Tizi Ouzou – The Kati Yassin Regional Theater in Tizi Ouzou honored playwright Omar Fetmouche on Thursday in recognition of his artistic career and dedication to the performing arts.
This tribute ceremony provided an opportunity for many artists and friends of Fetmouche to express their gratitude for his dedication and selflessness, which have characterized his fifty-year career.
Omar Fetmouche was visibly moved by the honor, expressing deep emotion at the recognition from his peers and friends, whom he described as his “large family” with whom he spent most of his time and considered his “permanent refuge.”
Regarding his artistic journey, Fetmouche revealed that it was a “natural outcome” of what he learned from his predecessors, such as Kati Yassin, Abdelkader Alloula, Ahsan Azazni, Abderrahmane Zaaboubi, Saïd Zaânoun, Hussein Haroun, and Ahmed Khoudi, who all shared moments of their professional lives with him and hailed him as a “man with a big heart who gave everything to the theater.” They described Fetmouche as a “bridge between past and present generations.”
In his speech at the event, the director of the Tizi Ouzou Regional Theater, Abderrahmane Zaaboubi, one of Fetmouche’s career companions, emphasized that Fetmouche “left an indelible mark on national theater as an actor, playwright, and director.”
Fetmouche founded the M’naïl Theater Movement in Bordj Menaïl in 1976 as part of amateur theater and the Popular Dramatic School in Bordj Menaïl (Boumerdès) in 1982, and the “Squirrel” troupe in the same city in 1990.
In 1998, he was elected Secretary-General of the Algerian Network of the International Institute of Mediterranean Theater, and he chaired the Bejaia Regional Theater for 12 years (from 2003 to 2015).
Fetmouche is renowned for his rich theatrical production as an actor, playwright, and director. He directed around ten theatrical productions, including “Six and a Half,” which won the first prize at the Mostaganem Festival in 1982. His notable professional theater works include “Letter by Letter” (1986), “Ghoul’s Belt” (1988), “Men, O Halaff” (1989), “Aisha and the Harraz” (1991), “The World of Bugs” (1993), “The Wounded Smile” (1994), “Fatima N’Soumer” (2004), “Beasts. Com” (2006), adapted from the novel “The Diverted River” by Rachid Mimouni (2006), and “The Guards” by Tahar Djaout in 2009.
In 2022, Fetmouche oversaw a major artistic epic involving 367 artists to commemorate the 60th anniversary of independence.
He is also a founding member and director of the Mostaganem Amateur Theater Festival since 1976 and has been an expert in dramatic arts with UNESCO since 2013.
Omar Fetmouche
