in Upper Egypt.
The director depicts this myth on the stage through the help of a sculpture professor at Hulwan University, Mahmood Mabrook. Decorations played an important part in the play, and the narrator actress Majida al Khatib also added to the success of the performance.
The play calls for combating oppression through killing the landlord. It portrays the revolution of the villagers against the landlord who tries to confiscate the half-hectare owned by Yassin and his beloved Bahiyya. But the scene ends with the fleeing of the landlord. However, the landlord returns and represses the revolt and kills its mastermind Yassin.
The play ends with a poem that stresses the necessity of ending oppression despite the failure of the experience.
The director changed the storyteller into a woman and added interviews with the inhabitants of the village.
Popular music was another factor of success as it was in complete harmony with the plot – Albawaba.com
