France’s Théâtre d'al-Assifa: An Arab-based Alternative Theatre Model by Magdi Youssef Arab Stages, Volume 1, Number 2 (Spring 2015) ©2015 by Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Publications
This paper has been written with the kind support of the International Center for Interweaving Performance Cultures at the Free University of Berlin.
If every epoch has its own realities, it also has its own myths which it often establishes as evident “axioms.” Among the myths widely accepted today as axioms, we may count the assertion that the theatre is a Western phenomenon. And this to such an extent that some specialists base their concepts of the “unity of European literature” on this myth. For them, the theatre is an exclusively European phenomenon, and if you want to make use of it, you must preserve its occidental form. It is only then that you can transport, by way of this form, that which appears valuable to you in terms of the “essence” and the cultures of the Orient.
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