❊ The Real Surprise is that Theatre de Beyrouth is Still Around

- Into the sunset -

So apparently the Beirut Theater with a glorious past will be put out of its misery and shut down [update: No it won’t]. It is about time.

Activists are trying to stop this from happening. They are trying to blame things like “capitalism” and “greed”. They are charging against the “toothless” ministry of culture for not “stepping in” to save this Beirut institution from an ignominious fate that befell many other august cultural establishments. They are waxing poetics on the “pricelessness” of theatre and its value to our society ..

But they’re missing the point. The place is shutting down simply because people are not going anymore. People are no longer paying to watch theater like they used to, especially not in an area now with perpetual traffic where you cannot even park a car. Theatre de Beyrouth had its glory days, but now things are no longer the same. Such is life: Times change. Great people die and so do great institutions. Get over it.

But I’ll ignore this for a while and ask: What is your solution to the problem? Should the minister of culture step in and start pouring in tax-payer money to keep alive a place nobody wants to go to anymore? From where should he take that money? From government’s free education budget or from government provided health insurance? Besides, this is a privately owned business and the owner can do whatever he wishes with it. Are you now recommending that the government take people’s property away from them?

But what about Lebanese theater as an art form? Should we just allow it to die?

This is a problem for Lebanese theater lovers to solve, not for the owner of one particular establishment. Fans and performers can set up shop in any place they wish. Bohemian culture thrives in meat-packing districts, public parks and abandoned warehouses, not in a tiny space with one of Lebanon’s highest real-estate rates.

So are we just going to throw away years of history that spanned the life of Theatre de Beyrouth?

Of course not. We have books and museums precisely to document such things. You can even create an online mazar for the place, filled with photos, walk throughs, videos of performances, music soundtracks and scans of original scripts.

Theatre de Beyrouth belongs in a warm spot in our memories, but not in our future..

Update: Apparently it won’t be shut down after all..

Also: What should we do about the Beirut egg?
And: Ahwet el 2zez is shutting down for a good reason.