A Note from the Editor

These are eight plays selected and translated from the large theatrical heritage of Dr Ahmed Fagih.
Fagih is a man of letters as well as a man of theatre being himself an actor and director and a founder and director of the national institute of Drama and Music in Tripoli, drawing when he writes for theatre on his vast experience in the theatre which enables these works to be easy handled by theatre people, therefore it is not strange that all these plays were performed many times not only in their original Arabic language, but also when translated, either in international festivals or in private occasions, London, for example witnessed the staging of some of these plays, the Gazelles, the Singing of the stars, the Evening visitor. While A portrait of writer was performed by the author in an international festival in Romania and awaiting its premier in London during 2007. some of these plays were written in Arabic and translated to English but five of them were written originally in English, they are:

The evening visitor

The morning paper

A portrait of writer

John the ripper

Harold

Singing of stars

The Gazelles

Muhammad Ali

To introduce these works here are some glimpses on the author and his achievements in the field of theatre and other areas of literature:

Ahmed Fagih:
A literary profile

By Susannah Tarbush

The recent publication by Kegan Paul of five books by the leading Libyan writer Ahmed Fagih was marked by a reception at London’s Kufa Gallery, a showcase for the arts and culture of the Arab world. Many testimonials were given by speakers who included Dr Salah Niazi, Mr Tahim Salaih and the Sudanese writer Tayib Salih whose novel Bandarshah was also published by Kegan Paul. The following is an excerpt from an address delivered at the reception by Susannah Tarbush.
‘It is a pleasure to be in at the birth of these five books should it be a quintet, the Tripoli quintet perhaps? Or a pentad of books? For those of us who have followed the process since Peter Hopkins first announced that Kegan Paul would be publishing the five books it has been a long gestation, but having had the chance to have a preview of the books I can say the wait was worth it.
At a recent conference in London on Arabic literary translation, the Director General of the British Council, David Green, said that although Arabic like English is a great diaspora language that is now spoken in every continent, simple observation in any book shop in London shows that there is far less Arab work on the shelves than there should be. I would guess that these five books will comprise a good fraction of the literature translated from Arabic into English published in London this year.
If we look at the Arab map of translated fiction then some countries are much better represented than others. From North Africa, works by many writers from Egypt, Morocco and Algeria (sometimes writing in French) are translated, as are some writers from Tunisia. In the Mashreq, Lebanon has probably been better represented so far than Syria. Unfortunately, little fiction by Iraqi writers seems to be translated into English at the moment. Libya is one of those Arab countries that is as yet poorly represented in translation into English, so these books help fill that gap.
Ahmed was a key figure on the Arab cultural scene in London in the 1970’s and early 1980’s when he was Editor-in-Chief of Azure - a glossy English-language magazine covering all the Arab arts including theatre, heritage, civilizations, antiquities, art and literature - and when his play Gazelles was put on at the Shaw Theatre in 1982. Ahmed came to England first in 1968. Like so many others of his generation, he had been deeply shocked by the 1967 war, and coming to Britain represented a change of scene. He first went to a tutorial college and then studied drama in London. After the revolution in Libya he held various positions, including being Director of the Institute of Music and Drama and Head of the Department of Arts and Literature at the Ministry of Information and Culture. Some years later he did a doctorate at Edinburgh University on the Libyan short story. Ahmed has been a prolific writer since his teens. He has worn many hats in his time - short story writer, novelist, journalist, academic, diplomat, actor, dramatist, playwright, TV personality.
A few biographical notes. Ahmed was born in Mizda, an oasis village south of Tripoli. This rural background and his knowledge of village life, its rituals, gossip and hardships is an important element in his writing. Many of Ahmed’s works also have ecological and environmental components. A recurrent theme is women and the relations between the sexes. Ahmed’s stories often start with a premise which is then developed with some kind of logic into a more and more fantastic scenario, and yet the whole exercise is carefully controlled and well crafted. Although Ahmed’s stories are engaging and often very comic with a well-developed sense of the absurd, they have disturbingly dark undertones. In the stories there is a world of floating people, often in transit, suffering alienation and isolation. Several of the stories published here tell of journeys, of a man and a woman and of the gulf of understanding between them.
One of the five books published here is a collection of twelve short stories by Libyan writers edited by Ahmed. In the introduction to this volume, Ahmed describes the dire impact of the Italian occupation on Libyan literature and culture, and how after independence in 1949, at which time the United Nations described Libya as the poorest country, a new literary era started. As he writes, ‘ the short story, a form newly introduced to the literary scene in Libya, provided a suitable and convenient medium to express the anger and grievances of the writers and to convey their strong indignation against a backward and unjust social system”. The advent of large-scale oil revenues in the 1960’s brought new issues and social and cultural upheavals, which were reflected in the writing of the time. Then in the 1970’s after the revolutions there was state subsidizing of publishing and new types of material started to appear and new types of issues emerged, all captured by Libyan writers.
These five books are a superb introduction to the work of Ahmed Fagih and I hope this brief survey has given you an appetite to read some of these stories, plays and the novel for yourself."

The Ambassador of Libya, actor at Sibiu

Published in issue 3695 page 12 at 2006-06-07
Bucharest - The Theatre Festival from Sibiu has registered a less usual first in the artistic and diplomatic circles. This happened owing to the fact that the Ambassador of Libya, Ahmed El Fagih, has renounced being a diplomat for a short period of time, preferring to become an actor in a theatrical play written by him. The show called “Portrait of a writer who has not written anything” was very well appreciated by the audience, the Ambassador obtaining the artistic acknowledgement through lengthy applause at the end, although the part played by him was not easy at all. The script written by El Fagih is inspired from his own life, referring to the moment when he was the chief of the Libyan Writers’ Guild. At that time, the Ambassador requested President Gaddafi to renounce censorship in art, which has actually happened. Referring to his new activity, of an actor, El Fagih said that he has initially announced the Ministries of Culture and of Foreign Affairs from Libya, which backed him in his project. The play will be set up also in Cairo, and then will be presented in London in English.
by Alexandru Elias

Charles, Diana and Me and Other Stories
Ahmed Fagih
(Kegan Paul, £19.95)

This is one of five slim books by Libya's greatest living writer, published by Kegan Paul - a distinguished imprint for more than 100 years, but now rather caught in the interstices of international publishing. There's real literary quality in the tales themselves, the title one about Diana (written before her death) being the ironical address of an obsessive to the princess. The effect is rather as if a British writer had written a similar story about Colonel Gadafy.
The other books in the series are: Valley of the Ashes (a coming-of-age novella), Who's Afraid of Agatha Christie? (more short stories), Gazelles (plays) and Libyan Stories , a collection of the work of others edited by Fagih.
Fagih is clearly quite brilliant, but the translation feels bad: it is a further mark of Fagih's abilities that his merit shines through nonetheless. In other words, you get a sense of genius brought low. And by itself, too: Fagih reportedly translated the works himself with the help of friends.
Nor, alas, have the books been packaged in a very attractive way – it doesn't inspire confidence that the publisher misspells its own name on the cover of Libyan Stories. But Kegan/Keegan Paul is to be congratulated for bringing Fagih's intriguing work to Britain.
Small press corner
Guardian Unlimited
Saturday August 19, 2000