The first theater activities in Egypt in the Western sense began with performances by French troupes in the Theater of the Republic and Arts, established by General Menon, to entertain French officers during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign in 1798. However, despite this early introduction, the Egyptians came after Lebanon in time to establish their own theater. In this period, when Alexandria was the theater centre, French and Italian troupes gave plays, and these plays included genres such as opera and cabaret. In 1847, the theaters were regulated by the law enacted in 1847; the theater established by Khedive Ismail Pasha in 1869 opened with the opera Aida written by Verdi opening at Suez Canal. 

The Arabic theater in Egypt entered an important stage when Ya’qûb Sannû, a Jew who had studied in Italy, entered the theater in 1870. Considering the Khedive as the “Moliere of Egypt” at the time, Ya’qûb Sannû’s theater first staged French adaptations and then Sannû’s plays were performed in Arabic. With Ya’qûb Sannû‘ in 1870, the modern Egyptian theater was in its infancy for forty years, and then it was able to train an artist in this genre. This artist, named George Abyad, took the Egyptian theater to an advanced level in terms of drama. George Abyad, who studied in Paris, brought the French theater to Cairo (1910), performed Alexandre Dumas’s plays and Hafez Ibrahim’s plays with kiosks, and toured North Africa between 1920 and 22. Wahbî Troupe began to present plays at the Ramses Theater (1927); Yûsuf Wahbî was the person who brought professionalism to the Egyptian Theater.

When theater coverage began in the late nineteenth century, it was mostly limited to short announcements announcing performances and praising them in grandiose terms, often before performances were performed. The early twentieth century saw more in-depth discussions of theater and plays in the Egyptian media, and in 1912, Oedipus the King was one of the first plays to be discussed in detail in different publications. It was not until the mid-1920s that specialist journals for theater studies began to appear in Egypt, such as al-Tiyatrû (1924-5) and Abdel Majid Hilmi’s al-Masrah, published on November 9, 1925. In the 1900s and 1910s, however, journalists in Egypt began to write much more frequently and at greater depth -often unsigned- about performances or theater in general. Several newspapers, of which al-Ehrām was one of the most prominent, contained articles offering general discussions about this new art form. However, specific themes began to generate specific debates. One of the most important debates concerned the place of music in the theater.

Singing and its role in Egyptian theater was not a minor stylistic issue; it was emblematic of the most important questions about drama. Despite its worldwide popularity, many critics strongly opposed the performance of the song on stage. Theater, in the eyes of many critics, was not only a means of entertainment but also for moral and social development. In the late XIXth and early XXth centuries, Egyptian audiences wanted to hear singing when they went to the theater. For that period, a singer was a vital part of any theater group. Among the important theater singers of this period were stars such as Abduh al-Hāmūlī and Muhammad Uthman, two cornerstones of the musical modernization that began in the XIXth century, as well as lesser-known singers such as Murad Rumanu, Hasen Salih and Ibrahim Ahmad.

Thanks to Abyad, the prestige of the Egyptian acting profession increased. The Egyptian theater maker Mohammad Taymour saw Abyad as a figure who “really expanded the art of acting” in Egypt. Moreover, in terms of acting, Abyad developed Egyptian theater. Abyad became a role model for later Egyptian theater figures such as Tawfīq al-Hakīm. Along with Abyad, an Arabic version of Sophocles’s Oedipus Tyrannos was performed many times by Abyad himself and other theater-makers. This play is an important moment in the history of play in Egypt.  

In fact, Egypt’s geography had a significant impact on the translation and content of this play. Abyad, on the other hand, found a way to direct the Egyptian theater through the play Oedipus the King and to clarify the debates among critics. Through this play, it is possible to see that Egyptian theater has entered into global debates and theater mobility. In this context, George Abyad, a Lebanese immigrant to Egypt, visited North African countries such as Algeria and Tunisia with his troupe to spread the art of theater. In fact, before Abyad, Ya’qûb Sannû‘ had laid the foundation of Egyptian theater. It would be appropriate to say that the seeds of theater art were sown in Arab countries thanks to these troupes. Abyad accelerated the theater after Sannû‘ and tried to modernize it with what he had learned in France, and he succeeded in accomplishing this. George Abyad was a name that brought the musical to Egyptian theater, brought artistic theater to Egypt, and standardized drama. George Abyad has an important place in the history of Arab theater in terms of staging classical and historical plays as well as French plays, contributing to Egyptian Arab theater as a Lebanese theater, and setting an example for the new generation of theater artists.

George Abyad, a Lebanese immigrant in Egypt, was an important figure in the Arab theater of his time. He was widely recognized for his formal style and effective literary style in his adaptations of Western plays, especially French classics. However, he soon returned to Arabic play. His foreign training, which determined the types of plays he chose and his extravagant acting style, made his works more appealing to the upper classes than to a wider, more traditional audience. It is understood that George Abyad brought the first musical and artistic theater to Egypt, as well as raised the art of drama to a standard level, giving life and vitality to the theater of the period. He tried to introduce Egyptian Arab theater to a higher level of a cultured and elite audience, rather than a the general audience. Abyad, in particular, has been a bridge between the past and the future generation of theater makers. In this article, it is aims to provide broad information about the Lebanese theater actor George Abyad and his theater personality, which we have not come across in our country.