Clad in a turban, a gold-coloured burnoose (a traditional cloke) and old-fashioned trousers, the sixty-something with a white beard looks like a wizard transported from the past.

His name is Fawzi and he belongs to a dying breed of playwrights in Tunisia intent on preserving traditional storytelling to children, even if he is competing with the Internet and fast-cut movies.

“Children to me are closer to my heart than anything else,” says Fawzi. “True, they are a young audience, but they have taste and sensitive feelings and they interact with the actor.”

Clad in a turban, a gold-coloured burnoose (a traditional cloke) and old-fashioned trousers, the sixty-something with a white beard looks like a wizard transported from the past.

His name is Fawzi and he belongs to a dying breed of playwrights in Tunisia intent on preserving traditional storytelling to children, even if he is competing with the Internet and fast-cut movies.

“Children to me are closer to my heart than anything else,” says Fawzi. “True, they are a young audience, but they have taste and sensitive feelings and they interact with the actor.”

Fawzi writes his own stories and tells them to children in cultural centers around the northern city of Nabeul. Accompanied by a zither player, he wanders among his young audience and interacts with them through emotive facial expressions.

He often asks the children questions at the end of each story to see how they have processed the performance and to help them “develop their critical thinking skills,” he says.

Theatrical patriarch

Fawzi has over 35 years of experience in theatre. He first joined the École Supérieure d’Art Dramatique du Théâtre National de Strasbourg in France. His academic formation, love for theatre and acting, and being influenced by his mentor and inspirer Aladdin Ayoub have instilled in Fawzi a desire to communicate the meanings of the stories to children in a creative way. Fawzi hopes to one day organize a festival to honour children fond of writing and narrating stories.

“I don’t gain much profit,” he said, “but my job has allowed me to play the role of a compassionate grandfather.”