The life of Muslim clerics who call for prayers is the topic of a play that has been touring several European countries and featuring 30 real Egyptian “muezzins†who offer snapshots of their lives and perform the “azan†on stage.
In Radio Muezzin, a one-act documentary play by Swiss director Stefan Kaegi, 30 muezzins from Egypt tell the audience about their families and neighborhoods and show them how to pray and perform the ablution ritual.
The play starts with the real life protagonists performing the azan, the call for prayers, in what resembles an orchestra with one saying a line then the following one saying the next line and so on. Then each of them starts telling his story.
The idea of the play came to Kaegi when he visited Egypt and listened to the overlapping calls for prayers that echo in the capital five times a day and decided to transfer the performance to theatres, said production manager Juliane Männel.
"Kaegi took the idea to the Ministry of Islamic Endowments and al-Azhar," she told Al Arabiya. "Both gave their approval and gave Kaegi permission to choose 30 muezzins himself."
Kaegi, Männel added, made sure to make his choice as diverse as possible so he chose young and elderly muezzins, whose ages range from 40 to 60. He also made sure they have different ways of performing the call for prayers so this variety would be reflected on stage.
"He wanted to make them represent all the various calls for prayers so the performance would be as vivacious as reality and would endow the audience with the same comfort Muslims feel when they listen to the azan."
Before writing the script, Kaegi conducted interviews with the muezzins he chose and listened to details about their lives and job.
"Those people love their job and the play is a tribute to them," he told Al Arabiya. "I wanted to show how respected they are in Muslim society."
Abdul Moeti Hindawi, one of the muezzins who take part in the play, expressed his happiness that he is showing European audience that Islam is not about violence.
"I am not an actor," he told Al Arabiya. "I am here doing my real job and showing people that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance."
The play is set in the inside of a mosque and the muezzins stand with their stocking feet on colorful carpets with Islamic decorations.
The play was performed in more than 30 European theatres. In 2010, the play was performed on the Bellevue Theatre in Amsterdam as part of the 61st edition of the Netherlands Arts Festival.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).