Jamal Mather: “Personality of the Year” is my lifetime award

Emirati creative and media personality Jamal Mather has described being named Theater Personality of the Year at the 14th session of the Dubai Youth Theater Festival as the most important honor he has received in his career. At the Culture and Science Seminar in Dubai, he turned to the novel today, believing that he sought only rich ideas capable of narrative, interpretation and questioning, as he moved away from writing and directing the play. During this period.

At the start of his speech, Jamal Mather praised the approach of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) in honoring creators in theatre, music or other fields. Achievements. About his debut and the works that mark the beginning of his career as a theater director and writer, including “Jameela”, the work was exceptional, cinematic-like and carried many challenges. In the open air and on unpaved roads, he still gave about 29 performances.

Regarding his relationship with the poetry of Abu al-Tayeb al-Mutanabi, especially since he published a book about him, he explained: “I have had no benefit from my relationship with al-Mutanabi except for the language in drama and his poetry. The book I presented on him came to reveal my relationship with his poetry and the love and separation between me and him. Sometimes I get into a conversation between me and him… a conversation that already exists.” “Extreme reproach and extreme love as well.”

Mater also reviewed his media experience in the evening, pointing out important conversations he had with key figures such as poet Ahmad Shafiq Kamal, author of Umm Kulthum’s song “You Are My Life” and Mansoor Rahbani. , Saeed Saleh, Laila Alavi and Yusuf Shaban.

Mather returned to the novel and published more than one work, such as “Spring of the Jungle,” which was longlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. He noted that he benefited from drama in the novel, especially as the reader of the novel finds a sense of drama and cinema, especially in “The Spring of the Forest”, in addition to the level of poetry and the influence of Al-Mutanabi. .

He pointed out that there were critics who wrote many positive things about the work, as an Egyptian critic described it as a novel written to the sound of a flute, and declared symbolic literature in the Emirates.

He insisted that he did not turn to the novel because of the lack of drama, but because the novel was the biggest problem and because many hands intervened in the play, from the director to the writer. takes full responsibility.

He believed that his novel “Spring of the Jungle” could be turned into a play or an animated film, which would be released to the world from the Emirates, because the novel has a lot of symbolic and design potential.

He felt that the main problem of writing was the lack of story, and this is the problem of writers who change the story, the images that represent a series of stories with embellishment of language without the real story. Linguistic decorum falls away.

Jamal Mather:

• I turned to the novel not because my dramatic eye was exhausted, but because the novel was the biggest problem.

• “You are my life,” I enjoy the conversations I have had with key figures like Mansoor Rahbani and Yusuf Shaban.

Testimony of Companions of the Path

Jamal Matar’s evening witnessed several interventions by actors and directors including Naji Al-Hai, Hassan Yusuf Al-Balushi and Marai Al-Halyan.

Contributors acknowledged Jamal Mather’s support in their theater debuts by coaching them in improvisation.

Artist Marai Al-Halyan said: “When an actor starts his career, he needs the courage to face the audience and the art of solid improvisation, and I learned that when Jamal Matar gave them to me in the play (Jamila). The narrator faces the audience and is written in two lines. character, and asked him to develop it by improving it.

He added, “I am grateful for this experience. If actor Marai Al-Halyan is seen in Emirates, one of the founders of this actor is Jamal Mather.”