THE SUNKEN CITY
BY: MAHMOUD ABOUDOMA
Announcement
The sunken city is postponed to 2021
(New dates will be announced soon)
We regret to inform you that due to the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic that sadly affected team members of ATG, we reluctantly had to postpone our performance “The Sunken City” that was supposed to take place on 11th and 12th of December 2020 at the Jesuit Cultural Center in Alexandria.
بعد وقتٍ طويل من الاستعدادات والتدريبات والتي امتدت لشهور، نعتذر عن استكمال العرض لظروف وباء كوفيد ١٩ وإصابة العديد من المحيطين من داخل فريق العمل وغيرهم، ونتمنى لهم السلامة. هذا وسوف نستكمل تجهيزات العرض والاستعداد لتقديمه حال تحسن الحالة العامة.
THE SUNKEN CITY
“The Sunken City” a new performance by the Alternative Theatre Group (ATG) written and directed by Mahmoud Aboudoma will be presented on the 11th and 12th of December 2020 at Garage Theatre of the Jesuit Cultural Center.
The performance evokes an Alexandria at the bottom of the sea, linking it to memory as a city made up of memories and a city that makes memories: in either case, nothing is left.
This is a show about a city that has captivated and inspired several poets, writers and artists in its glory and in its ruin: Cavafy, Ungaretti, Amal Donqol, Sartorius, Forster, Durrell. Author-director Mahmoud Aboudoma brings all of these together to express how they feel about Alexandria.
The preliminary version of this performance, performed in December of 2020, this harrowing year, will test the limits of every element of theatre, from acting to cinema to music to visual arts, to bring out what lies within the confused space between nostalgia and sentiment, dreams and reality.
The Sunken City fights fiercely for our collective memory depending on the participation of many artists who have been occupied by the city.
المدينة الغارقة
المدينة الغارقة عرض مسرحي تقدمه "جماعة المسرح البديل –Alternative Theatre Group ATG" على مسرح الجراج في مركز الجيزويت الثقافي، والعرض يستلهم الإسكندرية المدينة المستقرة في قاع البحر ويربط بينها وبين الذاكرة باعتبارها مدينة خُلِقت من الذكريات أو خالقة للذكريات، فلم يعد منها شيء في كل الأحوال.
العرض يتحدث عن المدينة التي ألهمت العديد من الشعراء والكتاب والفنانين وأسرتهم بما عاشته من مجد ودمار مثل كفافيس وأونجاريتي وأمل دنقل وسارتوريوس وفورستر وداريل، كل هؤلاء يستدعيهم كاتب النص المسرحي ومخرجه محمود أبودومة للتعبير عن مشاعرهم نحو الإسكندرية.
العرض في صورته الأولى والتي سيُعرض بها في هذه السنة القاسية في ديسمبر ٢٠٢٠ هو اختبار لكل عناصر العرض المسرحي من تمثيل وسينما وموسيقى وفنون تشكيلية للتعبير عما يدور في تلك المساحة الحائرة الواقعة بين النوستالجيا والعاطفة، بين الواقع والحلم.
المدينة الغارقة عرض يسعى للدفاع بضراوة عن الذاكرة الجمعية ويشارك فيه العديد من الفنانين الذي شُغِلوا بتلك المسألة.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
المدينة الغارقة عرض مسرحي يستلهم مدينة الإسكندرية القديمة الموجودة في قاع البحر بلا أمل في عودتها مرة أخرى، العرض يمزج بين التمثيل والحكي والموسيقى والسينما ويعرض مجموعة رسائل خيالية من غرقى المدينة القديمة بشكل يعكس تداخل الأزمنة، هذا ويستدعي العرض العديد من الشعراء والفنانين والكتاب الذين عشقوا المدينة، كما يتعرض العرض للتحولات التي طالت المدينة على مستويات متعددة.
المدينة الغارقة عرض يحاول رصد حياة المدينة وهي تحيا في كنف الطيف الواحد بعدأن كانت مدينة متعددة الأطياف يحيا فيها العديد من الأجناس، ويخلقون واقعًا يتميز بخصوصة ثقافية لها سمات مُختلفة.
محمود أبودومة
PROJECT ELEMENTS
The Sunken City
THEATRICAL TEXT
By: "Mahmoud Aboudoma"
Director and playwright "Mahmoud Aboudoma" has been working on the text over the course of 3 years including a research phase.
ACTING
Theater Rehearsals
After a thorough casting process, theater rehearsals for the production started in August 2020 with the participation of five Alexandrian theater performers; “Awatef Ibrahim, Khaled Raafat, Sarah EL Hawary, Yasmen Saeed and Eslam El Nagdy”.
MUSIC
By: Ayman Massoud
Over the course of 4 months, music composer “Ayman Massoud” worked on developing the original music for the production in his studio in Cairo. Inspired by his Alexandrian identity; Ayman brought the sounds of the sea and gulls to life in his music, and worked closely with theater director “Aboudoma” to achieve his vision for the show with mixing western and Egyptian tunes.
CREATIVE TEAM
MAHMOUD ABOUDOMA
Playwright & Theater Director
Aboudoma is an Egyptian playwright, theatre director, university teacher and cultural manager born in 1953 in Cairo, Egypt. Aboudoma has played an influential role in field of arts and culture especially towards establishing the independent movement in 1990’s. He founded the “Alternative Theatre Groups” in 1989 the first independent Theatre troupe in Alexandria, where he toured locally and internationally
AWATEF IBRAHIM
Acting Trainer
Awatef Ibrahim is an actress, acting coach and a teacher at the theatre department, faculty of arts, University of Alexandria. She co-founded the Alternative Theatre Group in collaboration with Dr Mahmoud Aboudoma and as an actress, she has played distinguished roles in several performances and played that were presented locally, regionally and internationally
AYMAN MASSOUD
Composer
Ayman Massoud is an Egyptian keyboardist, music producer and sound engineer. He is most notably known for co-founding the award-winning rock band Massar Egbari, with which he has been performing since 2004.
Born in Alexandria in 1978, Ayman started dabbling with the keyboard at a young age. In the late 1990s, he joined El Hob Wel Salam, one of the earliest independent bands to emerge from Alexandria.
Ayman met French singer and trumpeter Benoit Fabry some years later, during his three-year stint in Alexandria. Fabry was looking to put together a band, so Ayman jumped on board. He introduced Fabry to two of his school friends — guitarist Mahmoud Siam and drummer Tamer Attallah — as well as his squash mate Ahmed Hafez, who is also a guitarist. They started off jamming on Hafez’s rooftop, and in 2004, along with singer and songwriter Hany El-Dakkak, the five men formed Massar Egbari.
n the 15 years that followed, Massar Egbari went on to top the charts, cementing its place as one of the most successful bands in the region. Over the years, Ayman made a name for himself by performing in key venues such as Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Qaitbay Citadel, the Roman Amphitheatre in Alexandria, as well as the Cairo Opera House and El Sawy Culturewheel, where he captivated thousands of fans.
ENSEMBLE
AWATEF IBRAHIM
KHALED RAAFAT
SARAH EL HAWARY
YASMEN SAEED
ESLAM EL NAGDY
CREDIT LIST
PLAYWRIGHT & THEATER DIRECTOR
Mahmoud Aboudoma
ACTING TRAINER
Awatef Ibrahim
CREATIVE PRODUCER
Amina Abo Doma
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
Tarek Nader
COMPOSER
Ayman Massoud
ENSEMBLE
Awatef Ibrahim, Khaled Raafat, Sara El Hawary, Yasmine Saeed, Eslam Awad
COSTUMES DESIGNER
Ola Mandour
SCENOGRAPHY
Remon Kadry
Ahmed Abdelghany
Mahmoud Aboudoma
SOUND
Remond Kadry