Theatre
The Dam
السد
Mahmoud Messadi · 1955
Synopsis
Ghaylan, a rebel who refuses fate, and his wife Maymouna, resigned and attached to a peaceful life, arrive in an arid valley whose inhabitants worship Sahabba, goddess of drought. Ghaylan sets about building a dam there to hold back the water of a neighbouring mountain, which is lost in a ravine, and to free the people from their beliefs. He confronts the goddess and the resistance of those around him, supported by Miyari, a luminous figure, while Maymouna longs only for rest.
Context
Written in 1940, the drama did not appear until 1955 in Tunis, in classical Arabic, as a drama in eight tableaux. Azzedine Guellouz translated it into French, with a preface by Jacques Berque, for Naaman in Sherbrooke in 1981, then for Arcantère and Unesco in 1994. Other translations followed, into German and then English. The Arabic text was reissued in 1984, 1992 and 2004.
Who it is for
A play in very elaborate classical Arabic, with a symbolic construction; the French translation makes it possible to read it without Arabic.
Prizes and reception
The most translated of its author's works: into French in 1981, into German in 2007, into English in 2016.
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