Representations of Reality in the Play "The Return of Cain" by the Egyptian Writer Sadia al-Adly

Abstract

The research seeks to uncover the social issues and phenomena that have occurred in the Egyptian society in the last ten years due to many factors that have changed its features and disrupted its culture as they are depicted in the play "The Return of Cain" by the Egyptian writer Saadia al-Adly. The study tries to reveal those issues in the Play and to determine their implications.

Among the important issues and phenomena that the Egyptian society suffers from and Saadia al-Adly has incorporated in her play are family division, material tyranny, religious ignorance, rejection of terrorism, psychological breakdown, and self-loathing. These phenomena were not common before in the Egyptian society, and they had a negative impact on the community and its safety, especially the city community as it is the most vulnerable to the rapid changes.

The importance of this theatrical text comes as a reflection of the reality of society, and an expression of a crisis reality that imposes on the recipient to raise awareness of it and its concerns and issues, and to create a state of transgression in the theatrical text through which it seeks to preserve the remaining customs, traditions and authentic constants in the face of issues of material reality and its negatives through spreading the values of peace, family and community coexistence, and national belonging.