A lesson for Lebanon from its ancient Phoenician past

MAAMELTEIN: “If you don’t go back to the past, you can’t live now,” says Oussama Rahbani, the musical talent behind “The Return of the Phoenix,” a play steeped in the history of Lebanon that is making an encore run through December 21 at the Casino du Liban after debuting at the Byblos International Festival this past summer.

The play, written by Mansour Rahbani and directed by Marwan Rahbani, follows last year’s historical production by the Rahbani brothers, “Zenobia,” an epic centered around the ancient queen of Palmyra. However, while the past often serves as inspiration for the renowned Lebanese dramatists, “The Return of the Phoenix” is the first time that their own country’s history formed the basis for a production.

“Like any civilization, the Phoenicians had good points and bad points,” Oussama Rahbani told The Daily Star in an interview. “They were dealing in commerce, in trading, they were traveling a lot. However, they didn’t build a united culture, they were more individualistic.”

“The Phoenicians focused on the city-state. But doing in this, you are alone. Saida alone, Beirut alone, Tripoli alone. Then when Alexander the Great invaded, it was one-on-one,” Rahbani noted.

“The Return of the Phoenix” ponders the shortcomings of Lebanon’s past inhabitants in order to prod the country’s current residents into improving their collective lot. While it takes place in the northern coastal city of Jbeil, or Byblos, some 3,000 years ago, the political dynamics are instantly recognizable to those familiar with today’s Lebanon.

The king of Jbeil, played by Antoine Kerbaj, and other Lebanese city-state rulers have entered into an uneasy alliance with the kingdom of Egypt. However, these ties don’t sit well with some sections of the population, as the Egyptians are seeking to control the country’s natural resources – the Phoenicians’ lucrative ports and imposing cedar forests.

Majdo, the play’s underprivileged protagonist played by Ghassan Saliba, has had enough of the alliance and wants to spark a revolution to liberate Jbeil and the rest of Lebanon. As in present-day politics, however, there are those who do not wish to rock the Phoenicians’ boats. They admonish Majdo early in the play for his independent aspirations: “You revolutionaries are just making things worse.”

The production’s female lead, played by newcomer Hiba Tawji as the king of Jbeil’s daughter Roxanne, falls somewhere in the middle on the political spectrum, not entirely eager for foreign entanglements, but too pragmatic for Majdo’s all-or-nothing politics. In probing her father’s inaction after the Egyptians seize the city’s priest, she teases out from him the underlying reason for the alliance: “The Egyptians are nothing compared to the Hessiyeen.”

A rival empire to the east, the Hessiyeen have their eye on Lebanon’s natural wealth and launch a plot to be the country’s new overlords. With a bag of tricks familiar to observers of current domestic and regional politics, the Hessiyeen manage to crawl into bed with Lebanon’s rulers, including ones newly installed by themselves.

The ruling class tries to solicit help from their allies, but greased palms ensure that “the silence of the desert has fallen on the kings of Egypt.”

The king and Roxanne flee to Beirut as Jbeil comes under attack by the Hessiyeen while Majdo and his band of revolutionaries regroup in a village in the countryside.

A budding romance develops between Majdo and the deposed king’s daughter as Roxanne pleads with the would-be liberator not to fight everyone at once. She eventually wins him over, persuading him of the necessity of maintaining the Egyptian alliance.

The rightful king of Jbeil thus returns to his throne, after killing his traitor brother who was on the Hessiyeen’s payroll, with aid from Majdo’s followers.

Majdo calls on the kings of other Phoenician cities to unite in order to “pool our resources and become strong” for an offensive aimed at ridding the country of its “protectors.”

However, a force led by Majdo and the king of Jbeil returns after three days, defeated. The king has been killed, and the invaders are hot on their trail. But as the Hessiyeen surround the city, Roxanne forbids a maritime escape, declaring that she prefers “an honorable death” to flight, shortly before the city is burned.

While “The Return of the Phoenix” is in many ways a commentary on the Lebanese situation, to focus entirely on its not-so-subtle political message would be missing the forest for the trees. The play’s musical score is rich in a variety of melodies ranging from lamentful songs of regret to confident, striding tunes, a charm surpassed only by the singing talent of the cast. Hiba Tawji steals the show, her confident, clear voice pleasurably traversing the formidable obstacle course thrown up by the play’s demanding score.

The choreography is also of note, with dancers from Studio Arabesque filling out the stage with novel movements that capture the emotion of the moment, from dreamlike, pensive sequences to riled townspeople looking for revenge.

Perhaps the nicest touch to an already well-shaped production lies in its ending. Seeing the aspirations and efforts of the familiar characters amount, in the end, to failure, renders them very human and sympathetic. However, the dream of a strong, united Lebanon does not go up in flames with the city, the play’s narrator tells the audience. From the ashes this same aspiration will rise again. Whether they will succeed in the end or not is unknown, but the audience leaves assured that the Phoenix will return.