Several popular and renowned Egyptian artists are participating in the sixth edition of the Fujairah International Monodrama Festival (FIMF), which kicked off 20 January and will run until 28 January.

Egyptians taking part in the festival include Ezzat Abu Ouf, Sameh El-Sereity, Sherif Mounir, Hany Ramzy, Khaled Saleh, Fathy Abdel Wahab, Hala Fakher and Nelly Karim. 

Through their participation in the festival, these artists are attempting to emphasise the importance of theatre as an art form, and to call for more government and public support in order to revive Arab theatre and bring it back to its former glory. 

For his part, Sherif Mounir announced that he will be acting in a theatrical monodrama performance in Egypt in an effort to reinvigorate people's appreciation of the art, while actor Fathy Abdel Wahab praised the role FIMF was playing in keeping monodrama alive in the Arab region and in the world. 

Actor Sameh El-Sereity, meanwhile, offered the festival's president, Mohammed Saeed Al-Danhani, an honourary award as a token of appreciation from the Egyptian Actors' Syndicate.

The festival, which takes place this year with the participation of 300 theatre artists from 50 different countries, is considered the most important monodrama festival in the world.

The festival's line up includes a number of significant monodrama shows, including Jordanian playwright Atif Alfarrayah's Finding Aziza Suleiman, directed by Syrian director Assaad Fiddah and performed by Amal Arafa, and Maya by Algerian writer and director Boussela Houari Hichem and performed by Janati Suad. 

The festival also includes performances from South Africa, Oman, China, Sudan, Australia, Kuwait, Sweden and Germany.