The quiet nest

We were talking about the state of theaters in Egypt when Mr. Tawfiq Al-Hakim told me that he imagines that the National Theater should dedicate itself to presenting the heritage of Egyptian theater throughout the year so that this heritage remains alive and present, just as museums preserve historical artifacts, the National Theater should preserve theatrical artifacts. Years passed and Tawfiq Al-Hakim passed away, and the problem became not only in not keeping his theatrical heritage alive on stage but also in its unavailability even as a printed text. An Arab former Minister of Culture complained to me that he searched in libraries during his visit to Cairo for a number of Al-Hakim's plays to complete his collection, and he was told they had run out and had not been reprinted for years. From there, my happiness grew for the Dar Al-Shorouk project to republish the complete works of my father of Arab theater, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, for nations do not grow or prosper except to the extent that their heritage is present in their present, otherwise their fabric unravels and they lose their past and future together, in history and politics as in literature and arts. Mohamed Salmawy