In remembering Al-Fadil Saeed… Professor Saad Youssef: Al-Fadil Saeed’s insistence on his artistic project made him last for (50) years on stage.

Cairo – Muhammad Ismail

Coinciding with the 19th anniversary of the passing of Al-Fadil Saeed, the Theater Department of the Sudanese Artists Union in Egypt, at its headquarters on Talaat Farid Street, organized a night of culture, loyalty and love for the late Al-Fadil Saeed, which included performances by the people of Al-Fadil Saeed (Bit Guddaim – Al-Ajab Amo) by the actor Ihab Mahmoud and video testimonies by the Captain Sudanese dramatists, actor Al-Rashid Ahmed Issa Muhammad and Adel Harbi, and Dr. Heba Hassan Saleh.
The main symposium was presented by Professor Saad Youssef Obaid, interviewed by director and playwright Hatem Muhammad Ali, and theater critic Maysoon Abdel Hamid was honored in the discussion.
Regarding his upbringing, Saad Youssef mentioned that Al-Fadil Saeed belongs to the Dongola Al-Ghaddar region in northern Sudan, and his mother is Fatima Muhammad Salantut. Al-Fadil Saeed found himself within a framework that gave him intellectual, educational, cultural and social enrichment
It was embraced by Omdurman, the Bayt al-Mal neighborhood, Wadnobawi, Abu Rauf and Wadaro.
“Circumstances meant that he was very close to his grandmother, Maryam Bit Haj Ali Gaili, the Ansar poet and one of the ancient women of Omdurman, very intelligent, known for her sociability, humor, and strong personality. She was the one by whom the Al-Fadil Saeed was raised and from whom he later acquired the character of Bit Guddaim.” He added.
He stated that Al-Fadil Saeed’s insistence on the theatrical artistic project made him endure for fifty years of theater, which is the longest period in the history of theater in Sudan for which a theatrical artistic project endured, that is, from 1955 until his death on stage in 2005. Despite his upbringing in a restrictive conservative environment, which he challenged by entering education where the first person found him in the school was the teacher of arithmetic, the theatrical pioneer Khaled Abu Al-Rous, who used to compose educational theatrical monologues critical of social behavior. Since that young childhood, he fell in love and was influenced by his teacher Khaled Abu Al-Rous. So he formed a theatrical troupe at the school, and he used to tour with this troupe to perform performances and sketches on the stage of he sheets, where he beats four sticks of “Ganna” on the ground and around it, spreads three sheets in three directions so that the front remains open and through which he presents his works. Khaled Abu Al-Rous used to follow him on sleepless nights.
“Then he joined the Scouts group and its headquarters in the courtyard of the mosque, this group was sponsored by Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, and after him, Abd Allah al-Fadil. He loved al-Fadil Saeed. He would often ask al-Fadil Saeed in evening sessions to appear for them and tell them about his works, and he often encouraged him, stood with him, and supported him with love and sincere fatherhood.” He added.
The Boy Scouts group is divided into groups that compete in the fields of poetry, acting, and singing, in addition to the presence of Najib Al-Rihani in his high school, which in turn introduced him to the world of comedy. During his study at Farouk Secondary School, he met his teachers, the artist Amin Al-Hunaidi, the physical education teacher, Mohamed Ahmed Al-Masry (Abu Lamah), the drawing and art education teacher, and Mustafa Kamel, the music teacher, who laid the foundation for Sudanese music and used to attend their Egyptian theatrical productions that they presented at the Egyptian Club in Khartoum for the Egyptian community. In this atmosphere, he began to practice his hobby of acting again after he stopped due to family pressures during his activity with the Boy Scouts, and because he is a lover and lover of the humor that his eyes were opened to in the Major Khaled Abu Al-Rous Theater. He found humor in its original form in the Najib Al-Rihani Theater, so Al-Rihani’s roles left him and he found himself in it as the plays (The World Is Not Like This) and (The Technical Secretary) and other works in which he succeeded in performing their roles, which led to his appearance and prominent prominence in the school, and he became a fan base in Khartoum, similar to what happened in Omdurman, so he was filled with self-confidence, and through Al-Rihani Theater, Al-Fadil Saeed knew that the theater has meaning and jokes have content.
It was the starting point when he went to form the band (Al-Shabab), and this band included alongside him Mahmoud Siraj (Abu Gabura) and Othman Ahmed Hamad (Abu Dalaiba). It was a band that presented its theatrical performances in public parks, wedding houses, Mawlid Square, and sports clubs (Al-Hilal, Al-Marikh, and Al-Mawradah).
Saad Youssef divided the personalities of Al-Fadil Saeed into two types:
The first type is the theatrical characters (Bit Guddaim, Al-Ajab and Kartoub.) The second type is the characters of Al-Fadil Saeed himself, who is a comprehensive artist who possesses more than 12 artistic skills.
Here he stopped at the personality of a Kansan and described him as intelligent and flexible, which was embodied through several axes in his artistic project, firstly in his dealings with institutions, especially state institutions, as Al-Fadil Saeed witnessed different eras of political regimes between dictatorships and democracy.
He referred to the criticism of his artistic project by academics and also to the split of his troupe into the Al Adwaa Theatrical Group. He mentioned that Al-Fadil Saeed has great ability and intelligence with production and advertising and knows the different climates and terrain of Sudan well, especially in his itinerant theatre.
Saad Youssef denied the prevailing opinion about the stereotype of Al-Fadil Saeed, explaining that the stereotypical character is one and fixed personality, while for Al-Fadil Saeed it is several people, that is, more than one personality, as in (Bit Guddaim… Al-Ajab… Kartoob), and he said that the pattern does not allow the characters to develop in a general way, but the style of Al-Fadil Saeed is different, as all his stereotypical characters are developed and up-to-date.
He also talked about the uniqueness of his performance and focused on two elements: the voice and the body. He said about the voice that Al-Fadil Saeed possesses imagination and a great and different vocal performance for each character. It is possible to refer to the characters (Bit Guddaim… Al-Ajab… Kartoub).
As for the physical performance, he talked about the form and movement of the body. He said that Grotowski came to do justice to the project of Mr. Said when his book (Towards a Poor Theater) appeared. Al-Fadil Saeed had come a long way in this physical technique.
Finally, he mentioned that most of Al-Fadil Saeed’s characters were produced on the radio through the Women’s Corner, and he specifically referred here to his character, Bit Guddaim.
It is noteworthy that the evening witnessed a large audience of Sudanese dramatists present in Egypt, including radio director Salah El-Din Al-Fadil and director Adel Harbi.