Representations of Deep Ecology in Contemporary Arab Children's Theatre: A Study in the Light of Ecocriticism

      This paper explores the representations of Deep Ecology in contemporary Arab children’s theatre through the analysis of three plays: The Thirsty Forest by Alaa Al-Din Hariri, So That the Kingdom of Bees Does Not Collapse by Abdel-Nabi Abadi, and The Secret of the Sun’s Disappearance by Al-Dhawy Mohamed Al-Dhawy. The study aims to investigates how Arab playwrights approach environmental issues and the aesthetic strategies they employ.
 The term Deep Ecology refers to the rejection of anthropocentrism, moving beyond viewing nature solely in terms of human benefit, broadening the perspective to include all beings equally.
The paper is structured into two main sections:

Ecocriticism: Concept, Origins, and Procedures.
Representations of Deep Ecology in Children’s Theatre:
Introduction to the selected plays and their playwrights.
Representations of Deep Ecology and the aims of the vision.
Aesthetic strategies of representation.

 
The findings reveal two key points:

Characters were divided into environmentally supportive (“green”) and antagonistic ones, a dichotomy that generated intellectual and physical conflicts on stage, effectively engaging child audiences, particularly through performative elements.
The motif of the journey appeared as a central event in all three plays, reflecting the ecological trajectories of living and non-living beings within the larger environmental system. This thematic choice aligned with the plays’ ecological perspectives and their intended objectives.