The World Theatre Day message that is celebrated on March 27 has been written this year by Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Quasimi, member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates, having been invited to do that by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). The message has been set out world-wide via the ITI national centres. Ever since 1961 when the World Theatre Day was first celebrated, each year a figure outstanding in theatre or from another field is invited to share his or her reflections on theatre and international harmony by writing the International message. The idea of the message written this year by Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Quasimi is that ‘We are mere mortals, but the theatre is as eternal as life itself’. He recalls, in his message, a moment in his early school days that he became fascinated by theatre, the art that has captivated him ever since. It was a political play that angered the authorities at the time. ‘Everything was confiscated, and the theatre was closed before my very eyes. But the spirit of the theatre could not be crushed by the heavy boots of the armed soldiers’, writes Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Quasimi. At the same time he stresses that, while the struggle between good and evil is central to the code of the theatre, ultimately, however, common sense prevails and human nature will by and large align itself with all that is good. ‘The wars with which humanity has been afflicted ever since ancient times have always been motivated by evil instincts which simply do not recognise beauty. (…) those who do not value beauty cannot value life. Theatre is life’, according to the author of the International Message to the entire world.
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