“Ahmed Reda Dehaib Or in a position of fairness.”

Alsir Alsayed

Writing about the playwright, television and radio drama author, actor and director Dehaib will find himself facing an experience that, despite its richness, diversity, and continuity since the second half of the 1970s, has not received the attention he deserves from critics and researchers. Some of the reasons for this neglect may be, and I do not say personal forgetfulness, is Dehaib himself as a personality that remained often controversial, and this may be due to the different path he chose in most of the positions he took and the art he produced. In the positions that arise from the questions of the demobilized community, unionized and politically, we find him not swimming with the prevailing trend, and the same thing, or close to it, we see in the way he deals with the art he produces.
This different path is hindered by the fact that many playwrights, some of whom are influential, see it as confrontational rather than dialogical, while they acknowledge the importance of what resulted from this path and what Dehaib presented artistically and in public affairs as an influential union activist who headed the union for more than one session, had notable achievements and presented artistic works worth critical reading. From this path and view of him was formed the image of Dehaib, a confrontational, controversial person… That image that placed him in an extreme corner obscured the objective critical reading of his positions, his art and even created a wariness of him that extended even to critics and researchers.

Who is Dehaib:

I will not go into detail about his biography, for it is sufficient in this position of fairness, not in the position of criticism or documentation, for me to provide some indications about this long and diverse experience.
His artistic biography says: He entered the world of theater in the year 1979 at the Bahri Youth Center in Khartoum State, after which he participated in the play (The Telegraph), which was shown at the National Theater in the year 1982, as part of the Al-Sayyad troupe, which was founded by the great theater pioneer, Professor Muhammad Khair Al-Sayyad. He also participated in acting with the great theater pioneer, Mr. Al-Fadil Saeed, in the play (We Are Like This).
Between wandering through the corridors of theater pioneers, who he enjoyed the company of many of them, and benefited from their experiences, then he became more passionate about theater, becoming one of the distinguished students in the theater department in the additional studies of the Higher Institute of Music and Theater at that time.
This intimate fluctuation and anxiety among some of the tributaries from which the modern theatrical movement in Sudan was formed, in addition to his active presence, is what produced a number of theatrical groups that he founded since the beginning of the eighties, such as the “Al-Nahda” group, which produced playwrights who are now referred to in Lebanon, such as the actor Hassan Youssef, known as Sayyid Jirsa, the author Khalifa Hassan Balla and others, and then finally the group (Hazar) and others. He also produced many theatrical and television works, written, acted and directed, such as plays: (The Decision… A Failure Birth… One + One = Six… Dead in Peace… Glass Breaks… Abdul Fadil declares his anger… The White Cat… Darfur on A Tightrope.) And as series: (The beaches are lost… Abdul Qadir and Dabouba… Zainab is an Inexhaustible Spring), in addition to dozens of films.

In conclusion:

There is something that must be pointed out in this experience, and the first of these points is its continuity and abundance. The second is that the main feature of it is that it was all written, directed and produced by him, what he participated in acting in it and what they were all shown and watched by the audience. The third is that it revealed, at least for me, the great abilities of the artist Dehaib, specifically in acting and writing. In acting, he has a high (spiritual) energy that is evident in most of the roles he played on television. It is sufficient to point to his role in the movie (The Execution), and to the roles he played in the theater. It is sufficient to point to his eloquent performance in the play (Abdul Fadil Declares His Anger). As for the writing, we will see a hidden presence in reading, especially in the field of theater and drama, and starting from a certain vision of life and theatre, as it cannot be a coincidence that Abdel Fadil summons Al-Maz and puts him in the hell of questioning, or that Abdel Qader summons Wad Habouba or to approach youth issues, as in the series “Lost Beaches.”
He deserves justice in the art he presented and in his presence in public affairs related to the theatrical community, and that his experience deserves critical reading.