The Pillars of Society
On April 24, 25, and 26, 2026, the Theater Initiative held a staged reading of a new Arabic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic play The Pillars of Society in The Skeleton (Nicely 409).
The reading was performed in Arabic with an English synopsis provided. The cast brought together Abdelrahim Al-Awji, Farah Shaer, Majd Al Masri, Ralph El Khoury, Bahaa Hassan, Helen Shaaban, Manuel Barakat, Lily Takieddine, Safa Jafari, and Micheline Mouarbes, alongside the students of THTR 259.
The event was presented by the Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR), the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English, the Theater Initiative, and the THTR 259 production class at AUB, in collaboration with the Fine Arts and Art History Department.
Death and the King's Horseman
In September 2018, a staged reading of
Death and the King's Horseman was produced by the Theater Initiative, with performances from members of the African Club at AUB. The reading followed Nigerian Nobel Prize-winner, and author of the play, Wole Soyinka's lecture, "Oh-Oh, Fables Sweeter than Facts: History, Culture, and Revisionism."
The lecture touched on "the negative side of revisionism" and the act of erasing the evidence of certain cultures and their productivities.The play staged after the talk is based on a historical incident where the ritual suicide of a Yoruba king's horseman was suppressed by British colonial forces in Nigeria because it was deemed barbaric and unacceptable.
After Darwin
After Darwin by Timberlake Wertenbaker is a play-within-a-play where two actors, a director, and a playwright rehearse a historical drama written around Charles Darwin, Captain Robert FitzRoy, and the
Beagle expedition that provided the basis forOn the Origin of Species (1859). Darwin's legacy is explored through the characters whose narratives unfold amid rehearsals.
In September 2016, a staged reading of Wertenbaker's play opened for the international conference, “Darwin, AUB and the Arab World," that examined the intersections of scientific thought and Arab culture via AUB as a leading educational institution in the Middle East. The conference was one of many events held in 2016 to celebrate the 150th year of AUB's foundation. The reading was co-sponsored by the Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR), the Department of English, and the Theater Initiative. It was directed by Sahar Assaf with Robert Myers, Rami Saidi, Nadia Hassan, and Jonathan Moorkaar as readers.