‘People of Saturday’ shines at Omani Theatre Festival
Published: 06:10 PM,Oct 18,2024 | EDITED : 10:10 PM,Oct 18,2024
Rasha al Raisi
People of Saturday is a play that was part of the 8th Omani Theatre Festival celebrated in Muscat from the September 22 till October 3. It won the second place and was awarded for Best Director.
The play has five main characters: Yaqoob (the tax collector), Khaldun (the mill owner), Duriya (Khaldun’s wife) and Hayyan and his wife Huriya who work in the mill.
It starts on a Saturday with Yaqoob asking Duriya for his weekly tax which she doesn’t have as the drought had affected their wheat supply and people’s ability to buy bread. She urges him to give her time to gather the amount and not to bother Khaldun as he’s struggling to keep the mill running.
However, Duriya suddenly dies and Khaldun must face Yaqoob’s weekly visits and his twisted reasoning about the importance of regular tax payment: to achieve social equality as everyone is paying the same amount. When Khaldun complains about the drought, Yaqoob answers simply: “Pray for rain.”
Torrential rain falls and destroys the land even further yet Yaqoob still shows up every Saturday. He suggests to Khaldun to get rid of his workers and get an automated mill instead, and offers him whale oil to power it.
Khaldun follows his advice and is met with disapproval cries from Huriya and Hayyan who have two children to feed and a third on the way. Later, Hayyan’s children die of hunger and disease while he contemplates to abort the third one for lack of economic means.
Khaldun falls in a moral dilemma with Huriya offering herself to him to feed her children when he can’t even pay her, Duriya appearing to him with a promise of a better life in heaven and Yaqoob who’s now suggesting to sell the automated machine to pay his debts.
The play ends on a Saturday with Khaldun losing his sanity and grinding sand to make bread to pay Yaqoob, while Hayyan laughs mirthlessly. Nevertheless, Yaqoob shows up and witnesses Khaldun’s acts calmly before announcing that he’ll be back next week.
Before leaving, Khaldun offers him back his whale oil bottle but he smiles gently saying to keep it as “a beacon of hope”. The play ends with Khaldun’s cry: “Prophets are my kin but heaven is far!”
The play’s title “People of Saturday” is a Quranic story of a Jewish community who broke the Sabbath to catch fish and were punished by God. But here the sense of punishment is represented by the figure of Yaqoob who appears every Saturday — like the fish — to collect his tax.
There were also many verses of the Quran used in different dialogues. The concept of Rizq (divine provision for all living creatures) that Muslims firmly believes in is questioned: If every child who comes to the world is divinely provided for as accepted, then what happens if the world he/she arrives in is impoverished and draught-stricken?
How would provision come through his/her parents? Ironically, there were three main characters suffering under Yaqoob yet none of them thought of revolting or uniting to think of a practical solution to rid themselves of the weekly tax.
Instead, they were myopic and focused on their own suffering that was getting worst everyday. The performance of the actors was spotless especially the two main figures of Yaqoob who kept gaining strength and power from Khaldun’s fear and desperation.
The lady who played Duriya was kinaesthetically impressive with her Dervish Whirling that she used to express her ghostly presence and when embodying the role of the automatic mill.
People of Saturday questions standard beliefs in an entertaining context.
The play has five main characters: Yaqoob (the tax collector), Khaldun (the mill owner), Duriya (Khaldun’s wife) and Hayyan and his wife Huriya who work in the mill.
It starts on a Saturday with Yaqoob asking Duriya for his weekly tax which she doesn’t have as the drought had affected their wheat supply and people’s ability to buy bread. She urges him to give her time to gather the amount and not to bother Khaldun as he’s struggling to keep the mill running.
However, Duriya suddenly dies and Khaldun must face Yaqoob’s weekly visits and his twisted reasoning about the importance of regular tax payment: to achieve social equality as everyone is paying the same amount. When Khaldun complains about the drought, Yaqoob answers simply: “Pray for rain.”
Torrential rain falls and destroys the land even further yet Yaqoob still shows up every Saturday. He suggests to Khaldun to get rid of his workers and get an automated mill instead, and offers him whale oil to power it.
Khaldun follows his advice and is met with disapproval cries from Huriya and Hayyan who have two children to feed and a third on the way. Later, Hayyan’s children die of hunger and disease while he contemplates to abort the third one for lack of economic means.
Khaldun falls in a moral dilemma with Huriya offering herself to him to feed her children when he can’t even pay her, Duriya appearing to him with a promise of a better life in heaven and Yaqoob who’s now suggesting to sell the automated machine to pay his debts.
The play ends on a Saturday with Khaldun losing his sanity and grinding sand to make bread to pay Yaqoob, while Hayyan laughs mirthlessly. Nevertheless, Yaqoob shows up and witnesses Khaldun’s acts calmly before announcing that he’ll be back next week.
Before leaving, Khaldun offers him back his whale oil bottle but he smiles gently saying to keep it as “a beacon of hope”. The play ends with Khaldun’s cry: “Prophets are my kin but heaven is far!”
The play’s title “People of Saturday” is a Quranic story of a Jewish community who broke the Sabbath to catch fish and were punished by God. But here the sense of punishment is represented by the figure of Yaqoob who appears every Saturday — like the fish — to collect his tax.
There were also many verses of the Quran used in different dialogues. The concept of Rizq (divine provision for all living creatures) that Muslims firmly believes in is questioned: If every child who comes to the world is divinely provided for as accepted, then what happens if the world he/she arrives in is impoverished and draught-stricken?
How would provision come through his/her parents? Ironically, there were three main characters suffering under Yaqoob yet none of them thought of revolting or uniting to think of a practical solution to rid themselves of the weekly tax.
Instead, they were myopic and focused on their own suffering that was getting worst everyday. The performance of the actors was spotless especially the two main figures of Yaqoob who kept gaining strength and power from Khaldun’s fear and desperation.
The lady who played Duriya was kinaesthetically impressive with her Dervish Whirling that she used to express her ghostly presence and when embodying the role of the automatic mill.
People of Saturday questions standard beliefs in an entertaining context.