Aragooz
Punch and Judy
One of the most famous folk arts in Egypt at all, and one of the early forms of theatre and was recognized in November 2018 by UNESCO as one of the important human arts and the organization put it on the urgent conservation lists through the file prepared by Prof. Nabil Bahgat as an individual initiative from him to register this art on the conservation lists Urgent The researchers differed in the interpretation of the word Al-Aragooz, some of them referred it to a pharaonic origin in the sense of the story-maker. Some of them interpreted it according to the colloquial origin. Their shadow fantasy was originally transferred to them from Egypt, and we stress that it is a mistake that many scholars made. However, his fame is still the same, and many people use the word Aragooz to denote different meanings in the lexicon of the daily life of the Egyptians. The art of aragwas has existed in Egyptian life for a long time, as the Turkish traveller Ulyagili referred to an artist in the tenth century AH who used wooden dolls to treat patients with wooden dolls to improve their condition. In the streets of Cairo, we have often seen men playing puppets, and this small show is very popular, and the theatre used for this is so small that one person can easily carry it. The actor stands in the wooden box that he extends so that he can see the spectators through the openings made for this purpose without For someone to see him and pass his brides through other openings. He also used this type of art to express social problems.

In some cases, it was expressing a political, patriotic feeling for the Egyptian people, which they were unable to express in these times, which were characterized by a political and religious dictatorship. All the stories that he took purposefully and had The characteristic of exaggeration, wit, and wit, which the Egyptians were famous for, delights children and adults. The show usually ends with laughter from the audience. There is a group of dramatic texts that remain in the memory of the players. They inherit these theatrical texts from generation to generation and player after player. This oral transmission may occur from a father to his son or from a teacher to one of the assistant boys. And this transmission can be anonymous, meaning the player does not know who the author of this text is, even if he transmits it with other players. Still, this oral memorization is not without a special performance where the player immediately presents what he memorized through spontaneous improvisation. Two factors determine the subject of this improvisation. They are the representative nature of the presented conditions for receiving the artistic process. Al-Aragooz deals with a major dramatic success in most of his acting performances, a situation that is often simple and represented in the fact that the Aragoz is in a state of happiness and ecstasy, expressed by guffaws and singing with his friend, “and the assistant is often”, but this situation does not last long, as he collides with a pretended character.

In most cases, he is disturbed. The Aragoz can remove this character that disturbs his peace by using his stick to return to his ecstasy and happiness by singing again. The Aragooz is a simple person who only wants to live as he loves and hates transcendence and lies – even if he has to boil it sometimes. , sharp-tempered, sarcastic, stubborn. It is a model for the son of the country in Egypt who can enjoy his freedom after some – and they are the triggers of the dramatic conflict in these plays – trying to disturb the rags’ peace. Al-Sha’abi has a specificity about the different types of theatre. He has the right to participate in the creative process and the presented theatrical performance, to form the representative process, so he begins by clapping on the tones of the songs to create a kind of rhythm, or responding to one of the speaking characters or repeating the songs with the arajooz or the assistant, and he also has the right – if he can That- to establish a dialogue with one of the personalities. The Al-Aragooz artist calls his show “the tiger”, and the most important thing that constitutes the tiger: the lyricism that begins with, and the aggressive “beating – expulsion” that ends with it, and it is worth mentioning that the word “leave” that the Egyptians used in the January revolution was inspired by it. The collective awareness of these people is one of the shows of the Aragooz, who ends his performances with a word out of his sight, as he is keen to purify society from all forms of corruption.