Habiba Osama Ahmed Atia.

4th year _ 107

Comparative literature
Yusuf Edris was affected by Western drama :

Yúsuf Idris was one of the Arab playwrights who raised the issue of assimilating
Westem drama into Árabic culture in the 1960s. Idris is one of. the Egyptian
playwrights who experimented with the drama of the sbsurd, most prominently in
al-Farafir (The Flipflap and His Master, 1964), and al-Mahzalah al-Ardiyah (The
Farce of the Earth, 1966). That is to say, "In the 1960s he sought to create a
uniquely Egyptian dramatic form using colloquial language and elements of
traditional folk drama and shadow theater. He presented this plan in a series of
three essays entitled "Towards a New Arabic Theater," and he tried to put it into
practice in his own plays, notably Al-Farafir.
Idris realized that experimental dramatic forms similar to those used in al-
Hakim's. "drama of the mind" express the metaphysical problems that face
modem man. In his experimental drama, Idris seems pessimistic as he expresses a
dark picture of human existence. He is influenced by the despair expressed in the
Western theatre of the absurd which portrays man as living in an absurd,
meaningless world in which there is no acceptable, rational, and meaninigful
explanation for his actions.
In al-Farafir, Idris experiments with avant-garde dramatic form and uses
Pirandellian, absurdist and epic techniques with "in Mahmoud Manzaleoui's
words, a wry fatalism which approaches a philosophical view, especially in the
comic conclusion, which rises above the level of satire." (1977:35). Al-Farafir is a
famous dramatic ‘work which represents an obvious practical application of Idris'
theory of Egyptian drama which he calls for in his series of articles "Towards an
Egyptian Theatre". As a result, al-Farafir combines Idris's use of Arab dramatic
technique, the samir, as well as some. Westerm dramatic forms.
The play deals with the universal theme of equality and justices. It suggests that
all human beings are boom free. The play seeks to achieve social justice. It gives a
clear warming; unless man removes the artificial social barriers and purifies his
internal soul from the tendency, toward oppressing others, he will destroy his
fellow men and make human life impossible to live. This is best illustrated by
Farfur when at the end of the play he begs the audiences to solve his oblem of the
master servant relationship. In this concern, Idris reflects Brecht's point of view
about the theatre. Brecht believes that theatre is a place which is capable of
provoking social change.
Idris is influenced by many Westerm dramatic forms. Although the character of
Farfir is taken from the Egyptian Folklore, Idris is influenced by surrealism. As the
play. opens, the author first appears as a tall distinguished man wearing
spectacles. Then he moves away from the lectern to find that he wears very brief
shorts which reveal his long thin legs and his feet, Moreover, he wears shoes
without socks. Later he will appear as a small child, "Author enters, now in the
form of a small boy (or, if preferred, of a midget) only half as tall as the previous
author." Idris.
To conclude, Idris' al-Farafir combines both the folkloric Egyptian character Farfur
based upon the Egyptian Arab technique of the samir and Western models
reflecting the influence of European theatre upon Egyptian theatre. Ragaa al
Naqqesh writes: "much of the voluiminous criticism concerning Al-Farafir and its
author is divided between nationalist sentiment and Marxist aspiration. For
example. Raja' al-Naqqash, while lauding Idris's attempt to authenticate the
Egyptian theater by presenting a. genuine Egyptian character (Farfur), credits the
Nasserite Revolution with making the publication and staging of such politically
"angry. theater* possible" . (Abdel Wahab's, on the other hand, finds the play's
pessimistic ending problematic, unbecoming either the nationalist optimism
experienced by Egyptians in the 1960s or the, Marxist potential for providing a
solution to the question of power. Along the lines of their concem for expressing,
representing, and exhorting nationalist priorities, other Writers judge how far the
arts have departed from their Western models. Theater critica like Jalal al-Ashri,
Luis Awad, Abdel Wahab, Abd al-Fattah al-Barudi and Raja al- Naqqash, to name a
few, are all quick to trace the influence of European theater-from A Aristophanes
to Brecht, Beckett , Ionesco, and Pirandello-on Idris in general and on Al-Farafir in
particular.