Baghdad: Iraqi/Omani poet and writer Abdul Razzaq Al-Rubaie won second prize at the Cairo Monodrama Festival for his play “The Last Hour of the World,” sharing the award with Habib Ghuloom from the UAE for his play “We Are All Fools.” The Cairo International Monodrama Festival concluded its ninth edition by announcing the results of its playwriting competition, which saw wide Arab participation and resulted in the crowning of a select group of writers whose texts were distinguished by their creative ideas and visions in the art of monodrama.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, first place went to Egyptian writer Ayman Hafez for his play “The Flood’s Debris,” while third place was shared by Egyptian writer Magdi Halim Kamel Awad for his play “The Monodrama Competition” and Omani writer Mohammed bin Saif Al-Rahbi for his play “The Doves Fly.”

The results reflect the high level of competition witnessed in this year’s contest, and also confirm the remarkable Arab presence in the field of monodrama writing, considered one of the most challenging forms of theater, given its requirement of the ability to construct a text based on a single actor while simultaneously maintaining the richness of the event and the depth of the idea.