Ali Ben Ayed

Trained in Paris at the Conservatoire National and in Milan, Ali Ben Ayed returned to newly independent Tunisia to assume direction of the Tunis Municipal Theater Troupe in 1958. Possessing an electrifying stage presence and perfectionist directorial discipline, he turned the Municipal Theater into a temple of high culture.

He staged monumental Arabic adaptations of world dramatic classics including Shakespeare's Othello and Hamlet, Albert Camus' Caligula, and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, while commissioning original Tunisian plays depicting national liberation. His tragic passing at age 41 was mourned as a national loss.