Seket Safar: The Bittersweet Taste of Reality in Egypt

By: MernaSakr
@MernaSakr1

Directed and produced by Waleed Talaat, theatrical performance Seket Safar (Road to Travel) was hosted by the Graduate Students’ Association on November 9 and tells the story of the struggle many Egyptians face in leaving the country.

The audience sitting in the Bassily auditorium were brought to tears and laughter by this satirical black comedy, as Ayman, the protagonist, is caught between leaving the country and his inability to live anywhere else.

Seket Safar was performed 31 times across Egypt, winning the award for the best theatrical display in the Cairo Festival for the Arts in 2015.

The atmosphere was intensified by the set designed by Sherine Hegazy, which alongside subtle changes in lighting and eerie music contributed to creating shocking visual imagery.

With a disturbingly realistic mannequin chained to the wall with red, white and black fabric, Talaat was determined to use symbolism to convey his attitudes about the current political situation in Egypt.

“The message this play conveys is not only that a 35-year-old man is trying to leave the country to thrive abroad, but the country itself won’t let him escape because if everyone leaves, no one will be left to stay,” Talaat told The Caravan.

In this heart-breaking comedy, several Egyptian traditions were strongly criticized including the patriarchal society that condemns women and empowers men.

This was achieved through several scenes in the play where the female character is treated as a subordinate to the male character.

“It doesn’t matter if he [Ayman] leaves his fiancé, he’s a man so no one will ever judge,” the character playing Ayman’s mother said during the play.

Seket Safar embodies the obstacles millennials face in Egypt in light of their strong desire to leave the country seeking better job opportunities elsewhere.

“Good evening sir, I would like to be buried here please,” said Ayman in a scene where he decided that being buried alive would still be easier than having to endure life in Egypt.

To that the gravedigger answered by telling Ayman that he needs to put his name on the waiting list since countless youth have decided to bury themselves alive too.

Among the play’s hallmarks is how several music numbers were performed during the most intense scenes and how the actors were able to twist their messages of pessimism into a musical comedy.

Each of these actors was dressed in a manner that perfectly represents the character he or she was playing.

However, in some scenes, the dialogue was classist in the way it portrayed underprivileged people.

In one of the more shocking scenes, an actor playing the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was shown claiming that Ayman, among other millennials, is the pride and joy of Egypt.

“You can’t travel and leave Egypt, we need all Egyptians to work here for the growth of our economy,” the actor playing El-Sisi said.

As Ayman complained to the president about the difficulty of sustaining a stable lifestyle in Egypt and his desire to be buried alive, El-Sisi told him to travel illegally on a boat, wait until it sinks, and then he would be happy to bury him.

The play, with all its political undertones, left the audience deeply satisfied, an approval that was clearly visible given the intense rounds of applause and ovation.