Seven plays are in competition, with additional guest performances, music events and performance arts taking place.
By HELEN KAYETheater Review 88(photo credit: )
Masrahid - the eighth consecutive Arab-language monodrama festival - this year takes place from August 11 to 13 in the Old City of Acre. The plays will have Hebrew supertitles and some of them will also be performed in Hebrew. Seven plays are in competition, with additional guest performances, music events and performance arts taking place, too.
The competition plays include Herzl Said, a meditation on personal national identity by Munir Bakhri; Sadat and the Masters by Naji Dahar, in which an actor playing the great Egyptian presidents wonders whether he should stay in the past or explore the present; and Dark Side of the Moon by Biyan Antir that confronts Arab society through the memories of a young woman.
Initiated and produced by the Acre Theater Center, Masrahid was conceived as a vehicle to encourage and promote original Arab-language plays and playwrights. This year, the aspiring playwrights participated in a six-month series of writing and staging workshops workshops directed by Firas Rubi. As a result, a prize for the Best Play will be awarded this year for the first time. The festival's artistic directors are Smadar Yaron and Osama Massri.