The Text in Progress in Contemporary Arab Theatre as an Aesthetic Response to Social Instability
in La rivista di Arablit, a. XIII, n. 26, dicembre 2023, pp. 11-30.
Over the previous decade, Arab countries have witnessed and lived transformations that the theatrical scene has swiftly accompanied, supported, and recalled. Analysing a selection of post-2011 Arab theatre plays whose texts are written to constantly change, I argue that an “aesthetic or progress” in these texts is developing, and that it reflects a specific social condition across the contemporary Arab World. The plays examined here allow their audiences to understand the aftermaths of the 2011 uprisings as a process rather than an event. Revolutions have opened a Pandora’s box, and theatre reminds us that the end of the story has not come yet.
