BASED ON "THE MARTYRS ARE COMING BACK THIS WEEK..."BY AT-TAHER WATTAR. COLLATED AND DIRECTED BY SAMEH HIJAZI. PRODUCED BY ASHTAR.

A double award winner at the 8th Cairo Experimental Theatre Festival! "Best Actress": Iman Auon (for the role of Um El Izz) and "Most Distinguished Arab Play"

"Martyrs are Coming Back....", was staged by our resident professional team working with two of our graduates who had gone on to become part of our first ‘Drama Teachers’ Training’ course .

Although based on the novel of the same name by the Algerian writer, At-Taher Wattar, "Martyrs are Coming Back....", was re-arranged and re-visualized for stage by our very own Sameh Hijazi, who also included as an prologue and epilogue, two poems by the German playwright and director Heiner Mueller.

In Islam, a martyr becomes immortal and his sacrifice bestows great honour upon his family. In the play, Um El Izz is the mother of a martyr, who died for his country. She is visited by a sign, an anonymous letter. She slips into a deep sleep and dreams.

She then wakes up, to talk only about her vision - the return of the martyrs - and goes into the streets to proclaim the event. Yet for the others in the city, her vision is unsettling. It presents them with both a theological paradox and a social problem.

On a more fundamental level, Um El Izz herself becomes the problem: As a woman she represents Mother Earth, struggling to survive in the midst of social and psychological decay. As a mother, she is the symbol of criticism of patriarchal society, she is the element that reveals the ultimate nakedness of man.

She sees the dilemma of a mother, expected to break into cheers at the martyrdom of her son. She describes herself as the earth when it is divided and burnt.

At every turn, there is public fear and criticism of Um El Izz and her dream. Speaking to people from all walks of life, she stumbles against closed doors. Although her words pry open windows in their bare homes, the sealed doors are much stronger. Her enthusiasm and vision gradually fade.

She pierces the wall with her death.

We took the theological paradox of a Martyr and juxtaposed it with the particular problems we see in our society, particularly the tradition against a female’s vision. In this sense the play is highly topical, but we have tried to approach it in an artistic, rather than overtly political way.

For information on up-coming tour dates for "Martyrs are Coming Back....", see the Hot Zone.

	There are fifteen characters but we used only four actors - to demonstrate the many faces in each person - and how we often react differently to a problem when we view it from either a social, political or economical point of view.
	Two men each have two faces, represented with masks to the front and back: . One mask is blue - bourgeois aspirations and pride. . The other is yellow - commercial interest and greed. . The third man’s face is split blue and yellow. Their military trousers and boots bring home the symbol of MAN. Um El Izz appears with her natural colours
Three broken mirrors - no house, just a place where everybody lives.
Actors: Iman Aoun, Edward Muallem, Fadi Abed Alwahab and Ra’ed Tawfiq. Senography by Majed Azubaidy Asst. Designer and costume making: Rana Walweel Sound and Light technician: Atallah Tarazi Make-up: Ayed Asfour, Iman Aoun

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