Fahd Al-Harthi "Revives" Saudi Theater with First Official Award at "Cairo Experimental 33"

There are awards that pass in the moment with applause, and there are awards that carry a meaning greater than the moment of coronation. The victory of Saudi writer and playwright Fahd Radda Al-Harthi with the Best Playwright Award at the 33rd Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre, for his play “Al-Na’ishoon” (The Biers), is one of those achievements worth pausing to reflect upon.

At the conclusion of the festival, held at the Egyptian Opera House two days ago, the jury of the official competition announced the results of the 33rd edition, with Saudi Arabia clearly among the laureates, as Fahd Radda Al-Harthi won the Best Playwright award for “Al-Na’ishoon,” marking an official achievement for Saudi theatre within the festival’s official competition.

The award came through the play “Al-Na’ishoon,” a production by Al-Taif Theatre Company, written by Fahd Radda Al-Harthi and directed by Ahmed Al-Ahmari. This presence of Saudi theatre in Cairo was not merely for participation, but to return from the competition carrying an award from one of the most important Arab theatrical events.

“Al-Na’ishoon” is not a story about death in the traditional sense, but rather an attempt to view the human being from a harsher perspective. What happens to a person when death becomes part of the details of daily life? And what remains of the meaning of life amidst wars, pandemics, diseases, and economic, social, and political crises?

From this point, the performance interrogates the relationship between humans and death, placing the audience before questions of existence, life, and annihilation. In the play, the bier is not merely an object that carries a corpse, but transforms into a symbol and a question about a human being who may be alive in body, yet lives within a state of death or emptiness.

It is this idea that gives Fahd Radda Al-Harthi’s text its distinctiveness. He does not treat death as an end, but rather uses it as an entry point to discuss life itself, as if the play tells us that the real question is not only “Who died?” but “Who is truly still living?”

The Best Performance award at the festival went to “Zhenya + Tanya = Love” from Belarus, while Taher Issa won the Best Director award for “La Moudia” from Tunisia. Samah Hamdy won the Best Scenography award for “What Do the Survivors Dream Of?” from Egypt. The Best Actress award went to Katerina Krylova for the Belarusian performance, while Alexei Titkov from Russia and Amir Dridi from Tunisia shared the Best Actor award. Meanwhile, the UK’s “Night Game” received the Special Jury Prize.

The jury distributed certificates of appreciation to several actors and technical staff participating in the official competition of the festival’s performances. Among them was a certificate of appreciation for the Emirati artist Abeer Al-Jismi for her distinction in the play “Ghayab Al-Ruh” (Abyss of the Soul) by the Kalba Folk Arts and Theatre Association, written by Abdullah Ismail and directed by Abdulrahman Al-Mulla. The play’s events took place in a past era in a village controlled by corrupt priestly authorities who exploit myths and legends to enslave people and drain their energies.