Egyptian Play Blasts U.S. Foreign Policy

[SoCalDem]

Sat Mar 13, 8:40 PM ET


Egyptian actors portraying American soldiers in a play staged Tuesday, March 9, 2004, in Cairo, Egypt, drag off an anti-American demonstrator as an actress portraying a TV journalist looks the other way. 'Messing with the Mind' is a condemnation of the American occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) and U.S. hegemony in the Middle East and has been drawing large crowds. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

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Egyptian Play Blasts U.S. Foreign Policy
Sat Mar 13, 8:43 PM ET

By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Before the curtain ever rises on a new play condemning American involvement in the Middle East, actors dressed as U.S. soldiers wave plastic assault rifles and bark "Sit down and shut up!" as they herd audience members who have been milling about in the theater's cafeteria into the auditorium.




"When we tell you to applaud, you applaud. When we tell you to laugh, you comply — or else!" the men shout, some of them firing off blanks as they hustle people to their seats. There is little subtlety in "Messing with the Mind," a play that uses dark humor, graphic newsreel films and loosely connected scenes to condemn the American occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) and U.S. designs in the region.


"Having a plot is an old condition for a play. What is important, in my evaluation, is to keep the spectator glued to his seat ... to include the audience in the theatrics — it guarantees a different kind of watching," Khaled el-Sawy, the writer, director and lead actor, told The Associated Press. "People are shocked by the fake shots and the shouting. It's my way of telling them, 'Let's play occupation and occupied people,' with all the humiliation that that entails," he said


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