اخبار السعودية – وطن نيوز
عاجل اخبار السعودية – اخبار اليوم السعودية
W6nnews.com ==== وطن === تاريخ النشر – 2026-03-30 00:11:00
There are some commonalities in the history of the theatrical movement in the Arab Gulf states. Among these similarities is that theatre, which is considered the father of the arts and the first since the time of the Greeks and Romans, and a relatively newer literary genre compared to poetry in Arab societies, began with acting parties, which were performed by school students on the school stage or through school scout teams on their trips, or through sports club evenings. Another commonality is that the theatrical movement in the Gulf grew and took hold after the emergence of official television stations, which began filming and broadcasting plays to people in their homes on the one hand, and attracting theater icons in their dramatic works on the other hand, achieving something similar to twinning between Gulf theater and Gulf drama. Theatrical scripts or specialization in acting, directing, photography and theatrical decoration. Although Bahrain was historically the first in the field of theater among the Arab Gulf states, since 1929 when the first play was presented on the stage of Al-Hidaya Al-Khalifia School in Muharraq, and it was a classical historical play entitled (Al-Hakim Bi-Amr Allah), Kuwait later surpassed its sisters in this art for reasons including: unlimited interest and spending on theatrical art on the grounds that it is the best way to raise the country’s name high in foreign artistic forums, including Bringing in senior experts in theatrical sciences from Egypt (such as the great playwright Zaki Tulaimat) and entrusting them with sponsoring and promoting theatrical activities and establishing a high institute for theatrical sciences to graduate theater artists and cadres on scientific foundations, including also the democratic climate in the country that allowed the emergence of satirical political theater, which usually seeks to highlight the defects and weaknesses in society and the state on both the moral and political levels; With the aim of exposing and reforming it, through satire, insinuation, and expressive movement. If we talk about the history of theater in Qatar specifically, we find that the first beginnings, which were improvisational, were represented, as we said, in school theaters, scout team plays, and sports club theaters since the 1950s; That is, years before theater groups were established under different names through civil and governmental efforts. Relevant Qatari literature indicates that the real launch of the theatrical movement in Qatar was after independence in 1970. In 1972, the first official theatrical troupe was established under the name (Qatari Theatrical Troupe), followed by (Al-Sadd Theater Troupe) in 1973, then the (Al-Adwaa) and (Al-Shaabiyya) troupes. In 1974, the Theater Department was established at the Ministry of Education, during the reign of Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani. In 1994, the four aforementioned theater groups were merged into two main groups: (the Qatari Theater Group) and (the Doha Theater Group). The year 1982 witnessed the opening of the Qatar National Theater, becoming one of the important theatrical edifices in the Arabian Gulf. This provided an advanced infrastructure for theatrical art in the State of Qatar, including computerized lighting systems and a capable orchestra. This, in turn, facilitated the process of hosting local and international groups in order to improve the audience’s taste and instill ancient theatrical traditions. Since then, efforts have continued to establish a theatrical activity that keeps pace with the global theater movement. The truth is that all of this would not have happened and been strengthened without the efforts of a group of Qatari youth who love the theatrical and dramatic arts, who were imbued with a love of acting and received its first doses by standing on the school stage or by acting in scouting trips and summer activities. One of them, who is seen as a pioneer and spiritual father of Qatari theatre, is Professor Abdul Rahman Al-Mannai, whom one cannot ignore or underestimate when talking about Qatari theater. His role, or forget his work and efforts over 40 years. This is because Al-Mannai was not just a theater lover, but he was also a distinguished playwright, a creative director, a skilled musician, an agile journalist, and a guardian of Qatari heritage and folk arts. In this context, let us read the speech of the Director of the Theater Affairs Center at the Qatari Ministry of Culture, during a celebration held in May 2023 on the occasion of the launch of a book on the biography and works of Al-Mannai entitled (Theater and the Sea… A Reading of the Works of Abdul Rahman Al-Mannai), written by the Egyptian theater critic. Sibai Al-Sayyid, in which it was stated: “Al-Mannai was aware of the importance of the Qatari heritage and the necessity of collecting, classifying and presenting its elements. He made it a subject for radio programmes, a subject for specialized magazines, and a field for research centres. But the most important use of the heritage was in his plays. We find his theater full of stories of Qatari fishermen and their songs, and details of pearl fishing trips and the challenges that accompany them, which made his plays sometimes rise to the ranks of tragedy. Al-Mannai took the spectator in his theater with diving and fishing ships, and invited him to tour the villages and cities, and sketched with his pen the radical transformations that occurred in Gulf societies in their transition from fishing to the era of oil and gas. In addition, by virtue of being a good reader, he wandered through international theatrical novels, and was inspired and quoted from them ideas that were suitable for local performances. Abdul Rahman Ibrahim Al-Mannai was born in Doha in 1948 as a son of a family belonging to the Al-Mannaa tribe or (Al-Manana’a), whose roots go back to the tribe of Bani Kaab, one of the tribes of Bani Tamim in the Al-Houta region in Najd, and from the latter they emigrated and spread to Bahrain, Qatar, the Emirates, and several Saudi regions, practicing… Diving to search for pearls, driving ships, and trading in gold and livelihood, where many notables emerged from them, especially in the worlds of trade and finance, and in the fields of poetry, literature, arts, journalism, the judiciary, legal matters, and teaching. Since ancient times, they have been known for their dignity, courage, knowledge, generosity, and absolute loyalty to their Gulf countries and their rulers. Our friend first studied in traditional schools, then moved to regular government schools as soon as they opened. He continued his studies until the secondary stage, which he spent in the industrial secondary school, during which he specialized in electricity. As soon as he graduated from that school in 1969, he entered the labor market and moved in various jobs, where he worked at the beginning of his professional career, specifically in the period between the years 1970 and 1975 as a radio technician for the Shell Oil Company, noting that this job did not fulfill the love that was born within him for theater since he was a child listening with curiosity to folk tales that his mother used to tell him before going to sleep. These are the stories that encouraged him during his youth to present some improvisational sketches with the Al-Adwaa band, which originally began its activity in the musical field before becoming a theater group. While working at Shell Company, he took specialized engineering courses and other courses in the English language, and he continued to educate himself through reading and literary and critical readings, but at the same time his passion for theater remained residing and endemic in his inner being, and his belief in the values, message and role that theater represents in the lives of societies remained firm. And renewed, as evidenced by the fact that during that period he wrote his first theatrical text, which was the play (Umm al-Zein), which was directed by the late Jordanian director and father of Jordanian theater, Hani Sanobar (1934 – 2000) in 1975. This play is considered a milestone in the history of the theatrical and artistic movement in Qatar, and because of it Al-Mannai gained fame as a theatrical innovator, and the state decided to attract him to be a national cadre of its cultural and media cadres. So I appointed him in 1975 to the position of observer of the Cultural Center at the Ministry of Information, which was at that time the first body concerned with culture in the country. From this official position, he held successive government positions, from the position of Assistant Director of the Department of Culture and Arts at the Ministry of Information in the period between 1979 and 1983, to the position of Head of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Department in Doha Magazine in the period from 1983 to 1987, and to the position of Director of the Folk Heritage Center of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Doha from From 1987 to 2005. In addition to holding the position of editor-in-chief of Al-Maathourat Al-Sha’bi magazine. During all these career moves, our friend continued to see himself first and foremost as an artist concerned with theater and the role of theater in the lives of his citizens. His preoccupations and job burdens did not steal him from writing successive theatrical scripts, directing some of them, making the necessary decorations for others, and setting music for the third. Fifty years in writing. From 1975 to 2025, he composed The following plays: Umm al-Zein, The Golden Shoe, Become a Nightfall, Who Laughs Last, Oh Night, Oh Night, The Dungeon of the Sea, The Clown, The Village of Flowers, The Letters of Abu Ahmed al-Huwaili, Gnawi al-Shamali, In Love, Is Longing, Oh the East, People of the East, Hallucinations, Strengthen the Eyes, This Shape, O Saffron, The Travels of Zubari, Karak, The Fun Train, Umm al-Salfa, There, Al-Marzam, The Tent, Saeed Al-Mujabr’s Refractions, Wadi Al-Majdir, the smell of cardamom, a hubby with money, the singer and the princess, the elephant, O King of Time, the story of a blacksmith, the moaning of the masts, the accident and the thing, Zakaria my beloved, the horses, the tent of glory, Mai and Ghaylan, the pearl between the shower and the lock, the rest of the will. Among these plays, he directed 30 of them, and he made decorations for the plays (Halshkal, Ya Saffron) and (The Clown). He personally designed the costumes for the play The Clown, and composed the music accompanying the play The Golden Shoes. Hence, it was said about him that he is a comprehensive artist with a special artistic vision, and a person with a fine artistic taste in terms of colors and shapes. Anyone who studies Al-Mannai’s works discovers that the goal of spectacle, entertainment, and social criticism was present in some of his plays, but the other goals he sought included expressing the problems and concerns of the local community, documenting the changes that occurred in Qatari and Gulf societies, and depicting the conflict between traditional and modernist ideas that swept through these societies. On the other hand, it is noted that his works were characterized by a kind of compatibility between the classical language and the colloquial Qatari dialect, and the use of poetry in it, especially since he is a poet and the owner of several collections. On the third hand, it is noted that he wrote plays for adults that enlighten their thoughts, and he wrote plays for children that tickle their tender emotions, and that he demonstrated his ability to present plays consisting of only two actors, and present operettas that include hundreds of actors. Honors and Medals A person like this, skilled in her work, loyal to her art, and active in serving her country and its people, could not have been forgotten in terms of honor and celebration at the local, Gulf, and Arab levels. He won the Best Theatrical Technique Award at the Carthage Festival in Tunisia in 1985 for the satirical comedy play (The Fighters), written by the artist Ghanem Al-Sulaiti. He received the Cooperation Council Medal at the Muscat Summit in 1989, and was honored as a theatrical pioneer at the Second Gulf Festival in Doha in 1990. He snatched the award for the best integrated theatrical work for the play (Ghanawi Al-Shamali) during the Sixth Gulf Festival in Muscat in 2000, and he received the Jury of Appreciation Award for the play (Maqamat Bin Bahr) during the third session of the Carthage Festival in 1978. In 2002, he was awarded the Best Direction Award for the play (Maghrem Hal). Al-Shouq) at the Seventh Gulf Festival in Doha, and in 2006 his country honored him by giving him the State Appreciation Award in the field of theatrical arts. As for the year 2020, he was scheduled to be honored by the Ministry of Culture and Sports in the ceremony announcing the winners of the Doha Award for Dramatic Writing in its first edition. We conclude by noting that in October 2018, Al-Mannai announced a decision, which he later retracted under pressure from his fans, fans of his art, and senior officials. At that time, he wrote a shocking tweet in which he said: “When your road becomes full of potholes and bumps, governed by strange-colored signs, and governed by ambiguous laws and rulings. Miserable, and surrounded by thick fog that will not clear, all you have to do is stop for your safety and the safety of others, and I decided to stop.” When he was asked about the background of his decision, it became clear that he was upset with the state of deterioration that the Qatari theatrical movement had fallen into, which he compared to a circus, as a result of its intrusion by people who had no business in the theater and had never practiced or studied theatrical art, and their imposing certain and specific standards for work, and anyone who did not respond to them had their works rejected. For all these reasons, he said: “In the midst of this madness, it has become better to sit at home so that we do not obey what happened.”
