Manifestations of the complex feminist personality between theatrical writing and directing

Abstract

Abstract

This study examines the manifestations of the complex female character between playwriting and theatrical direction in the play The Hymn of Waiting, treating it as a model that reveals the interaction between textual construction and directorial vision in producing the character’s meaning within performance. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the female character can no longer be read as a marginal element or a fixed pattern within the dramatic text; rather, it has become a multi-layered structure in which psychological, social, and intellectual dimensions intersect, while its meaning is completed on stage through performance, space, sound, light, movement, distribution of masses, and other scenographic elements. Accordingly, the study formulates its problem in the following question: How is the complex female character manifested between playwriting and theatrical direction in The Hymn of Waiting?

The objective of the study is to identify the manifestations of the complex female character between playwriting and theatrical direction in The Hymn of Waiting. The study is limited temporally to the year 2024, spatially to Iraq/Baghdad/the National Theatre, and thematically to reading the manifestations of the complex female character between playwriting and theatrical direction in The Hymn of Waiting as the research model. The two researchers adopted the descriptive-analytical method and relied, in the research tool, on a set of indicators derived from the theoretical framework after being condensed to suit the nature of this extracted article. These indicators include: viewing the complex female character as a structure based on binary tensions such as margin/center, breakdown/resistance, and body/spirit; reading it through a network of signs that includes the body, space, light, sound, silence, and rhythm; and examining the role of direction in rewriting the female character through visual composition, movement organization, and scenography.

The previous studies were limited to two Iraqi studies only. The first was Russul Khalfa Kadhim Al-Bakri’s study, “Feminist Criticism and Its Representations in the Iraqi Theatrical Text: The Play Sabaya Baghdad as a Model,” which helped establish a local horizon for reading feminist representation within the Iraqi dramatic text. The second was the study by Nidaa Hatem Khudair and Mohammed Fadheel Shannawa, “The Aesthetics of Narrating the Female Body in Theatrical Performance,” which contributed to tracing the female body as a sign producing meaning in the theatrical performance. Thus, the present study positions itself in the area connecting text and performance, that is, between playwriting and direction, through one Iraqi sample only.

The analysis revealed that The Hymn of Waiting is structured around the idea of waiting and salvation through a complex dramatic and visual form, and that the female character is not presented as a fixed given or an isolated role, but rather as an open signifying presence generated by the interaction between the text and the directorial vision. This was evident in the choreographic formations, the use of the curtain as a collective body, the fragmentation of bodily parts, the repetition of movement rhythm, the ticking of the clock, the cinematic perspective, the light spots, the bodily masses, and the contrast between white and black. The analysis also showed that the female body in the performance emerged as an independent visual text, and that the complex female character was built on moving binaries such as restraint/liberation, body/spirit, and margin/center. Therefore, the woman was no longer a secondary element within the performance, but rather a signifying center through which the meanings of waiting, salvation, fragmentation, and the search for survival were generated.

The study reached several results, the most important of which are the following: the female character in The Hymn of Waiting is defined as a structure in which psychological, intellectual, and symbolic dimensions intertwine; its complexity is built upon moving binaries, especially restraint/liberation and body/spirit; and playwriting established the character’s semantic basis through the idea of waiting and salvation, while direction reconstituted it visually and kinetically within the performance space. The study also concluded that the complex female character cannot be read through the text alone, but through the interaction between playwriting and direction within theatrical performance, and that contemporary Iraqi theatre is capable of shaping a complex female character through ritualistic and visual formation without relying solely on direct dialogue.

In light of these results, the study recommends benefiting from the integration between playwriting and direction in studying the female character, giving greater attention to the female body and scenography as two fundamental elements in producing its meaning within theatrical performance, and carefully documenting contemporary Iraqi theatrical performances because they provide significant applied models for studying the manifestations of the complex female character. The study also proposes further comparative research between Iraqi dramatic texts and their performed productions, independent studies on the female body as a visual text, and research into the effect of scenography and theatrical ritual on constructing the female character in Iraqi theatre after 2003.