After a break for a decade and a half .. Mansour theater returns to radiate culture

Ali al-Rasouli-Baghdad

A throbbing sign in the heart of Baghdad's culture-loving heart, a technician who returned to compete with his peers, said it was the Mansour theater, which has suffered for more than 15 years.

In the 1980s, one of the most prestigious theaters of the Arabs was named "Al-Mansour", because it was built in the center of Baghdad built by the Abbasid caliph Abu Jaafar Al-Mansour, formerly known as "Al-Medawara Baghdad."

15 years of closure
In front of the stage of this theater seats 350 people, and his galleries saw many of the plays, including the "return" to Joseph Sayegh, which was shown in September 1986 and "the door" also for the jeweler and directed by the late Qasim Mohammed, in addition to the popular play "House and five Biban" Written by Farouk Mohammed and directed by Mohsen Al-Ali, and participated in the representation of Bahjat al-Jubouri and selected artists.

But for more than a decade and a half, the theater has been shut down because of its location in Baghdad's Green Zone, which was banned from the public for government offices and diplomatic missions.

This year marked a paradigm shift for the Mansour Theater, where it witnessed its revival. Perhaps what accelerated this is that it is highly prepared and did not reach the hands of sabotage, as affected other cultural monuments in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.

The new generation
An opinion poll conducted by Al Jazeera Net targeting a segment of the first generation of the 21st century, the results of which were that about 96% of them do not know the road leading to the Mansour Theater.

This poll and the low turnout attributed to it, attributed their reasons academic and theater director Dr. Samim Hassaballah to the long closure of the theater since the encirclement of the Green Zone concrete blocks, which in turn led to forget the road reached by the public.

In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Dr. Hasaballah called on the Ministry of Culture and the relevant authorities to conduct a procedure that would introduce citizens to this theater and send groups of young people to know it.

Lack of vision
The theater had a long history as one of Baghdad's most important theaters, but it was forbidden to enter the theater, according to God. Now it is fully equipped to move the cadres and art departments of the cinema and theater department to begin putting them in theaters proposals that artists can submit their projects on top of its wood.

Dr. Hassaballah pointed out that the most important obstacle to the development of the theatrical movement in Iraq and its faltering is the absence of the state vision of the theater represents a social project that can contribute to the achievement of community peace, as well as the absence of vision from the theater itself is the absence of the importance of Iraqi culture.

Consumer theater
Individual attempts to develop theatrical art in Iraq are now incapable of making any impact on society, especially in light of procedural constraints on the artists themselves.

This deficit was justified by the theater director to the absence of the theater project, and weak work to restore the confidence of the public who abandoned the theater after art was attacked by the so-called "consumer theater", which offers a poor form does not want the Iraqi family to communicate with him.

Media role
This role comes amid the hopes of a number of artists in the development of theatrical art in the future, and this will not happen without the support of material, moral and media by the concerned authorities, in order to expand this activity and host Arab artists to win a strong renaissance from the current reality.

For his part, Director of the Department of Cinema and Theater Mazen Mohammed Mustafa to the existence of great importance to the advancement of the reality of theater art after the return of life to the Mansour Theater, as it will serve the theater directors in the coming days through the incubation of wood for international and local festivals.

Mustafa said in his interview with the island Net that the return of this theater will positively affect the movement of theater and cinema in Baghdad.

After its reopening, Al Mansour Theater hosted a concert of Italian heritage and the 2019 Korean Culture Festival. The organizers hope to rejuvenate the theater by holding events in the presence of Arab and foreign artists.