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by Bamber Gascoigne
Egyptian playwright, poet, actor and critic, whose literary career lasted two decades and who became a legend in his lifetime. From the late 1960s and during the 1970s until his death Surur was one of the most prominent figures of the Egyptian theatre.
What will be said,
Of us after the deluge,
After the coming drowning, after the coming of anger,
What will be said of us poets and writers?
(from Drink Delirium, translated by Mona Anis and Nun Elmessiri)
Naguib Surur wrote his first plays in the late 1950s. He graduated from the Institute of Acting in 1956 and continued his studies in the Soviet Union to obtain his Ph.D. in drama. After his return to Egypt Surur made in 1964 his debut as director with Anton Chekhov's Cherry Orchard at the Pocket Theatre. He taught at the Academy of Arts until mid-1970s and made five directorial projects and acted in four plays.
As a stage actor Surur had his most memorable performance in Shawqi Abdel-Hakim's Okazion (Sale) in 1977. In the production Surur played the part of an unemployed drunken playwright, actor and director, whose tragedy drew material from his own turbulent career.
Surur's plays have not yet been translated into many European languages, but his poetry collection, LUZUM MA YALZAM, which he wrote in exile, was translated into Spanish by Santiago Alba y Javier Barreda under the title Hacer imprescindible lo que es necesario. Surur's poem Drink Delirium has been translated into English.
In his critics Surur uncompromisingly considered the quest for 'popular tradition' as inability to connect with the present. However, Surur's works have been seen as a reaction to the Western cultural influence (as stated in the Finnish source Otavan kirjallisuustieto, 1990).
Among Surur's unpublished work is the verse Al- Umiyyat, a forceful cry from the tortured mind with its visions of crusifixion and anguished attacks on the official culture. During the last years of his life Surur suffered from recurring bouts of depression. He died on October 24, 1978.
Surur's literary works include eight plays, three dramatic adaptations, five collections of poems, and four collections of essays, among them A Journey into Naguib Mahfouz's Trilogy (1969).
See selected bibliography: Nabuib Surur - For further information: Naguib Surur
Egyptic Theatre in the 1950s and 1960s: The many crises in the Arabic word since the late 1940s have affected deeply intellectual life in Egypt. During the state-controlled socialism under Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956-1970) arise numerous gifter playwrights, who more or less resisted the pressure of the mass media and the uniform climate of opinion. Several of their plays had strong social or political message. Among the most prolific playwrights was Tawfiq al-Hakim (Soft Hands, The Perplexed Sultan), who used situations and symbols removed from everyday life, but who also explored the political structure of his country. Numan Ashur denied the possibility of reconcilation between the classes in The Lower Class (1956) and The Upper Class (1958). Other major writers included Salah Adb al-Sabbur, whose Tragedy of al-Hallaj (1965) was influenced by T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, Yusuf Idris, whose The Farfoors gained huge popularity and Ali Salim (The Ghosts of New Egypt). - see for further information: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, ed. by Stanley Hochman (1984).
