The Manifest Absence of Religion in Modern Egyptian Drama: The Case of Alfred Farag

In Modern Egyptian drama, religion - understood as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal god or gods - had rarely been the subject of a play. Despite being based on the Quranic tale of the sleepers of Ephesus, even the renowned Ahl al-Kahf (The People of the Cave, 1933) by al-Ḥakīm centres on a philosophical exploration of time, while historical dramas featuring religious figures seem to be concerned with current political issues. This chapter investigates the reasons behind the apparent lack of focus on religion in Egyptian drama. Is it a matter of history inherently tied to Islam, or perhaps the result of other factors unrelated to religion itself? Starting from some considerations about religion and Egyptian pre-Modern and Modern Drama, this chapter will go on to focus on Alfred Faraǧ’s dramatic production and particularly on the plays in which he adapts or rewrites pre-existent texts. Faraǧ's rewriting of plays is a suitable topic to explore as it permits the study of the transformations between the original pre-existing texts and the plays to determine which religious elements are suppressed or transformed within the play and how. Furthermore, we will speculate on the underlying reasons for these changes and draw hypotheses concerning the absence of religion in Modern Egyptian drama.