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The Taming of the Tigress
Faṭima Rushdī and the First Performance of Shrew in Arabic
in Critical Survey
Author:
David C. Moberly
David C. Moberly
University of Minnesota mober088@umn.edu
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Abstract
Few scholars have addressed Arabic adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew, though it remains among the most popular Shakespearean comedies in the Arab world. The first Arabic performance of Shrew in Egypt in 1930 marked a significant landmark in the history of Arab Shakespeares, as the translator rendered the play in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, rather than in the formal, classical Arabic accessible to the educated elite. As such, the play offered the uneducated Egyptian public – and women in particular – unprecedented access to this work of Shakespeare. Instrumental to the adaptation’s success was Fāṭima Rushdī, owner and lead actress of the company that performed this first Arabic Shrew. In this and other roles as one of Egypt’s first renowned Shakespearean actresses, Rushdī not only effectively recast Shakespeare in an Egyptian mould, but also cast Egyptians in a Shakespearean mould, with effects that still echo today.
Contributor Notes
David C. Moberly is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Minnesota, completing a dissertation entitled ‘The Taming of the Tigress: Gender, Shakespeare, and the Arab World’. His work on early modern European captivity literature features as a chapter in Palgrave’s forthcoming Dialectics of Orientalism in Early Modern Europe. He has also reviewed The Taming of the Shrew in the Egyptian film industry on MIT’s Global Shakespeares Video & Performance Archive.