ABSTRACT
North Africa’s rich theatrical traditions are rarely the subject of research and are often left out of “world theatre” anthologies. Nevertheless, this region has a long and varied history of performance, influenced by its Amazigh and Arabo-Islamic heritage, as well as by travelling troupes from Europe and other Mediterranean countries. Many of these indigenous traditions have today disappeared in their original form, performed in outdoor spaces. However, they still inspired contemporary theatre-makers who often re-visit their local heritage to pay tribute to their specific traditions and dialects. This chapter looks at popular pre-colonial performance art forms and analyze selected plays re-visiting this heritage for contemporary audiences, focusing on the three countries usually referred to as “Maghrib” (the “West”) in contemporary research, namely Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
