Bye Bye London

Bye Bye London (1982)

مسرحية باي باي لندن

A comedy about an old married man that travels to London with his nephew who does his to save him from exposure to fraud, and being mugged in London, the play also covers some political aspects and projections in addition to social criticism of some of the Arab situations.

Date of release
1982-01-22
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (6)
Runtime
2h 50m
Genres
Comedy, TV Movie
Director
Kathem Al-Qallaf

Casting

Interesting facts

Bye Bye London is a Kuwaiti play written by Abdulhussain Abdulredha and directed by Munsif Al-Suwaisi and Kazem Al-Qallaf. It premiered on November 18, 1981. The cast included Abdulhussain Abdulredha, Ghanem Al-Saleh, Haifa Adel, Maryam Al Ghadhban and Mohammed Jaber. Dawood Hussein and Intisar Al-Sharrah also appeared in the production.

Background

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, London was a popular destination for visitors from the Gulf. The city was associated with shopping, entertainment and other aspects of Western urban life, providing a setting for encounters between Gulf visitors and unfamiliar social customs.

Satirical theatre had a significant presence in Arab popular culture during this period. Egyptian productions such as Madraset El Moshaghbeen (The School of Mischief), Shahed Ma Shafsh Haga (A Witness Who Saw Nothing), and Al 'Eyal Kebret (The Kids Have Grown Up) remained widely known in the Arabic-speaking world decades after their original productions.

These satirical plays were largely produced in Egypt during the Infitah era under President Anwar Sadat. The plays discussed by Jadaliyya addressed themes including social change, political helplessness, family relations and individualism.

A similar type of satirical theatre developed in Kuwait in the decade following the 1973-74 oil boom. Jadaliyya links this period to changes in the political and economic life of the Gulf, including the weakening of Arab nationalist politics and the rapid growth of oil wealth. Kuwaiti playwrights used comedy to address the tensions associated with these changes.

Bye Bye London was among the Kuwaiti plays discussed in this context. Its characters were presented as exaggerated versions of Arab visitors to London. The play included Shaared, a wealthy Kuwaiti businessman concerned with his health while staying in London; Nahhash, a Saudi arms dealer; Adam, a hotel manager; Sabeeka, Shaared's wife; and L'arbi, a Moroccan immigrant living in Europe.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended