A study of tom Stoppard’s where are they now ? and Mohammad Enani’s the dervish and the belly dancer as time-travel plays

Abstract EN

This paper compares between the British Playwright Tom Stoppard and the Egyptian counterpart Mohammad Enani.

Stoppard’s Where Are They Now? (1970) and Enani’s The Dervish and the Belly Dancer (1991) reflect the playwrights’ experimentation with time.

Both dramatists are influenced by the time theories of Henri-Loius Bergson and J.

Dunne.

The study throws light on their use of modern technical devices like surrealism and deconstruction to allow the protagonists to travel through time easily and strangely atthe same time.

Stoppard and Enani are keen on keeping the audiences/readers astonished and surprised to see imaginative events from the beginning till the end of the plays.

On the one hand, Stoppard gives different names to protagonists in the past and at present to arouse ambiguity and doubts.

On the other hand, Enani makes Abou Sabbagh move from the modern age to the ancient time as soon as he reads few lines in a book.

Finally, the research reveals some common issues raised by both Stoppard and Enani like freedom and injustice.