College of Fine Arts

The Iraqi theatrical performance (Rituals of Firewood) opened at the Al-Massar International Festival for Youth of the South in its eighth session yesterday, Friday, March 1, 2024.
The text was written by Iraqi playwright Ibrahim Kulan, directed by Dr. Nashat Mubarak Saliwa, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Mosul, and starring Shawqi Hikmat, Wissam Barbar, and Saddam Salem Hanna.
The show surprises us at its beginning with church ritual hymns that welcome you and transport you from the first moment, psychologically and mentally, to watch a local traditional work specific to this peaceful Iraqi city with its folklore, heritage, and rich Syriac heritage. However, this impression quickly dissipates and fades with the opening of the play and in its first scene, as the work team and its three actors transport you to a show. A play that carries the concerns of a nation from its far north to its far south, where its author, Ibrahim Golan, and its director, Nashat Mubarak, go beyond regional localism to national professionalism as a first step.
The story began with a retired military officer (Shawki Hikmat) who threw his young son (Wissam Barbar) into the fury of war and sacrificed himself if necessary for it.
This is matched by his older brother (Saddam Salem)’s rejection of this irrational logic through a dialectical dialogue that extends throughout the play, with vocabulary such as (war – duty – honesty – sacrifice – loyalty – homeland). Soon the two sides of the conflict (the center – Shawqi), the tyrant, are revealed with his extremist opinion and his pretext (defense). About the homeland) versus (footnote Wissam – Saddam) Children who yearn to live in love and peace.
However, the tyrant (Shawqi) insists on persecuting the younger son and confiscating the older son’s opinions due to his obsession with war and the scourges, destruction and pain it causes. He is aided in this by the overwhelming rhetoric and his performative mastery of the emotional spiritual rituals that he uses at the beginning of his calls for endless wars, a spirituality that the director of the work has categorically rejected. To obscure the human mind and will with its religious pluralism.
We should be proud of works that elevate Iraqi theater through the cooperation of two ancient institutions (University of Mosul and Qaraqosh Theater) to present selected performances that illuminate the artistic scene in Nineveh Governorate in general and the artistic scene in the city of Baghdida in particular.

Media Division, College of Fine Arts