La tempê(s)te by Alek Baylee Toumi (review)

This innovative play in five acts is a "réécriture" of Aimé Césaire's 1969 anti-colonial masterpiece Une tempête, and it includes an informative preface by Judith Graves Miller. La tempê (s)te evokes a dystopian Algeria traumatized by the 1990s civil war, yearning for the promise of social and political renewal of an Arab spring that did not happen: "où est donc passé votre printemps" (15). In Toumi's retelling, Sycorax, Caliban's mother and the Algerian-born witch of Shakespeare's play, has a sister named Sekoura who is a"déesse, fée guérisseuse" (14). She has a major role in this play: in both the prologue and epilogue, she warns against religious fanaticism and the backroom deals between corrupt secular dictators and radical elements that deprive the people of their freedom. In her monologue, Sekoura laments the assassination of writers, the forced exile of poets, and the suppression of indigenous cultures and languages. The peste of the play's title is"un poison vert" (14) or"une peste verte" (29) that has spread to Caliban's island from the East in a "printempeste" (15, 27) that has devastated everything in its path. Stage directions call for the music of the feminist Kabyle women's group Djurdjura to be played during and at the conclusion of Sekoura's scenes. At other points in the play, the music of the assassinated Berber singer Matoub Lounes is called for. For readers familiar with Alek Baylee Toumi's other dramas, wordplay, literary and political riffs are hallmarks of his dialogues. For example, oil is more of a curse for the island, exploited by a petroleum company named "Ali Bourthon" (59). Alienated and unemployed youth in European capitals leave their "taliban-lieues" (48), seduced by internet propaganda spewed by those who have slaked their thirst at the"font-haine" (46) of militant radicalism. In Toumi's retelling, Prospéro returns to Algeria after forty years of exile, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation with Caliban. Prospéro learns of the new order on the island from the goddess Sekoura: the former freedom fighter and anti-colonial rebel Caliban has been forced into exile by Ariel. Ariel has become the secular dictator determined to keep his power while his adopted son Arioul and his fanatical acolytes fight a terrorist war against him, inspired by Islamist ideology. In exile, Caliban bitterly speaks of post-colonial realities: "Le colon laisse toujours un néo-colon, un nouveau maître, peau bronzée, masque grisblanc" (60). The secret Prospéro can finally reveal to Caliban when he visits him in Paris is that he has a sister, born to Sycorax and Prospéro. She is Angel-Kahina, named for the legendary Berber warrior-queen who fought against the Arab invaders from the east, against the"colons verts et leurs marchands d'esclaves" (69). In Toumi's retelling, salvation for Algerian society will come from women of the Maghreb, from the descendants of Queen Kahina, including Sycorax and Skoura, as well as Hassiba and Djamila—heroines of the Algerian Revolution—who will fight the plague of religious fanaticism as they once fought foreign and colonial invaders.