Duodrama stages essence of conflict

DT News Network

Manama

Duodrama is a novel concept in the Bahraini Theatre arena. The Gilgamish Theatre group is conducting drama festival, Gilgamish Festival, which is a one-of-a-kind festival that celebrates drama inspired by the story of Gilgamish, the story about brotherhood and conflict. 

Founded in 1993 Gilgamish Theatre group is a self-funded group that worked their way to establish themselves as an official cultural theatre group in 1998. 

For the last five months, members of the Gilgamish Theatre group have been striving hard to present a drama festival that is solely based on the concept of duodrama. 

Plays have been performed since May 23 and it will go on until May 31 in the Cultural Hall Centre by the Bahrain National Museum at 7.30pm. 

Yesterday, a play called “The Game of Death” was performed by Ahmed Al Sada and Rowa. It was directed by Abdulrahman Faqihi and written by Tawfeeq Al Hakim. 

The play is about a historical writer, who has suicidal tendencies. He also has conflicts in his mind. When he meets a harlot, he provokes her into killing him on the condition that she would claim his inheritance.  

According to the director of the play, Abdulrahman Faqihi, the play aims to reflect on the game of life and death through big and small social roles. 

Executive Manager of the Gilgamish Theatre group Ebrahim Al Jadari said: “Duodrama is strictly a play that consists of two actors. As most plays are either monodrama or played by multiple actors, we want to bring something fresh into Bahraini Theatre that strengthens the connection and fellowship of actors that perform the play." 

He also added: "Since this kind of a trend is not popular in Bahrain, we want to introduce Bahrain into that realm locally and internationally." 

The play “The Noise in Bardy House” will be performed tonight at 7.30pm in the Cultural Hall Centre. 

On Friday and Saturday of this week, the drama festival will have a workshop on Psychodrama by Dr. Dalal Al Maqari and a presentation on Duodrama by Mahmood Al Jarah.

On the final day, the audience will have the opportunity to vote for the Best Play and a prize for 500BD will be given by the Isa Cultural Centre.