WESTERN INFLUENCES ON THE

THEATRE OF THE SYRIAN

PLAYWRIGHT SAC. D ALLAH WANNUS

A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the

degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts
(1993)

by

Abdulaziz H. AI-Abdulla

Department of Middle Eastern Studies

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Abstract ................................................. 3

Declaration •...•...•....................•.....•.......... 4

Dedica t ion .....•...•.•......•.................•.......... 5

statement of Candidate's Education and Experience ........ 6

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Scheme of Transliteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . 8

Introduction . . . • . . . • . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 1. The History of Modern Theatre

in Syria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 2. Sacd Allah Wannus, the Man and the

Playwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter 3. Existentialism, the Theatre of the Absurd

and Wannus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Chapter 4. Scientific Socialism, Brecht, Weiss and

Wannus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 165

Chapter 5. Masra~ al-Tasyis (Theatre of Politicization). 247

Concl us ion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 28.8

Bibliography:

a) Primary Sources.
293
b) Secondary Sources. 297
c) General Reading. 308

2
 ABSTRACT

This thesis introduces the work of the Syrian playwright, Sacd Allah

Wannus, one of the few modern Arab dramatists, who have persistently

pursued the development of a vigorous and innovative indigenous tradition

of drama in the Arab world. In the face of considerable odds, both in Syria

and in other Arab countries, he has managed consistently to write serious and

challanging works for the theatre. The study will briefly give a historical

background to the emergence of modem theatre in Syria making comparisons

with developments in Egypt and the Lebanon. It will look into Wannus's own

life, his family background, education and career. It will examine the

influence of the philosophy of Existentialism, the theatre of the Absurd,

Marxism and the epic theatre on Wannus, through a critical and thorough

analysis of his plays. It will also discuss Wannus's own theories and ideas

regarding the role and the function of the theatre in the Arab world.

3
 Declaration

No Portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support

of an application for another degree of this or any other university or other

institute of learning.

4
 DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to my parents and family_

5
 STATEMENT OF CANDIDATE'S EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

1-1972-74 studied at the Education Institute for Teachers and graduated with

a teaching diploma (Literary Studies).

2- 1974-80 worked as a teacher of Arabic language, Islamic education and

history.

3-1981-1985 pursued his studies at Kuwait University (English language and

literature) leading to the degree of B.A.

4- 1985-87 worked for Kuwait Airways Corporation as a Translator.

S- 1987-89 joined Lancaster University (Department of English Literature) for

an M.A course and graduated in 1989.

6- Since 1990 joined Manchester University (Middle Eastern Studies

Department) on a programme leading to the Degree of Ph.D.

6
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my deepest and most sincere thanks to my supervisors,

Prof. Edmund Bosworth and Dr. Philip Sadgrove, for their expert guidance,

constant help and advice, especially to Dr. Sadgrove for his kindness and

patience throughout my study. I would like also to thank those who have

encouraged me and helped me in achieving my aims.

7
 SCHEME OF TRANSLITERATION

Consonants
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c.r s !l k
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~ th ~~ m
i
J ~d 0 n
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b J
C b • h
. kh j; ~
J w
C
.) d t. c.f y
. gh
.) dh t.
r
U f
J

Short vowels Long vowels

a L a
,
u lr cl
'::' .J- u
I
l:P

Diphthongs

au
ai

8
 INTRODUCfION

The nineteenth century marked the birth of modern Arab theatre and

the beginning of a period of interplay between Arab drama and Western

drama; the Syrian playwright, Sacd Allah WanllUs is a contemporary example

of this continuing process of interaction between the two cultures. Wannus

was in particular influenced by Western

- . philosophy and drama, especially by
~ ~

the existentialist philosophy of Sartre and the theatre of the absurd of Eugene

Ionesco in the first phase of his playwrighting, and by scientific

socialism/Marxism and the political and Epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht in the

second phase. Wanniis is justifiably regarded as one of the leading

playwrights in the Arab world; his works have often created controversy and

generated many debates and arguments in ArJ.b theatrical circles.

Many articles, published in Arab and foreign journals, have been

written about Wannus's theatre, but only a few monographs. Amongst which

is KhaHd RamaQan's Masrab Sacd Allah Wannus (The Theatre of Sacd Allah

Wannfis (1984)), who has given a sound account of Wannfis's theatre as well

as analyzing some of his plays. Ismacn F. IsnW.cil has also written a book

entitled al-Kalima... al-Ficl Ii Masralt Saed Allah Wannus (Word...Action in the

Theatre of Sacd Allah WannOs (1981)), in which he discussed the ideology

motivating WannGs's works and the relatior ship between word and action in

9
his plays, in other words, to assess and analyze the effect of the "word" in

motivating the audience to "act" to change their conditions.

In order to give his own perspective on his theatre and its place in the

Arab world, as well as to define what he regards as the characteristics of Arab

theatre, Wannus has written two books: one entitled Bayanat li-MasraJ:a ~rabi

Jadid (Manifestos for a New Arab Theatre (1988)), and the other Hawiimish

Thaqafiyya (Cultural Margins (1992)). These books include most of the articles,

interviews and the critical studies of some Arab and Western playwrights and

philosophers, that Wannus wrote or gave whilst pursuing his studies or

working in various posts. The books reflect the socialist thoughts that lies

behind his latest works and writings. In these books, WannOs calls upon Arab

playwrights to experiment in order to create the right form of theatre based

on the Arab heritage. He also explains his vision of the function of the stage

and emphasizes the importance of the role of the audience in any theatrical

work, especially in the Arab theatre.

Unlike the better documented modern Arab theatres in Egypt and

Lebanon which have a relatively longer tradition and finner foundations, the

history of the Syrian theatre lacks accurate and detailed infonnation or

documentation of the dates of perfonnances,titles of works and biographies of

authors, especially in the period before the 195Os.1 This is the major problem

that confronts any researcher in this field. Most Arab writers who have

1 Theatre in the modern state of Syria, with its two major

cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and not 19th century Syria,
where the centre of theatrical activity was Beirut.
10
written about the theatrical movement in Syria have not given precise

information either about the dramatists involved or about their works. In fact

the subject has been approached in such manner as to give simply a general

historical overview that has not yet attained the academic levels required.

The pioneering work of the Palestinian academic and critic MuQammad

Yiisuf Najm al-MasraJ;iyya ji'l-Adab al- ~rabi (Drama in Arabic Literature

(1956)), is the only book in Arabic that attempts to give a detailed study of

plays and playwrights in the Arab world as a whole. Another early general

work, in English, is Jacob Landau's Studies in the Arab Theater and Cinema

(1958); he too traces the development of the dramatic art in the Arab world,

as well as investigating European influences on the early plays and the

evolution of Arabic theatre in the 19th and 20th centuries. Both these works

are indebted to Yusuf As'ad Daghir for his bio-bibliographica1 work on

modern Arabic literature, and his articles and encyclopedia on modern Arab

theatre. The Egyptian critic'AIi al-Ra'i in his book al-MasraJ; ji'l-WaJan al-~rabi

(The Theatre in the Arab World (1980)), has also provided a general survey of

the theatre in the Arab world. His work is an attempt to explore the roots of

the theatrical movement allover the Arab world. However, the book does not

give details in depth, as Najm had done about the theatre in each country.

The Syrian theatre has not been served well by its own historians; the

Syrian critic and historian, cAdnan Bin Dhurayl, in his book al-Mas"* ai-Sun

(The Syrian Theatre (1971)), has tried in a chronological approach to trace the

establishment of the Syrian theatre starting from Al;unad Abu Khalil al-

11
Qabbaru,2 but the book lacks detailed information about the plays, their

authors and theatrical performances. Another Syrian historian, W~fi al-Mali1),

in his book Ta'fikh al-Masral} ai-Sufi wa-Mudhakkirati (The History of the Syrian

Theatre and my Memoirs (1984)), despite pretensions of being a more

ambitious study, traces in only one chapter the theatrical movement in Syria

by giving a survey of the names of playwrights, actors, directors and troupes

who have participated in the Syrian theatrical movement A Lebanese

academic, Sat.d aI-Din Dughman, in his book al-U~Ul al-Ta'rikhiyya Ii-Nash'at

ai-Drama ji'l-Adab al-~rabi (The Historical Origins of Drama in Arabic

Literature), a published version of his M.A thesis written in 1973 at the Beirut

Arab University, provides details of the emergence of this literary genre in

Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The study also gives an account in detail of some

Arab historical plays and works translated from both French and English.

The modern period has had better coverage; the Syrian socialist writers

and critics, Bu ~li Yasin and NaDiI Sulayman, in their book al-Adab wa'l-

Idyuliljya Ii Siiriya 1967-73 (Literature and Ideology in Syria 1%7-73 (1974)),

present a respectable critical account of the works of about twenty Syrian

writers in various genres of literature in the context of the ideological

background and commitment of each writer. The Syrian writer, Khalid al-

2 AQffiad Abu Khalil al-Qabb~ni (1833-1902) was one of the

pioneers of Syrian theatre. When his theatre was burnt to
the ground, and his works were accused of being anti-Islam,
he fled from Damascus to Cairo. See. Muhammad Yusuf Najm
al-Masrahiyya fi'l-Adab al-'Arabl al-Hadlth, p.68, and
Ilyas Jirjis Abu Khalil al-Oabb§ni, Diploma dissertation,
Lebanese University, Beirut, n.d., pp.8-9.
12
Barad'i, in his book Kh~~iyyat al-Masrab al-5\rabi (The Characteristics of Arab

Theatre (1986)), provides a general study of some major Western plays and

playwrights and traces the roots of the dramatic form in the Arab world from

the Abbasid period onward. He also studies famous plays from Egypt and

Syria with themes relating to Arab history stressing the importance of Arab

nationalist feelings as the catalyst to create a true Arab theatre. Jan Aliksan,

a Syrian critic, provides in his book al-Wilada al-Thiiniya li'l-Masrab Ii Suriya

1955-80 (The Second Birth of the Theatre in Syria 1955-80 (1983)), an account

of a number of theatre troupes in Syria with some reference to playwrighting

in Syria and theatrical festivals held in Damascus, but in a rather factual

documentary manner with little analysis. Dr. Nadim Mu1;lammad, a Syrian

academic and writer, assesses, in his book al-Adab al-MasraJ}i Ii Suriya

(Theatrical Art in Syria (1986)), the establishment of the theatre in Syria and

its evolution from the time of al-Qabbani, in a historical context He analyses

from a Marxist perspective the works of some Syrian playwrights in the light

of their social background, the artistic process and their influence. The latest

work that sheds light on the start and development of the Arab theatre, is that

of Paul Shawool in his book, al-Masralt al- ~rabi al-f.ladith 1967-89 (Modern

Arab Theatre 1967-89 (1989)). In a sketchy manner, the book covers many

aspects of Arab theatre covering about 150 Arabic plays; it gives short critical

analyses of many of these works and points out the Western influence on

them.

13
 These studies recognize that Bilad al-Sham or "Greater Syria" was where

the modern Arab theatre began its life in the mid-19th century. Many great

writers in all the major genres of Arabic literature have emerged from that part

of the Arab world, including such figures as Marlin al-Naqqash, Abroad Abu

Khalil al-Qabbaru, Mikha'n Nu~ayma, Khaln Mup-an, Jibran Khalil Jibran, Jurji

Zaydan, c Umar Abu Risha, Sac ld cAql, Adonis, Zakariyya Tamir, Nizar

Qabbaru, Walid Ikh1~r and SaC,d Allah Wanntis. Each one of these has left his

own distinctive mark on his field of literature as WannGs has done in modern

Syrian drama from the 1960s up until now.

When discussing, as these writers have done, the roots of the Arabic

theatre, we find ourselves confronting two main streams of thought. The first

one, represented by~bbas Mal)mud al-CAqqad, NajIb Ma1)f~, Rashad Rushdi,

M~tafa Badawi and some other critics, reject the theory that an Arab theatre

existed before the mid-19th century. They consider that it was Europe that

provided the impetus for the creation of modern Arab theatre. They argue

that the Arabs were first exposed to the theatre as a modern literary genre

during the military expedition led by Napoleon Bonaparte to Egypt from 1798

to 1801, when some French amateurs entertained the French troops in Cairo

by performing some plays. The Egyptian playwright and academic, Rashad

Rushdi, considers any argument, regarding the roots and origins of Arab

theatre, as futile. During the fourth Damascus Festival for the Theatrical Arts,

held in the summer of 1972, he argued that "there is no doubt that we have

14
borrowed the theatre, an artistic fonn, from Western civilization, as we have

borrowed the novel and modern poetry. "3

The second stream, represented by cAli al-Ra'i, Ibrahim ~amada, Shmuel

Moreh, Ziyad Mababbik and others,. modern Arab theatre. as part of a

continuum, emphasizing the existence of some elements of dramatic

manifestations in the Arab literary heritage. Amongst such manifestations, or

pre-theatre fonns, were those performers, who recited popular story-tales, or

presented khayal al-;ill (the shadow play), and the North African masrilb al-b~l

(the carpet theatre) to be seen during the religious festivals. Some scholars

consider the maqama as an early manifestation of a semi-dramatic form."

Some critics and scholars of this second group go even further by claiming

that such pre-theatre fonns can be traced back to pre-Islamic times, and were

to be witnessed at the famous poetic festivals held in the Soules of .

tUkaz,
C
Adhru at, as well as being seen through the ages at marriage ceremonies and

other social celebrations such as the samir.s

3 Rushdi, R., "Azmat al-Na~~ wa'l-Naqd al-MasraQ.i",

al-Ma'rifa (no.124-125), Damascus, 1972, pp.96-97
" The maqama is one of the oldest Arabic narrative genres,
which contains some dramatic elements such as the use of
mimicry and imitation of sounds and gestures. Badral-Zaman
al-Hamadhani (AD 969-1008) and Abu Mu~ammad al-~arrri (AD
1054-1122) are the most well-known writers of this genre.

5 Samir is a popular type of social gathering at which

villagers amuse themselves by singing, dancing, and
performing acts of impersonation. See Mu~tafa Badawi,
Modern Drama in Egypt, p.156.
15
 In his valuable study The Background of Medieval Arabic Theatre (1990),

Shmuel Moreh has produced evidence that the Arabs did know the theatre in

the early years of Islam, but has suggested that their attitude towards such an

art as live theatre (khayiil) might have been influenced profoundly by the

negative approach of Christian and Jewish religious authorities before Islam,

who had rejected drama and considered it a vulgar and anti-religious genre.

There are also numerous historical references to acting or theatrical

experiments in certain parts of the Islamic World. Sharif Khazindar argues

that the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (232/847) was the first to admit games,

comic acts, music and dance to the confines of the palace. Some actors and

troupes came from the Near and Far East to present their acts before his court.

However, the shadow play (khayal al-~ill) is perhaps the most well-known

traditional literary genre that could rightly be considered a precursor of the

modern theatre. AI-Rti has described the shadow plays of Ibn DanyaI (1248-

1311) as "a popular theatre and an assorted art mixing reality, the tragic and

the comic, with imagination, depending extenSively on the participation of the

audience. "6

This kind of traditional popular theatre, often known as Qarakuz, 7

survived in Syria, as well as in many other Arab countries, alongside the

6 al-Ra'i, p.26
7 Qarakuz (Black Eye) is the Arabised version of the Turkish
name for khayal al-?ill. Qar~kuz is the name of the main
character around whom the shadow literature was written.
See Ibrahim ~amada, Khayal al-Zill wa-Tamthiliyyat Ibn
Dany§l, Cairo, 1963.
16
modern Europeanised Arab theatre, to the late 19th century and in some

places later, performed in the streets, private homes and cafes. The Syrian

Matmlud l:Iabib became famous for his performances of qarakuz at three

different cafes every night.8

A reference to pre-modern popular drama in Egypt was made by the

well-known Danish explorer, Carsten Niebuhr and by the Italian archaeologist,

Belzoni, who visited Egypt and saw in 1815 two such crude burlesques

performed by a group of travelling players (Awlad Rabiya) in the outskirts of

Cairo at Shubrah.9 The Egyptian chronicler, cAbd al-Rc$nfu1 al-Jabarti (?-

1825/1241) refers to them as arbiib al-maliif: ib and ahl al-malQhi (the

entertainment people).lO Such itinerant players may well have been providing

popular entertainment of this sort for centuries in different parts of the Arab

world. However, the real inauguration of Arabic theatre in Syria in its modern

sense was in 1847 when the merchant MarUn al-Naqqash in Beirut directed

what was probably the first performance of his Arabic play The Miser (al-

Bakhil), which was heavily indebted to the play L'avare written by the great

French playwright Moliere. Al-Naqqash's play was not the first modern

Arabic play, for an Algerian Arabic play, rediscovered by Dr. Philip Sadgrove,

written by an Algerian interpreter Abraham Daninos, had been published in

8 Bin Dhurayl,cA., al-Masrab al-Suri, Damascus, 1971, p.42

9 Belzoni, E., Voyage en Egypte et en Nubie, Librairie
francaise et etrangere, Paris, 2 vol: 1821.
10al-Jabarti, c. A., C.Aja'ib al-Jt.thar fi Tarajim al-Akhbar,
Bulaq, Cairo, 4 vol., 1297/1879.
17
Algiers a few months earlier in the same year as al-Naqqash's play was
c
performed; the title of this play is Nuzhat al-Mushtaq wa-Gh~~at al_ UshshQq Ii

Madfnat Tiryiiq fi'l-(.Iraq (The Entertainment of the Enamoured and the Agony

of Lovers in the city of Tiryaq in Iraq).

AI-Naqqash imported, on returning from his travels in Italy, the

Western model of theatre believing that it was the only suitable and elevated

form of theatre in the world. ll In his Arabic theatre, he tried at a later stage

to develop this imported art whilst maintaining its original western structure,

but he soon realized that the Arab audience wanted something closer to their

own culture stemming from their own history. This led him to seek his

subjects from the traditional Arab literary heritage such as The Arabian Nights,

as Wanniis was to do in some of his later plays.

The importation of the concepts of modern European theatre to the

Arab world was not such a unique occurrence. The nineteenth century was

an era of change.in the Middle East that was to see a resurgence of Arab

culture and identity under Ottoman rule. New, sometimes disturbing ideas,

began to circulate and threatened to disrupt traditional patterns of life: ideas

of equality between Muslims and Christians, modernization, reform and

nationalism. Most of these ideas came from Europe and were gradually

11 Ibid, p.54

18
absorbed into the local society.12 The intellectual instability of this period,

which accompanied these new ideas persisted into modem times.

With this in mind, Al)mad Abu KhalTI al-Qabbani, the Syrian playwright

and actor, who began his theatre probably in the 1860s,13 was forced to leave

his country for Egypt in 1884, seeking a more favourable environment for his

theatrical art, after his theatre has been banned by the Ottoman government

under pressure from the Syrian ulema. AI-Qabbani, responding to his

perception of what the Syrian audience demanded, combined elements of

song and dance in his plays. His plays too capitalised on the wealth of

popular folk stories, such as ~ntar b. ShaddiId, Abu Zayd al-Hiliili, Qays wa-LaylD

and Jamil Buthayna, as well as the tales in The Arabian Nights, which for

centuries had been narrated to customers in cafes around the Arab world.

Some critics consider al-Qabbaru himself to be no more than a sophisticated

version of the popular story-teller (al-1)akawatr),14 using his theatre as a tool

12 Hopwood, D., Syria 1945-68, Unwin Hayman, London, 1988,

p.1
13 al-Qabbani may not be the first Syrian dramatist, as a
man called I,iabib cAbla Malti, wrote a play pre-1855 in
Damascus, entitled al-AQmaq al-Ba$it (The Naive Irascible
Person) •
14 The Qakawati (story-teller) is a significant indigenous
performance mode throughout many parts of the world. In the
Arab world, he is always associated eith cafe society, and
the telling of stories of traditional and legendary heroes,
such as eAntar b. Shaddad and Abu Zayd al-Hilali.
19
for telling stories. IS MuQammad YUsuf Najm suggests with conviction that

al-Qabbani may have been less indebted to European theatre than al-Naqqash;

he may have been influenced by the flowering of the Turkish theatre in the

Ottoman capital Istanbul in this period for he only knew one foreign language,

Turkish.16 Though al-Qabbaru had also seen European theatre, as a Syrian

critic, I:Iusni Kan' an claims that, during the governorship of ~ub:tii Pasha, al-

Qabbani saw a performance by a French troupe that had come to Damascus

and performed one play at the Lazarist school in Bab Tfuna. 17

Wannus, in respect and admiration of the pioneering role of al-Qabbani

in Syrian Arab theatre, has used al-Qabbani's most famous play Harun al-

Rashid maf.a Ghiinim b. Ayyiib wa-Ql1t al-Quliib (Harlin aI-Rashid with Ghanim

b. Ayyiib and Qut al-Quliib), the theme of which was taken from the The

Arabian Nights (nights thirty-six and forty-four), as the inner play in his play

Sahra maf. a Abi Khalil al-Qabbani (Soiree with Abi Khalil al-Qabbaru, 1972),

while the outer play is concerned with the problems which al-Qabbani faced

in bringing this and other plays before audiences in Damascus during 'the

15 al-Hajjajl, A., al-GArab wa Fann al-Masrab, al-Maktaba

al-Thaq§fiyya (no.352), Cairo, 1969, p.81.
16Najm, Y., al-Masrabiyya fi'l-Adab al-'Arabi al-Hadlth,
1847-1914, Dar al-ThaqAfa, Beirut, 1967, p.64
17 Kanc;an, ~., "Abu Khalil al-Qabbani Ba'ith NahQatina al-
Masral].iyya," al-Ris~la, Damascus, 1948, p.23
20
1870s and BOs. 18 Al-Qabbaru's play had in some people's eyes injudiciously

and unintentially belittled the reputation of the Caliphate, when he made, as

others had before him, the Caliph Harlin al-Rashid the humorous central

character of his piece. It was this play that caused the ulema to complain

about his theatre.

From the very beginning, Arab playwrights have had problems in

establishing a rapport between the stage and the audience from this alien

proscenium arch stage of European theatre. In general, one may say that this

new literary genre, drama, has been alien to the Arab audience, unlike poetry

and other popular arts, it failed initially to elicit a response from the

audience. This indifference was first noticed by Marlin al-Naqqash; he was

to say that despite his efforts the theatre was still alien in the Arab World. 19

Al-Qabbaru too had problems establishing the theatre in Damascus; he was

forced to quit and flee Syria for Egypt. Similarly, the closure of the theatre of

the Egyptian pioneer YaCqub ~anuC20 by the Egyptian ruler Khedive Ismacil,

took place and succeeded, although ~anii" claims otherwise, probably because

18 Allen, R., "Arabic Drama in Theory and Practice," Journal

of Arabic Literature (no.15), 1984, p.108.
19 al-Raci, "Ali, " Al-Fann al-Masral1i fi'l-"Alam al-C,Arabi:
Ta'rlkhuh wa-C.Awamil ~uhuruh," al-Adab, Vol.38 (4-6), April
1990, p.38.

20YacqUb ~anu~ (1839-1912) is considered the father and

founder of modern Egyptian drama in Egypt.

21
this new art meant very little to the people of Egypt at that time. 21 Twentieth

century playwrights were to have similar problems; the Egyptian playwright

Tawftq al-tIakTm has expressed the same notion regarding his own theatre.

He has described his theatrical journey as a "mission impossible", and has said

that his theatrical art did not reach wide numbers of theatregoers, because the

theatre is still remote from the people's hearts.22 Wanniis also shares these

feelings; in the introduction to his play Mughamarat Ra's al-MamlUk jabir (The

Adventure of the Mamluk Jabir, 1970), he stressed that there is still a huge gap

between the theatre and the audience in the Arab world.

This common feeling, shared by various playwrights throughout the

history of the theatre in the Arab world, explains the difficult task that faces

any playwright in this part of the world. Despite the conflicting arguments

which surround the origins of this literary genre in Arab literary history, it can

dearly be seen that the modern Arab theatre laid its foundations by borrowing

. the forms and techniques of Western theatre, at first with little sense of the

value of what it was borrowing. The English traveller David Urquhart

remarked upon the enthusiastic manner by which Mat-Un al-Naqqash copied

the art of Western theatre when he saw a performance of al-Naqqash's

company, saying that "they had seen in Europe footlights and the prompter's

21 Najm,M.Y., al-Masrab al-eArabi: YaegUb Sanu', Dar al-

Thaqafa, Beirut, 1963, p.H
22 al-Raei, "al-Fann", p.38
22
box, and fancied it an essential point of theatricals to stick them on where they

were not required. "23

Wanniis and other playwrights have been trying since the modern

theatre began to change the public's attitude to the theatre by producing

something closer to the hearts of the people, something arising from their own

culture and history. Wanntis supports the view that maintains that the future

of Arabic drama depends on developing the content rather than the form,

when he remarks that "what we intend for the Arab theatre, in the first place,

is the creation of a theatre with Arab content capable of reflecting the

problems of this society and expressing an opinion regarding their

problems. "24

In this study, I will discuss the phIlosophical and artistic influences on

Wanniis and his works. The first chapter will attempt to give a comprehensive

survey of the historical background to the theatre in Syria today and its

development in the light of the changing political and social scenes. The

second chapter gives an account of Wannils's life, education, philosophy of life

and the development of his playwrighting and Western influences on him.

The third chapter discusses his early works (pre-1967), when he was under the

influence of Western existentialist philosophy, especially of Sartre, and the

23 Urquhart, D., The Lebanon: (Mount Souria), vol. 2, Thomas

Cautley Newby, London, 1860, p.179
24 Wannus, S., Bayanat li-Masrab 'Arabi Jadid, Dar al-Fikr
al-Jadid, Beirut, 1988, p.9
23
theatre of the absurd, particularly the works of Eugene Ionesco. The fourth

chapter examines the influence of scientific socialism / Marxism on him and

on his later works after 1%7, with particular reference to the influence of

Bertolt Brecht and his Epic theatre. Finally, the fifth chapter discusses the

political theatre and Wannus's concept and theories for this political theatre,

which he calls masrab al-tasyTs (the theatre of politicization) and the ideas lying

behind such a theatre.

Unlike most Arab playwrights, Wanniis is a highly prolific playwright;

his works and the ideas that have motivated his dramatic activities are

accessible to scholars. He has written a relatively large number of plays, all

of which have been published and most of them have been performed on the

stage allover the Arab world. He has stated his views and theories very

clearly, and has outlined these in many books, articles, and in the epilogues

to some of his works. His knowledge of the theatre reflects the breadth of his

reading and the extent of his commitment to this art form. Above all, his

plays, both as text and performance works, have aroused a great deal of

controversy and discussion in the Arab world. Wanniis is, perhaps, the

standard bearer of modern theatre in the Arab world and this makes him an

ideal subject for such a study as this.

24
 Chapter 1

The History of Modem Theatre in Syria

Syria is both a country and a concept. The Arabic name for the region

in the eastern Mediterranean between Egypt and Turkey is Sham, which is

defined as "the northern region, the north, Syria, Damascus." The whole area

was called Sham by its inhabitants until the twentieth century, when there

came into being in a part of that region the modern state of Syria; the name

Sham is still used to signify the whole area of Greater Syria, and by some to

underline the fact that, despite political frontiers, there still exists the concept

of a wider unity. 1 This greater area is today divided into the states of Jordan,

Syria, Lebanon and Israel (Palestine).

Although Syria has a long recorded history stretching back to around

2500 BC, it is not the history of a unified and cohesive state. From 2500 BC

to independence in 1945 there was hardly a time when Syria as a whole was

an independent sovereign state under local rulers. Numerous empires and

external powers occupied Syria, including the Akkadians, Assyrians,

Phoenicians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs,

Ottomans, British and the French.

Since the beginnings of the dramatic art in Syria, a movement

spearheaded by the Naqqash family in Beirut and Al)mad Abu Khalil al-

1 Hopwood, p.1

25
Qabbaru in Damascus, until the mid-1960s, Syrian theatre has been deluged by

a sea of translations, imitations, and adaptations of Western drama, despite the

effort of many dramatists to make it a vehicle for ideas of social and political

relevance to their own society.2 Theatrical activity during the late nineteenth

century brought translations and adaptations into Arabic from Italian opera,

and translations from French literature, in particular from the works of

Moliere, Racine, Corneille and Voltaire. Only from the beginning of the

twentieth century, did Arabs start to translate more widely from English and

other languages.3 Alongside these adaptations, some more adventurous

writers experimented in writing plays on themes from the Arab historical and

literary heritage. Amongst those was the famous pioneer of Syrian theatre,

AI:unad Abu KhalTI al-Qabbani. In addition to this indigenous theatre, some

Turkish theatrical troupes from Istanbul, used to visit Syria occasionally in the

late 19th century, amongst which were the troupes of ErtugruI Bey and Kiic;iik,

which it appeared that many local artists worked for.·

In this period (about 1890), variety theatre became popular and Jiirj

DakhUl or Kamil al-~li (his stage name), and JamTI al-Urghalli or Kamil al-

Aw~, became well-known.5 Dakhi1l made his appearances in the guise of

2 Agel, G.E.,The Arab Theatre:a Quest for Unity and

Identity, Ph.D. University of Southern California, 1982,
p.S3.
3 Staif, A.N.,"The Question of Foreign Influence in Modern
Arabic Literary Criticism', Journal of Arabic Literature,
no. 1 6 , 1 9 8 S , p. 11 1 •
4 Bin Dhurayl, pp.46-47.
5 al-Ra~i, al-Masrab, p.189
26
 a clown, like the famous Egyptian comic actor Najlb al-Ri1)ani, who had

invented the character of Kish Kish Bey in the early 20th century, perhaps

stimulated by Charlie Chaplin and the silent movies. Both Dakhiil and al-

Urghalli's performances combined elements of song and dance with comic

interludes. They performed in colloquial Syrian and Egyptian, and depended

on misunderstandings, puns, absurd gestures and actions to make the

audience laugh.6 This sort of popular theatre continued into the period of the

French mandate?

The influence of the Egyptian theatre has always been considerable in

the Arab world. Although many of the pioneers of Arab theatre, even in

Egypt, were originally from Greater Syria, Egypt was the place to which they

thronged and the environment that most encouraged their theatrical talent.

The troupe of al-Qabbani had flourished in Egypt from 1884 onwards. Since

the turn of the twentieth century, several Egyptian troupes had visited Syria:

in 1909 it was the troupe of Salama ~ijazi, in 1914 the troupe of i\bd Allah

cUkasha and Murura al-Mahdiyya, the famous singer and actress, in 1925 the

Egyptian-Lebanese troupe of Salim and Amin 'Ata AlUih, who presented Shah

al- ~jam (The Persian King) and Layali Baghdad (The Nights of Baghdad)8; and

in 1929 the two famous Egyptian troupes, of Yiisuf Wahbi and Fapma

6 Ibid, p.190.

7 Ibid, p.42

8 Bin Dhurayl, p.52.

27
Rushdi.9 The Syrian playwright and actor,1\bd al-Wahhab Abu'I-SuC.ud (1897-

1951), joined the famous Egyptian actor Jiirj Abyag in Egypt in 1911 and

played some secondary roles in his productions of Western plays such as

Shakespeare's Othello and Moliere's Tartuffe.

Syrian Theatre Under French Mandatory Rule 1920-1941:

The Arab revolt against the Turks (the Ottomans), especially that led by

the Hashemites of the Hejaz, encouraged by the ·British, led to the defeat of the

Ottomans and the coronation of the Hashemite King Fay~ as short-lived ruler

of Damascus, and hopes for self-rule by the Arabs. The French dashed any

hopes of self-government when they forced King Faisal in 1920 to step down

from his throne and leave Syria after one year, five months and seven days of

being King of Syria. tO This move created a deep sense of resentment towards

the French; an Arab historian has bluntly called the League of Nations

mandate system by which the French took control of Syria a substitute for

col9nialism.ll

Syria was occupied by the French in 1920, when they entered "they

came as conquerors and not as enlightened guests bearing the banner of the

9 Ibid, p.58.
10 al-MaliQ, W., Ta'rikh al-Masrah al-Suri, Dar al-Fikr,
Damascus, 1984, p.40.
11 Hopwood, p. 23

28
League of Nations, pledged to help and advise a state recognized as

independent. "12 The French split up the area under their control. In April

1920 they created Greater Lebanon by taking away bits from Syria (including

the Bekaa Valley etc.), a move which until today has its repercussions in

Syrian politics. Syria itself was divided into two main states governed from

Aleppo and Damascus. In 1921 Jabal Drilz (the Druze Mountain) was

recognized as separate, and the territory around Latakia was declared a

separate Alawite state in 1922,13 It was not a period of enlightened

government; they were to carry out arbitrary arrests, imprison and deport

Syrian citizens.

The Syrian socialist critic FarQan Bulbul, has suggested that the modern

Syrian theatrical movement really began during the French Mandate, when the

bourgeoisie assumed the leadership in the political struggle against the

French. I" This class used the theatre as their main cultural weapon to

stimulate nationalist feeli~gs amongst the people. They established many

theatres allover Syria, more than five theatres were built in Damascus,

together with the most important theatres in Aleppo and Horns, as well as in

many other Syrian cities. IS Many French troupes visited Syria during that

period. In contrast to the Egyptian troupes that were warmly received when

12 Ibid, p.23
13 Ibid, p.24

14 Bulbul, F., "al-Adab al-Masratli ft Suriya", al-Hayat

al-Masrahiyya (no.10), Damascus, 1979, p.7.
15 Ibid, p. 7.

29
they visited Syria during this period, these French troupes were given a cold

reception and sometimes the press went as far as to attack them, because they

were seen as part of the propaganda machine of the occupying power.16

Many of the performances of the local troupes during the French

mandate touched upon the notion of the national struggle for self-

determination against the French. 17 The French authorities found it difficult

to stop such activities, fearing they might arouse national and religious

feelings, especially if they attempted to ban performances of plays such as

Khalid b. al-Walid18, and Najib ijaddad's ~la~ ai-Din al-Ayyilbi (Saladin the

Ayyubidl, when the subject of such plays were important Islamic historical

figures. Some contemporary attitudes to politics in Arab countries are based

on a particular interpretation of history; thus it can be seen why ~al~ al-Din

(1138-1193) was regarded by many as such a momentous figure in Arab

history, for it was he who succeeded, after a long struggle, in expelling the

occupying Crusader forces from Jet'\Jsatemo. As with the Crusaders, even later

attitudes towards Israel were to be coloured by the same belief, that in the end

it would be possible to defeat the foreign invader. 19 The French also found

16 Ibid, p.60.
17 Bulbul, p. 7 •
18Khalid b. al-Walid (d.641) was a great Islamic military
leader, a contemporary of the prophet MUQammad, who led
Muslim armies in many of their famous battles. The prophet
bestowed upon him the title Sayf Allah al-Maslul (The Drawn
Sword of God).
19 Hopwood, p.14
30
it equally difficult to ban other emotive plays, such as Fr Sabil ai-raj (For the

Sake of the Crown), particularly since it was a translation and adaptation of

F.Coppee's Pour la couronnew. The play revolved. around the story of the

defense of the French crown and the necessity of martyrdom for that cause.

The Syrian translator capitalized on that theme to arouse the nationalist

feelings of the Syrian people. Although these plays provoked the anger and

resentment of the public against the French, the latter could do very little to

stop such activity.

Egyptian influence remained important during the period between the

two World Wars; two professional troupes were formed, I:Iasan J:Iamdan's in

1933 in Aleppo and MulJammad ~bdu's in 1944 in Damascus. They presented

musicals and comedies, "copying the plays and characters of Najtb al-Rinaru's

troupe in Egypt, such as the character of Kish Kish Bey and the Nubian

(barbanl character in the plays of~li al- Kassar."21 The influence of Egyptian

theatre persisted to modem times; the lectures on the theatre by the Egyptian

professor and critic Dr. MulJammad MandUr,22 were to have a substantial

influence on Wannus's decision to pursue his activities in this

20 This play was translated by ijalim Dammus, and printed at

al-MatbaCa al-Kathulikiyya (The Catholic Press), Beirut,
1926.
21 Ibid, pp. 69-70.
22M.Mandur (1907-1965) wrote many books about the theatre.
See D.Semah Four Egyptian Literary Critics, E.J. Brill,
Leiden, 1974. (pp.1 53-202).
31
field.23 This period in Syrian theatrical history also saw the flourishing of

theatre in schools throughout the country. Youth clubs, such as Firqat al-

~ana:'t al-Naft'sa (The Quality Crafts Troupe), founded in 1928 and Naru al-

FunGn al-Jamila (The Fine Arts Club), founded in 1930, which were very active

dwing the period of the French mandate, also participated in this movement

by presenting many translations of European classical works, including some

French plays and Shakespeare's Othello and Hamlet.

Abu'l-Su'iid returned to Syria in 1935 to devote himself to teaching and

establishing the theatrical art in the schools with the aim of promoting moral

and national ideas in the fight against the foreign occupiers. 24 Abu'l-Sucud

wrote several plays, amongst which, Miliid Mw.zammad (The Birth of

Mubammad), and Tatwij FaY¥l' (The Coronation of Fay~), these two plays

were published in 1940. He also directed and acted in a play written by the

Syrian playwright Ma'riif al-Arna'iit, against the Ottoman ruler in Damascus,

entitled Jamal Basha al-Safflib25 UamaI Pasha, the Blood Shedder, 1916?). He

also wrote Shuhadii' al-Intiqam (The Martyrs of Revenge, n.d) and Qatil Akhih

(The Killer of his Own Brother, n.d.). al-Arna'ut wrote another play entitled

AbLQm wa-Dumu c (Dreams and Tears, 1929). In that period also, a playwright

23 Rama 9 an , K., Masrab SaC. d Allah Wannus, al-Manabir,

Kuwait, 1984, p.13.
24 Mul;).ammad, N.,al-Adab al-Masrabi fi Suriya, al-Wal)da li'l-
Nashr, Damascus, 1986, p.27
25 Jamal Pasha (1872-1922) was the Ottoman commander, who
became notorious for his oppressive government that
executed a number of nationalist leaders in Syria on
grounds of treachery in the First World War.
32
called 'Adnan Mardam Bey wrote 5\bd al-RalJmiin al-Dilkhil (1934), Mll§TQ ~ al-

l;Iusayn (The Death of al-l:Iusayn, 1935), and Jamil Buthayna (1936).26

An unknown Syrian playwright, AQrnad Taqiyy aI-Din, from the period

of the 1930s and 19405 , was brought to the public attention for the first time

by bringing to light two of his plays, Laqit al-$a/:tra' (The Bastard of the Desert)

and al-Shaykh Tiij ai-Din al-1;lusayni27. These two plays were found in

Damascus by the Syrian critic 'Adil Abu Shanab in undated manuscripts. The

latter work was very bold in its subject matter and presentation, for it dealt

directly with the politics of the time, being an outright critique of the

appointed president.28 The form of the play is reminiscent of the classical

works of European drama translated into Arabic since the mid-nineteenth

century, where long monologues make up a significant part of the piece.29

Syrian Theatre post-1947:

According to Bulbul, after the French left and the Mandate ended in

1947, the Syrian theatre went through a quiescent phase. The new nationalist

26 Abu Shanab, A., Bawakir al-Ta'lif al-Masrabi fi Suriya,

Itti~ad al-Kuttab al-cArab, Damascus, 1978, p.18
27Taj aI-Din al-~usayni was appOinted twice as Syrian
president by the French, in two periods in the early 1930s
and early 1940s.
28 Abu Shanab, Bawakir, p. 38.
29 Ibid, p. 41 •

33
government "recognized the power of the theatre and its role in stimulating

public awareness, so they were therefore reluctant to fund and develop it

Thus the theatre became merely a place for casual entertainment like a

nightclub or a cafe,"3O until the "petite bourgeoisie" came to power in the mid-

fifties. When this social class became dominant in Syria, the theatre had the

opportunity again for development and expansion.

Since independence in 1945, the Syria state has witnessed many military

coups leading up to the Bacth takeover. The first in 1948 was led by the

Syrian chief of staff ~usni al- Zacim, who attempted to put Syria on a new

path by strengthening the army and modernizing various sectors of Syrian

life,31 pledging that the Palestinian issue, the liberation of the land of

Palestine from the Zionist occupation, would remain central to Syrian politics.

During his one year in government, the Arab states, including Syria, were

defeated in their first direct war with the new Israeli state; this defeat has

become known as the nakba (calamity). The Nakba had an important cultural

influence on Arabic literature, especially poetry, the novel and the short story.

A new form of literature emerged called adab al-nakba, which broke with the

traditional rules that controlled poetry and novel writing. The nakba also led

the young Arab officers, who returned home humiliated from this defeat, to

30 Bulbul, F • , p. 8 •
31 Ibid, p.34

34
blame the old system of government under the politicians for this debacle.32

While it took the Egyptian Free Officers four years to plan and carry out

a military coup against the old order in Egypt, that may in turn have been

stimulated by events in Syria, immediately af~er the defeat in Palestine the

young officers staged the coup of 1949 in Syria and "assumed the role of

guardians of their country's prestige and like army officers elsewhere,

[believing] that only they embodied the legitimacy and honour of the state."33

This coup in 1949 enabled Colonel Adib al Shishakli to seize power; in

1954 he was forced to resign, and reasonably free elections took place to form

a new government. Syria and Egypt were to draw closer together. They both

took an independent line opposing pacts with the West, seeking arms from the

Soviet Union. In February 1958, the Egyptian President Jamal cAbd al-N~ir

and the Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli proclaimed the formation of the

United Arab Republic bringing the two countries together in a union with

Na~ir as the elected president.34 The union was seen in the Arab world as a

major step toward achieving the dream of one Arab state from the Atlantic

Ocean to the Persian Gulf.

The Syrian critic, Al;1mad al-A}.lmad, in his article on Syrian theatre,

ignored theatrical activity in Syria before the government established the Firqat

32 Ibid, p. 33.

33 Ibid, p.33

34 Ibid, p.40

35
al-MasraQ al-Qawmi3S (the National Theatre Troupe) in 1959, with the

justification that plays of note before the sixties were merely "literary texts"

reflecting the subjective thoughts of their writers. In other words they were

written to be read and not to be produced on the stage.36 This notion of a

literary text is also reflected in the work of the famous Egyptian playwright

Tawfiq al-l;Iakim, who admitted describing his early works: "I confess that I

did not think about that when writing plays such as Ahl al-Kahf (People of the

Cave, 1933)), and Shahrazad (1934), in fact I refused to call them plays."37

However, al-AQmad has acknowledged the existence of some sound works

amongst which he includes Mim wa-Zayn (M and Z, 1945)), Ma'mima (1947),

both written by himself, and other verse plays, which were not performed on

stage for technical rather than textual reasons.

During this period, the 19405 and 19505, two prominent Syrian

playwrights emerged, KhalTI al-Hindawi (1906-1976) and Murad al-SibilC.i

(b.1914). al-Hindawi's vision of the theatre too was solely literary; in other

words, he saw the text as a literary genre which did not need to be performed

on stage. He was influenced by Western classical theatre, especially Greek

theatre, and his works revolved around Greek myths and oriental legends,

35 This governmental institute was established in 1959 and

had been under the control of the Ministry of Culture.

36 al-AQrnad, A., "al-Masratt fi Suriya", Majallat al-Udaba'

al-~Arab, vol.S, (October 1972), p.S3
37 Mandur, M., Masrah Tawfig aI-Hakim, Dar NahQat Mi~r,
Cairo, 1960, p.34.
36
such as HanU wa-Mlirilf8 written in 1943, al- ~lam Lan Yantahi (The World

Will Not End, 1944)), Tis~ Baniidiq Faqa/ (Nine Rifles Only, 1954). The conflict

in his plays is between the material world and the SOul.39 The legends

present to his audience a realistic solution to the problems of our complex

world. Unlike al-Hindawi, Murad al-Siba'i adopted a more realistic approach

to theatre. He tried to confront directly the political and sodal problems of the

1930s and 1940s in Syria, reflecting on events of contemporary Syrian history.

Amongst his works were OiibitCUthmlini (An Ottoman Officer (1935)), and

Shay/an Ii Bayt (Satan in a House); both these plays were not published. He

later wrote Sajin aI-Dar (Under House Arrest (1962)) and al-Insan wa'l-Mawt

(Man and Death (1967)).

The period of 1950-1967 witnessed some activity in the theatrical circles,

as well as observing the emergence of few new names in Syrian theatre.

Amongst which were Mu~tafa al-HalUij, Hasib KayyaIi, Walid Ikhla~i and later

Sac d Allah Wannus, cAliclrsan and Riyag c: I~mat. Among the factors that

helped these playwrights to appear, were the competitions arranged by some

magazines, such as al-Nuqqad in 1950 and al-Adab in 1957 encouraging new

38Harut wa Marut are the names of two angels mentioned in

the Qur'an. They are part of a Babylonian myth, describing
how two angels Hariit and Marut, sent by God to enlighten the
human race, were seduced by the beautiful dancer Bidkhit
and disclosed to her the secret of ascension to heaven.
She then flies to heaven and leaves them to stay
permanently on earth.
39 MUQarnmad, al-Adab al-Masrabi, pp.35-36.
37
authors to publish their works. During the 1960s, the Bac th40 party went

through some turbulent phases in its struggle to gain and retain power in

Syria. The Bacth had emerged as a political party during the period 1945 to

1956, with a clear ideology and political programme. This powerful party had

been founded by two Syrian nationalists, Michel'Aflaq and ~ala1) Bitar in 1939.

The party called for unity, freedom and socialism as the slogan of its objective.

The party passed through the "so-called" traditional phase (1963-1966), when

in 1963 it seized power in Iraq and almost one month later took over power

in Syria with Michel ~flaq as Secretary General of the party and Bitar as Prime

Minister. Until the Bacth party takeover of the Syrian government in 1963, the

class of wealthy landowning and merchant families of Damascus and Aleppo,

mostly Sunni Muslims, traditionally dominated Syrian politics and social life.

In the cities they held their sway over members of the old artisan class as well

as the bazaar merchants and the small working class; they were supported by

the religious leadership, the culema, who traditionally have formed an

influential group both in their own right as judges, teachers and officials, and

as representative of the ruling elite of the urban Sunni masses.

Secondly came the Radical phase (1966-1969) when the radical wing of

the Bacth took over in Syria.41 This takeover by the radical wing led to the

40BaCth means renaissance. The party is a pan-Arab secular

socialist political grouping. Arabism is at the centre of
the Ba thist doctrine; its slogan is "One Arab nation with
an eternal message." See D. Hopwood, Syria 1945-1986.
41 Aziz al-Ahsan, S., "Economic Policy and Class Structure in
Syria: 1958-1980," International Journal of Middle Eastern
Studies, 16 (1984), p.307
38
split in the Ba'th party, with the so-called regionalists remaining in power in

Syria and the nationalists, induding'Aflaq, going into exile in Iraq. Since then,

the hatred and rivalry between the two Bacth parties has persisted as was

clearly seen recently when Syria sided with the allies against Iraq in the Gulf

War.

Syria's political and social history, in the view of Agel, has not been

conducive to the development of literature; he felt that the rapid political and

social transformation of the country did not foster creativity.42 Political

upheaval created confusion and di'sorientation amongst the literati, who tried

desperately to define the stance of the average Syrian and their own response

to ever-changing ideologies. Writers had to learn to seek to coexist in the

shadow of authoritarian regimes which frequently imposed very rigid

guidelines on authorship, press and the mass media.43 The euphoria

surrounding the coming to power of the Bacth party with its high ideals was

never justified. The party was soon in turmoil with its own factional disputes

and throughout its rule in Syria it has promised change for the better but in

reality this has not been achieved.

Bin Dhurayl, in his examination of the theatrical movement in Syria

after al-Qabbani, stresses his opinion that an enormous gap existed between

the serious theatre, performing serious works conveying a serious message,

and dedicated to presenting the best examples of Arab drama from its earliest

42 Agel, p.52.
43 Ibid, pp. 52-53.

39
days and from great Western classical works, and the commercial theatre,

owned by private companies which aimed at making a quick financial profit

at the expense of the' content of the work or the "word."" What made that

gap even wider, he claims, was the stance adopted by serious dramatists, who

showed contempt for popular Arab theatrical arts, rather than capitalising on

them. Such dramatists, did not try to bridge the gap by taking material for

their plays from popular Arab folk tales. They failed to bring to the people

the subjects closest to their hearts and to elevate people's taste by introducing

them to well-known European classical works.4S Such a step would have

sown fertile soil for the development of the theatre in Syria.

When the government took control of the theatre in 1959, indications of

such developments appeared. The government gave the theatre financial

support as well as establishing Firqat al-Masratt al-Qawmi (The National

Theatre Troupe) in 1959 in Damascus; these theatres and their productions

remained under the strict control and censorship of the government, a

draconian step taken by the Egyptian government almost at the same time.

The Syrian critic Badr aI-Din cArUdki, views the theatre before the 1967

defeat as a theatre "that did not present a clear political picture of the reality

of Arab [life], which led to the defeat, therefore when the defeat occurred, the

theatre, as the Arab people, was astonished by the defeat and reacted

44 al-Ra~~, pp.190-191.

45 Bin Dhurayl, p.39.

40
dramatically in its response to it, as if the defeat had not been anticipated."46

The pre-1967 theatre in his opinion, had participated in the deception of the

public, because it did not tackle the real issues that led to the defeat.

Theatrical life in Damascus was confined to performances of Firqat al-

Masra1;t al-Qawmi (The National Theatre Troupe), founded in 1959, Firqat al-

Masral.1 al- cAskati (The Armed For forces Theatre Troupe, founded in 1960,

and a number of private theatrical troupes operating in commercial theatres,

such as Firqat al-Nadi al-Fanni (The Art Club Troupe), founded in 1955, and

Firqat al-MasraQ al-l;Iurr (The Free Theatre Troupe) founded in 1956 In other

parts of Syria there had been some theatrical activities by private troupes in

Aleppo, Horns and Latakia, as well as performances in schools throughout the

country. These troupes were presenting a large number of the performances

in the years before the 1967 War based on translations or adaptations of

Western works, embracing almost every aspect of Western theatre, and

including plays such as Ibsen's Doll's House, Shakespeare's The Merchant of

Venice, and King Lear, Ionesco's Tartuffe, and classical Greek drama.

Early Syrian theatre, so Agel argues, "neither encouraged dramatic

creativity nor did it arouse significant interest amongst literary circles. "47 The

theatre in twentieth-century Syria had to await the Six-Day War with Israel of

46 cAriidki, B., "al-~ahira al-Masra};liyya baCod al-Khamis min

Ijuzayran", al-Ma~rifa (no.104), (Damascus 1970), p.138.
47 Agel, pp. 53.

41
1967 with Israel before it was able to assume a leading role in the theatrical

movement in the Arab world.

The Theatre in Syria Post 1967:

The 1967 Six Day War between the Arabs and Israel, which was

triggered by the Egyptian blockade of the Straits of Tiran in the Gulf of Aqaba,

ended with the total rout of the Arab armies. This lightning and full-scale

defeat shook the Arab world to its foundations and forced Arab intellectuals

and politicians to attempt to analyze the reasons for its occurrence. Their

"mood beforehand had been one of supreme confidence in Arab ability to

defeat Israel, afterwards this turned to astonished disbelief."48 Adding insult

to injury, Israel occupied more Arab land, the Golan Heights, the West Bank,

the Gaza Strip and Sinai. This whole affair changed many political, social, and

literary conceptions in the Arab World, in general, and in Syria, in particular.

A new literary form emerged adab al-naksa (the literature of the setback),

"setback" being the euphemism used to describe the defeat. The prime subject

of this was the defeat and its main purpose was to analyze it, find out the

reasons for its occurrence and discuss its effect both psychologically and

socially on the Arab World with a view to learning lessons for the future. This

048 Hopwood, p. 50

42
new literature found a ready response amongst the public who were shocked

at the defeat and whose hopes and aspirations had been shattered. The ideas

of adab al-naksa have pervaded most, if not all, literary genres: the novel, in

works such as Alladhi Al)raq al-Sujun (The One Who Burned the Ships (1970))

by the Syrian writer Zakariyya Tamir, the short story, in al-Qahira Ji'l-'Ishrin

min Sibtambir (Cairo on the Twentieth of September (1968)) by the Egyptian

Jamillbrahim, poetry in the poems of the Palestinian Fadwa Tiiqan, the Syrian

Nizar Qabbani and the Egyptian 'Ali al-Jundi, and perhaps most of all in the

theatre, exemplified in Wannus, the Syrian playwright AliCUqla c Irsan, the

Egyptian CAli Salim, the well-known Egyptian playwright SaC:d al-Din Wahba

and many others. The theatre as a consequence, in this period, drew closer to

the people and took the responsibility; unlike other literary genres, of leading

the protest against empty government promises of victory against Israel and

of the campaign to make the general public more aware of their political and

social role and of how they could participate positively in creating social

change.

The initial reaction to the defeat was a mixture of grief and denial. But

the truth was soon revealed and Syrian playwrights became conscious that it

was necessary for them to play a larger role in their society, and that they

could no longer avoid making difficult decisions. 49 They also felt obliged to

disclose the falsity of Arab political leaders and the old regimes, by exposing

the errors of the policy makers to the ordinary people. Most playwrights felt

49 Agel, p.54.

43
obliged to express the rage of the Syrian people against the incompetence of

a government caught unprepared by the Israeli onslaught. The weakening of

the political order resulting from the loss of credibility, the consequent massive

purges, and the history of abuse of the socialist revolution added to the

demoralization of the nation as a result of the defeat. A new generation of

dramatists, who shared this common concern, began to emerge.50

Amongst those playwrights, ~li Kan~an was the first to deal with the

defeat in his satirical play Sadd Ma'rib (Ma'rib Dam (1967)). Others included

Mamdul) ~dwan, who wrote Mubakamat aI-Rajui al-Ladhi Lam Yubiirib (The

Trial of the Man Who Did Not Fight (1971)), and Kayfa Tarakt aI-Say! (Why Did

You Abandon the Sword (1973)), C.AliCUqlaC.lrsan who wrote aI-SaJin Raqim

Khamsah wa-TisC.in (Prisoner No.95 (1972)), and al-Ghuraba' (The Strangers

(1974)), RiyaQC.I~mat, who wrote al-Nujum wa'l-Layl aI-Tawil (The Stars and the

Long Night (1968)), al-Qunbula (The Bomb (1967)), and Ta'ir al-Khurafa (The

Bird of the Myth (1968)), FarQan Bulbul, who wrote al-Judran al-Qunnuziyya

(The Crimson Walls (1969)), and al-Mumaththiliin Yatariishshaqiln al-Hijara

(Actors Throw Stones at Each Other (1974)). The plots of these plays revolve

around the defeat of 1967.

After the 1967 war, Walid IkhIa~i wrote several plays, amongst which

areal-Ayyam aI-LatiNansaha (The Days We Forget (1968)), aI-Lu'Iu'a wa'l-~hra

(The Pearl and the Flower (1969)), and Sahra DimilqraJiyya (A Democratic

Soiree (1970)). Ikhl~i chose to write in an episodic form to explore freely the

50 Bulbul, p. 9

44
historical and political background of the 1967 war, to link that to the 1948

war, and to teach his audience, humiliated by defeat, how to erase their bitter

memories and transcend the situation.51 The theatre of Ikhla~i deals with the

themes of human happiness, freedom, and hope. It is a theatre that

successfully manoeuvres among the various literary schools.52 Ikhla~i's works

are full of allegory and symbolism, employed to elevate his intellectual ideas

and to create a sense of alienation from reality.53

Walid Ikhl~iis perhaps amongst the most important Syrian dramatists

and literary figures, apart from Wannus, This novelist, short-story writer, and

dramatist has left a deep imprint on Syrian society. Born in 1935 in a religious

Muslim family he became interested in acting at the age of eighteen, though

he decided to study engineering. However, his love for literature never

ceased; he was to become a novelist and later on a playwright. Ikhl~i's first

attempt at playwrighting was the product of his interest in the new

experimental dramatic forms. He wrote two avant-garde plays, al-Mut~a Wtibid

wa-e.Ishrin (Pleasure No.21 (1965)) and TubUl al-Iediim al- ~shara (The Ten

Drums of Execution (1965)). According to Gouryh, these "two plays, though

full of factual absurdities, bizarre semantic juxtapositions, occasional

disjunctions, unexpected incidents, and unrelated utterances, have dramatic

51 Gouryh, p.51

52 Bulbul, F., " a l-Adab al-Masral;l.i fi Siiriya", al-Hayat

al-Masrabiyya (no.7-B), Damascus, 1979, pp.50-57
53 Mul;l.ammad, p. 77

45
action set against a background of definable sociopolitical realities both

changeable and surmountable."54 In other words, although they were written

in the vein of the theatre of the Absurd, they represent certain realities, both

social and political, that intermix with each other and could change with

circumstances.

Of all the playwrights in Syria, who emerged after the 1967 defeat,

Wanniis is probably the most significant. Of all the post-1967 plays his l;laflat

Samar min Ajl Khamsah l;luzayriin (An Evening's Entertainment for the Fifth of

]uneS5 (1968)), had such a significant impact on the Syrian and Arab public

awareness, that it surpassed most other works in the wave of criticism it

generated. The clear perception and patent honesty with which Wannus

analyzed the causes of the defeat won him the favourable attention of many

critics, who welcomed his contribution with great enthusiasm and hope.

Wannus in the play, has criticized the defeat in a courageous and

revolutionary manner by pointing the finger directly at those responsible, "thus

freeing drama and the theatre from the fetters of deception and conformity in

which it had previously existed. "56

The Syrian plays written in the aftermath of the 1967 War share a

number of characteristics which distinguish them from earlier plays. They all

54 Gouryh,A., "The Sociopolitical and Cultural Ambience of

Walid Ikhla$i's Drama, World Literature Today, vol.62,
1988, pp.50-51

55 The fifth of June is the day when the 1967 Arab-Israeli

War started.

56 Agel, p.54

46
deal, directly or indirectly, with the defeat and the psychological depression

of the Arab people that followed. They either "aim to sway public opinion

against accepting the status quo, or try to indoctrinate the people to accept the

reality of war. "57 The politicians had tried to deceive the people by glossing

over the defeat in order to absorb their rightful anger. The plays aim also to

incite the populace to resist internal and external threats. Internal threats were

represented primarily by the governments and their agents, the regime's

campaign of manipulation directed to sway the people's attitude towards

accepting the gradual reintroduction of "Capitalism" and the threat of the

people losing their faith in pan-Arabism, while the external threats were

represented by Israel and its expansionary ideas.

The Characteristics of Syrian Theatre after the 1967 War:

After the 1967 defeat, the role of the theatre in Syria assumed a new

dimension, it became the focus for revolt and protest against the bogus

principles upheld by Arab regimes and it became a focus for change, as well

as, a place for entertainment The main developments of the Syrian theatre in

this period could be defined, as Bulbul argued, as follows:

57 Ibid, p. 57

47
1- The increase in the size of audiences:

After being almost the exclusive domain of intellectuals and the elite,

theatrical audience expanded to embrace the ordinary people and the rising

new middle class (petite bourgeoisie).58 As a result of this expansion, the

theatre has been forced to tackle problems important to these groups in

society. Theatre-going became a popular social custom, much more popular

than it had been before, and with this increasing public participation the

number of playwrights has increased proportionately. This expansion was a

result of two main factors: firstly, the people's desire to communicate amongst

themselves to discuss the causes of the defeat, and secondly, the rise in the

standards of living of the new middle class (petite bourgeoisie) which in turn

elevated their literary taste.

With the spread of education, a new middle class had emerged. The

Bacth coup itself had a pronounced class dimension as most of the army

officers who ousted the old urban-based leadership were of petty bourgeois

or rural origin. Thee ulema had lost their influence and their status had

declined under the Baeth regime.59 This new class had made their way up

into this new middle class through the one channel available, the army; this

was the equivalent of the rise of Na~ir's generation in Egypt. 60 Only a small

58 Bulbul, p.6

59 Ibid, pp. 168-16~

60 Ibid, p.169

48
number of peasants have migrated from the village environment to the towns

to become part of the new middle class; almost half of the Syrian population

was still rural and at the bottom of the scale were the landless peasants. 61

2- The Growth of the Theatre:

After the defeat, the number of the troupes increased dramatically. In

Damascus new government sponsored and controlled troupes were

established: al-Masral:l al-Jawwru (The Travelling Theatre (1969)), al-Masral:l

al-Janu t.i (The University Theatre (1970)), al-Masratt al-Tajn'bi (The

Experimental Theatre (1976)), with Wanniis as its director. Many private

troupes, such as Firqat al-Masral) (The Theatre Troupe), Firqat Ghurba (The

Exile Troupe), and Masratt al-Shawk (The Theatre of Thorns), were formed

during that period. In Aleppo Masral) al-Sha~b (The People's Theatre) was

established in 1967, and in Homs al-Masral) al:UmmaIi (The Workers Theatre)

was established in 1973.62

61 Aziz-al-Ahsan, p.319

62 Aliksan, al-Wilada, pp.49-85

49
3- The Change in the Nature of the Theatrical Criticism:

Since the sixties, Syrian critics have written about the theatre, its origins

and schools. The appearance of these studies has been sporadic compared to

criticism devoted to other literary genres. Some critics and writers like cAli

CUqla ;rsan, Ghassan al-Mali1;l, and Rafiq al-$abban, who studied theatre in

America, have written about the Western theatre, its leading figures, and

trends. Though there have been some comments on the performances of the

National Theatre Troupe, critical studies have not paid much attention to local

drama. Staif has drawn attention to the fact that there is generally a need for

more studies of this kind and has pointed out that there is a paucity of

specialized and scholarly studies on foreign influences on Arabic creative

writing, such as poetry, the novel, the short story and drama. 63

After the defeat, theatre criticism changed drastically. Critics started to

address the issue of Arab theatrical identity. The quest for Arab identity had

long been supported and emphasized by the BaCth party. This can be seen in

its slogan "umma~arabiyya wiil)ida dhat rislila khalida" (one Arab nation with an

eternal message). Derek Hopwood has described the Ba'th ideology by saying:

Arab nationalism is the core of Ba cth ideology.

Arabism is at the centre of the BaCthist doctrine,
and is the core of its doctrine of unshakable faith in

63 Staif I "The Question of Foreign Influence", pp.114-115

50
 the creative genius of a nation with a glorious and
noble past.64

As the emphasis on Arab identity grew and the issue of Arab nationalism

became more imperative, critics called for an annual theatrical festival to

establish the objectives of Arab theatre and discuss the function of theatre in

the Arab world.

In 1969 Syria took the lead in the Arab world by staging the first Arab

theatrical festival, which was called Mahrajan Dimashq fi'l-Funun al-MasralJiyya

(The Damascus Festival of the Theatrical Arts), intended to be held annually.

As socialism is an essential part of the Bacth ideology, the festival has adopted

the "socialist" slogan, "nabwa waCy masrabi ~abi1;z" (towards a correct theatrical

awareness).6S This shows that socialism was the ideological" force behind the

festival, and as part of its implicit programme of spreading the socialist way

of life, the government was prepared to stage and support it. The main

objective of these festivals has been to achieve a better understanding of the

role of theatre in the Arab world. Troupes officially representing Lebanon,

Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, and Syria attended the first festival. Kuwait performed

a play written by the Egyptian playwright Alfred Faraj i\ri janlib al-Tabrizi wa-

TdbiC.uh Quffa (Ali Jana}:l al-Tabrizi and His Follower Quffa), while Syria

performed two works by Wannus al-Fil Y6 Malik ai-Zaman (The Elephant, Oh

64
Hopwood, pp.86-87
6S Aliksan, p.227

51
King of All Ages), and Ma'sal Ba'ic al-Dibs al-Faqir (The Tragedy of the Poor

Treacle Seller).

This festival was seen as a significant event in the Arab world,

especially to Syria, both politically and artistically. Previously Egypt has been

the centre of the Arab world in almost every aspect of life, and Cairo had been

the place where major events, whether political or otherwise, took place. It

was the Paris of the Arab world. By holding this festival, Syria pulled the

carpet from beneath Egypt's feet and seized the initiative, Egyptian

intellectuals had adopted a passive role towards the defeat and so lost the

opportunity to capitalize on the new situation that the Arab world found itself

in. The festival was meant to be a means of reasserting Arab identity and

pride after the defeat, and giving the theatre in the Arab world an

independent personality so that it would be a theatre bearing an Arab stamp

and totally dependent on the Arab literary heritage.66

Arab dramatists set themselves the task, at these festivals, of striving to

create a distinctive identity for the modern Arab theatre, and addressing

current social, economic, and political problems on which the Arab nations

were focusing their attention.67 The dramatists who participated in the

66 Abu Hayf, A., al-Injaz wa'I-MuCanat, Itti~ad al-Kuttab

al-eArab, Damascus, 1988, p.354

67 Aliksan, p.227

52
festivals saw the role of the theatre as "a means for change in society, a mirror

that reflects the real aspirations of the populace... 68

4- Socialist Realism and the Emergence of Political Theatre:

Socialist ideas gained ground in Egypt, especially among the

intellectuals, after the 1952 coup. A process of overall nationalization began

and the country began drifting towards totalitarian system and when Jamal

(.Abd al-N~ir was president, and began a close relationship with the Soviet

Union after the Czech arms deal in 1955. Socialism spread almost

simultaneously in Syria, especially after the union with Egypt in 1958. With

the spread of socialist ideas there was a growth in socialist artistic perspective

in both countries. The theatre of socialist realism69 (al-Masra1:t al-Ijtimaci

al-Waqi(.i) was a major theatrical movement in Egypt before the defeat, but

was less pervasive in Syria.

After the 1952 coup in Egypt, a new generation of writers representing

this movement emerged, amongst whom are Nucman~shUr, Alfred Faraj, and

68From the official introductory speech at the opening of

the fourth festival in Damascus, 1972.
69 Socialist Realism, a kind of artistic credo, developed in
Russia to implement Marxist doctrine. It requires art to
promote the cause of socialist society. See George Lukacs,
Studies in European Realism (1950).
53
 MaQrnud Diyab?O It can be said that hhiir's in-Nas iIIi TaI)t (The People

Downstairs (1956)), and al-Maghma/is (The Trickcyclist (1956)), mark the

beginnings of the theatre of socialist realism in the Arab world,71 as they also

analyze Egyptian society with a view to promoting socialist doctrine. The

theme of these plays reflects socialist ideas addressing the link between the

class struggle and economic development72

Alongside Soviet influence, socialism and Marxism have grown and

, found sustenance in the Arab world as a reaction to imperialism and

colonialism. The Syrian state had adopted a socialist way of life and modelled

it on Eastern bloc societies, something that engulfed all aspects of life in Syrian

society including culture. The socialist Ba'"th party and the Communist Party

in Syria, which was founded in the 1930s by KhaIid Bakdash, and was

dedicated to the abolition of religion and the establishment of scientific

socialism, had close links with the USSR. However, whilst the Soviet Union

has played a large role in Syria, the Communist Party in Syria has played a

subsidiary role in Syrian politics.73 The communists enjoyed a fruitful period

of activity in Syria during the Second World War, however, the USSR voted

in 1947 in favour of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, the party was

suppressed until 1954, when it took part in the September elections and its

70 al-Raei, al-Masrah fi'l-Watan al~Arabi, pp.84-87

71cid, K., "MasraQ. NuCmanC.Ashur wa'l-waqiCiyya", al-Aglam,
no.6, Baghdad, 1980, p.40
72 Ibid, p.45
73 Hopwood, p.85

54
leader, Bakhdash, was elected as a member of parliament for Damascus. Party

support was derived largely from the professional classes.

In 1957, the Ba~th Party made an alliance with the Communist Party,

however the Communist Party and other political parties were banned during

the life of the United Arab Republic. Since the seizure of power by the Ba'th

Party in 1963, the Communist Party has been condemned to a very minor role

in Syria's politiCS.74 The Baeth now led by I:Iafi~ al-Asad, who became the

Syrian President in 1969, was to be the major player in Syria's political and

social life from the late 1960, was to be the only major player in Syria's

political and social life from the late 19605. According to al-Asad, the Ba'th

.party" is not Marxist, it is socialist with nationalist leanings. "75

The 1967 defeat enabled the Soviet Bloc to increase its influence and

thereby strengthen the socialist tendency in Syria, which was to become a way

of life for the ordinary Syrian person, identical to the life of citizens in the

Eastern bloc. The United States and Britain had been accused of supporting

the Israeli aggression so their influence waned. While Egypt's earlier drift

towards the USSR had been motivated by the failure of the Egyptian President

Jamal'Abd al-N~ir "to obtain Western military and economic backing for his

goals, which revolved around forging a united Arab bloc under Egyptian

H Ibid, pp.84-85.

7S al-Asad, President ~afe?, The Times, 13 March 1978, P.18

55
 leadership,"76 Syria was driven mainly towards the USSR by defense

considerations. The Soviet Union had signed its first arms deal with Syria in

1955, and within two years, Syria is estimated to have purchased more than

a hundred million pounds worth of Eastern bloc weapons.77 The evolution of

Soviet-Syrian relations had progressed along three major interconnected axes,

so Karsh argues, the most important of which was the Arab-Israeli conflict.

This conflict has created the main avenue for the broadening and deepening

of Soviet-Syrian relations?8 The second axis was the inter-Arab arena, where

the Soviet Union had skillfully manoeuvred between its radical Arab allies.

Finally, since the mid-1970s and particularly after Syria established a

permanent presence in Lebanon in 1976, Soviet-Syrian relations had become

increasingly dependent on the vicissitudes of the Lebanese civil war.79

Since then, socialism, in some Arab countries, particularly in Syria, has

been the real force behind the dominant political movements, whereas

Marxism has found its adherents mainly among intellectual and literary circles.

Some intellectuals have inclined towards the philosophy of dialectical

. materialism, towards the working class (proletariat), and towards a democratic

76Karsh, Eo, The Soviet Union and Syria, Routledge, London,

1988, po 3
77
Ibid, po3
78
Ibid, po6
79
Ibid, po7

56
and populist society where authority would lie in the hands of the

producers.SO Amongst Syrian writers from a socialist perspective in genres

other than the theatre, are ~bd Allah ~bd, a short story writer, who wrote Mal

al-Banafsaj (The Violet is Dead (1969)) and other short stories, Fans Zarziir, the

novelist, who wrote al-IA-IjtimllC.iyyi1n (The Unsociables (1971)), and tianna

Mina, the novelist, who wrote al-Thalj Ya'ti min al-Nafidha (The Snow Comes

from the Window (1969)), and ai-Shams Ii Yawm Gha'im Tawil (The Sun on a

Long Cloudy Day (1973)). The commitment of these three writers to socialism

can be seen in their works, which address the masses directly and whose

protagonists represent the working class advocating revolution and

condemning Capitalism.

In Syria, unlike Egypt, socialist realism was less influential in the theatre

because the arrival of its ideas on the literary scene was accompanied by the

growth in power of the middle class (petiabourgeoisie) in Syrian society. One

Syrian socialist playwright, Yusuf Maqdisi, under the influence of socialist

realism, wrote Dukhan al-Aqbiya (The Smoke from the Cellars (1963)). The play

depicts the class struggle and condemns outright the feudal class, which

Maqdisi saw creeping back into Syrian society disguised in the form of the

middle class. 81

80yasin,B. and Nabil Sulayman, al-Adab wa'l-Idyulujya fi

Suriya, Dar Ibn Khaldun, Beirut, 1974, p.330.
81 Bulbul, p.11
57
 After the defeat, political theatre was to replace the theatre of socialist

realism and became the main preoccupation of Syrian playwrights. This move

was a decisive and direct reaction to the defeat Political theatre has wrongly

been considered as synonymous with the theatre of socialist realism. The

Syrian critic and writer, I:Ianna Minah, argued that ·politics, as well as socialist

realism, are the foundation for everything, however, there are differences

between the two types of theatre. While the theatre of socialist realism does

not necessarily present political issues, political theatre absorbs certain political

issues and focuses on them, in other words its subject must be political. "82

Wannus has also defined the political theatre as "the theatre which deals with

politics directly, daily and materially."&3 Many of the plays that were written

in the form of political theatre generated much criticism, especially at the

Fourth Theatre Festival in 1972. Because there had been no previous tradition

or experiments in political theatre in the Arab world, that could set the

guidelines for critics and writers, the vision behind political theatre became the

focus of debate and argument amongst theatre people.

Modern political theatre started simultaneously in both Egypt and Syria,

and immediately made the defeat its main concern. However, in Egypt,

political theatre took a different stand from its counterpart in Syria. In Egypt,

most plays tended to defend cAbd al-Na~ir's policies and decisions, and

82 Mina, 1;1., " a l-Masral} al-Siyasi", al-Maerifa, (Damascus,

July 1972), p.234

83Wannus, S., "Bayanat li-Masratl eArabi Jadid", al-Macrifa,

(Damascus, July 1972), p.217

58
fabricating excuses for the defeat. 84 They blamed the president's men and

cleared him of any responsibility for the defeat. Perhaps N~ir's resignation

and admission of responsibility for the defeat to an extent justifies the

sympathetic stance of the Egyptian society in general towards him, and the

literati's response in particular. The Egyptian playwright Ali Salim, took this

course in his play [nta illi Qatalt il-Wabsh (You're the One Who Killed the

Monster (1970)), as did the famous Egyptian playwright Sacd al-Din Wahba,

in his play Ycf Salam Sallim al-l;layta Bititkallim (Heaven Preserve Us, The Wall's

Talking (1970)).

Other playwrights tried to explain the defeat and the endemic

corruption as a consequence of shared human weaknesses: cAbd al-Na~ir

himself should not be blamed for the defeat. These plays, which were written

in this period, depicted cAbd al-N~ir as essentially a good leader surrounded

by corrupt ministers and officials.85 This notion was expressed by Yiisuf

Idris86 in his play al-Mukhattatin (The Striped Ones (1%9)); besides "striped"

the title also means "planned" or "programmed", an obvious, deliberate double

entendre.87 MaQrnud Diyab also wrote along these lines in his plays, Rasill

84 Bulbul, p.12
85 Wittingham, K., "al-Masratl al-Ml$ri", translated by
Mu~ammadcAbd al Qadir, al-Aglam, no.6, Baghdad, 1980, p.157
86 Yusuf Idris (1927-1991) was one of the most celebrated
novelists, short -story writer and playwrights in Egypt
and in the Arab world. See Nadya Faraj Yusuf Idris wa'l-
Masrab al-Misri al-Hadith, Dar al-Macarif, Cairo, 1976.
87 Badawi, M., Modern Arabic Drama in Egypt, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1987, p.161
59
min Qaryat Tamirah (A Messenger From the Village of Tamirah) and Ahl al Kahl

70 (The People of the Cave 70).88 The famous Egyptian playwright and

academic, Rash3d Rushdi, in his play Baladi Ya Balad; (My Country! Oh My

Country!), blamed the ignorant masses for what had happened, whom he felt

were "not worthy of defending the revolution, because they are a vulgar herd

that could be easily led."89 Because they were ignorant and not yet ready to

make sacrifices for the revolution, they were responsible for the defeat.

In comparison to the complacent Egyptian approach, the political

theatre in Syria took a very strong stance in the face of the ruling regime. It

blamed the authorities bluntly and directly for the defeat. Such a stance was

like a volcano erupting after being dormant for a long time: the Syrian regime

shut its eyes this outburst, using it as a pressure valve to release the anger of

the people. Wannus's play Ifaflat Samar was perhaps the first eruption to

voice this challenge to the regime. The play disclosed the falsity of the system

and the corrupt institutions. Other playwrights followed this line in handling

the issue of the defeat. As a consequence of this courageous stance, the theatre

in Syria won the battle for recognition and leadership amongst its peers in the

Arab world, something the political theatre in Egypt failed to do.

88The original play, Ahl al-Kahf, written in 1933, was one

of the most significant works of Tawfiq al-~akim.
89 Ibid, p.12

60
5- A Return to Arab History and the Arab Literary Heritage:

Before the defeat, the drama of sodal realism, both in Syria and Egypt,

derived its subjects from contemporary events in dties like Damascus or Cairo.

It was inspired by current sodal problems and presented them in a realistic

form. Subjects like the class struggle, illiteracy, and the relations between

Arab countries were handled. The immediate reaction to the defeat was that

of dismay and disbelief. How could we have been defeated, when our leaders

were talking about "throwing Israel into the sea."90 After the period of shock

had abated, a series of Arab summits tried to exploit pan-Arab sentiment to

unify Arab ranks, likewise Arab dramatists drew upon the same feelings by

turning the theatre towards Arab history and the Arab heritage, as the source

for their subject matter. This abrupt change first happened in Egypt, with the

play of Sacd aI-Din Wahba al-Masamir (The Nails (1967)), where the author

derives his characters and events of the play from Arab history drawing an

analogy with current subjects or problems. In Syria most of WannUs' plays,

which were written after the defeat except lfaflat Samar, adopted that

approach.

This drift towards Arab history, both real and mythical, took place,

Bulbul suggests, for a number of reasons. It happened under the influence of

Arabic poetry, because ever since modern Arabic poetry had developed after

90 From the speech of JamalcAbd al-Na~ir before the 1967

Arab-Israeli war.
61
the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, it had taken sanctuary in symbolism

and legends, from the ancient cultures of the Middle East These have become

an essential part of the structure of Arab poetry, and have given such verse a

universal dimension. At the same time, through the freedom they gained by

using these symbols, Arab poets have been able to assert through allegory a

new realistic tendency which then became the distinctive feature in its conflict

with traditional Arab poetry.91 In the beginning it derived its symbols from

Greek and foreign legends, however, after the 1967 defeat it derived its

symbols from Arab history and heritage. Arab playwrights, after witnessing

the success of modern Arab poetry in this respect, followed in its footsteps to

stimulate regional nationalist and Pan-Arab feelings. The return to Arab

history was a means of giving an original imprint to the plays and establishing

a separate identity for Arab theatre. Arab theatre was looking for models or

ideals as a point of reference, thus it resorted to Arab history to draw analogy

with contemporary issues.

6- Abandonment of the Rules of Oassica1 Drama:

In the Arab world, especially Egypt, the Aristotelian and the Neo-

Classical rules of drama, relating to the three, unities (time, place and plot),

characters (nobility, royalty, and the upper classes) and subject matter (high

91 Bulbul, p. 1 2 •

62
moral subjects), when writing any theatrical work, were adhered to strictly;

men of letters, such as JUrj AbyaQ, Talla l:Iusayn,92 Ml$munad Mandfu, and
many other critics and actors of note often regarded these rules as sacred and

felt that every work of drama had to adhere to them. This tendency can be

found particularly in the plays of J\hj AbyaQ, such as his version of

Mul.lammad c Uthman JaIaI's Madrasat al-AzuiQj (1910), an adaptation of

Moliere'sL'Ecoledes Maris, Yiisuf Wahbi's Rasputin (1923) and Awlad al-Dhawiit

(The Children of the Upper Classes), and in Syria in the plays of M~tafa al-

Hallaj likeal-Qatl wa'l-Nadam (Murder and Remorse (1957)) and al-Gha{lab (The

Rage, 1959), and KhaIn Hindawi's lJamilat al-Mi~bQh (The Lady Holding the

Torch (1937)), and al-Maththal al-Td'ih (The Lost Sculptor, 1937). These plays

revolved around the life of the upper classes and the nobility of their

characters.

Bulbul relates this rigid adherenCe to the fact that such rules suited the

bourgeois "ideology. "93 He claims that this class used the theatre to defend

its status and "ideology" in Syrian society. However, Bulbul and his colleagues

are singularly weak in produdng evidence to support these claims. Arab

playwrights have followed the rules of classical drama primarily because Arab

theatre is a reflection of Western theatre and its various modes and

92 Taha ~usayn (1889-1973) is perhaps the most celebrated

Egyptian writer and critic. He is regarded as the doyen of
modern Arabic literature and was appointed Minister for
Education in 1950.
93 Bulbul, p.13
63
movements, and when Western theatre has broken these rules, as in the

theatre of the absurd and the epic theatre of Brecht, Arab theatre has followed

suit!H

The function of the theatre during the early 19605, before the defeat,

was to stimulate and manipulate the audience's emotions. In other words, its

function was only to entertain. Most of the early performances of the Syrian

troupe al-Masratl al-Qawmi (The National Theatre Troupe) were of this nature,
c-
such as Gogol's work The Government Inspector (al-Mujattish al- :Amm), and

Moliere's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, translated as al-Burjuwazi al-Nabil, and

many similar works. After the 1967 defeat, the purpose of Syrian theatre

became to provoke and incite the audience to make an intellectual response to

the issues of the age and to demand social and economic change. Theatre

opened its doors to all classes of people. This change in the function of the

theatre in Syria was primarily motivated by socialist ideology, therefore it was

not surprising that it revolted against what it considered to be the bourgeois

rules of classical drama. Such a revolt was directed at the form, structure,

language, context, and function of the theatre, and many Arab dramatists

sought their answers in Marxism and socialism as a means of achieving that

end. Such a notion was further strengthened by the bitter defeat of 1967,

according to Gouryh, and the ensuing sense of national disappointment, that

94 Rushdi, pp.96-97

64
enabled Arab dramatists to discover that Brecht's epic techniques provided

them with the freedom they were seeking to address their audience.9s

Syrian playwrights wanted to re-structure Syrian theatre to suit this new

ideology. They were divided into two main groups: one wanted radical, social

and political change, and the second, though wanting such change, did not

believe it was possible. In his study, Bulbul defined the means to achieve the

required socialist approach in the theatre by saying: "our most important

means for success is to demolish Capitalism and aristocracy, the two elements

which the art of theatre rely on, and to facilitate the emergence of an objective

theatre for the people regardless of the differences in their tastes and

economical ability~ The radical group adopted revolutionary theatre or the

Brechtian theatre; amongst this group were Wanniis, ~AliC:Irsan, and RiyaQ

~Ismat. The latter group adopted the theatre of the absurd, amongst this group

were Walid Ikhl~i, Mu~tafa al-HalIaj, and Wannus in his early plays.

Syrian drama in the aftermath of the 1967 war became agit-prop'Tl

drama, because its message was limited to either exposing falsehoods or

provoking the people's revolt against existing conditions. It reflected a

fundamental feeling of frustration stemming from the conviction that

emotionalism, naivete, superstition, fear, manipulation and blurred perceptions

95 Gouryh, p.51
96 Id, p.42

91 Agit-Prop(Agitation-Propaganda) is a term applied to

plays in Europe and America in the 1930s calling for
uprising and social revolt and the adoption of Marxist
doctrines.

65
were the symptoms preventing Syria from developing along clear and

constructive lines.98 Sacd Allah WannGs in his works broke this cycle of fear

and frustration and developed an effective approach through his experiments

in Syrian theatre to "create a theatre which can teach and which can motivate

action. In other words, a theatre which can intensify the spectators'

indignation and agitate them or motivate them to take action and to ask

questions. "99

98 Agel, p.70

99 Wanntis, Bayana t, p. 40

66
 Chapter 2

Sa~d Allah Wanniis, the Man and the Playwright

The most important issue for me is to be an

effective [participant] in the course of our own
history. I mean to be able through theatre to define
the anxieties and the problems of our societies in a
radical way and to enable the audience to discover
the possibility of bringing about change in
history.l

Sacd Allah Wan nus was born in the village of I:I~ayn al-Batu' near

Tartiis on the north-west coast of Syria in 1941.2 The inhabitants of his village

made their living from growing peanuts, olives and grapes. Like most of

them, his family was poor; his father was a small farmer, and later on, as a

step to increase the income of the family, he opened a small shop selling

sweets and tobacco, however, he was unsuccessful and nearly lost everything

he had invested. This forced the family to pass through a severe period of

hardship, described by Wannus, as "years of misery, hunger and

deprivation."3 Wannus was raised in a traditional peasant environment,

religious but not extremely so. Wannus has shown how tolerant his family

'.Wannus, an interview with the researcher, Damascus.

October, 1989.
2 Isma C'- iI, F., al-Kalima .. al-Fi c. 1 fi Masrab Sa C d Allah
Wannus, Dar al-Adab, Beirut, 1981, p.221
3 RamaQan, Masrab Sacd Allah Wannus, p.12
67
were; he has admitted that "it was possible for me to declare openly to being

an atheist when I was sixteen without facing enormous difficulties. "4

When he was a young boy, his greatest wish was to be like his brother,

who had passed his Primary School Certificate, because this certificate was

considered the summit of achievement, in a small village. After entering

primary school, Wannus showed an obvious ability in his studies, except in

the field of Arabic composition, where he always got very low marks. His

Arabic language teacher advised him to read more books, and Wannus took

that advise seriously and spent most of that summer holiday reading

everything he could get his hands on in order to overcome his lack of

competence. Since then, he developed a love for reading. This love led him

to buy books on credit from the local bookshop, because neither he nor his

father could afford to fin-ance. this expensive pursuit. The bookshop owner

eventually collected his money from Wannus's father, who was upset by his

son's behaviour and always thought that he spent too much on books.5 The

first book he bought when he was twelve was Damca wa-Ibtisama (A Teardrop

and a Smile) by Khalil Mutran, then he bought and read books by Talla

l:Iusayn, cAbbas al~Aqqad, Mikh1l'il Nu~ayma, NajIb Mal;Uiiz and others.

Having got over this particular hurdle, Wannus continued his studies,

finishing his secondary school studies at Tartus in 1959. That year he was

4 Yasin and Sulayman,al-Adab, p.351

5Wannus, an interview with Fu'ad Dawara, al-Hilal, April
1977, pp.188-189
68
 granted a scholarship to study in the Department of Journalism in the Faculty

of Arts at Cairo University. He spent most of his time in Cairo reading in

every branch of literature. For the first time he had access to a wealth of

material on the different schools of literature and criticism. He read

translations of many Western fictional works and plays and attended

. adaptations into Arabic of plays by Moliere, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco

and Bertolt Brecht that were performed in Cairo. In 1961 he was deeply upset

by the break up of the political union, the United Arab Republic, between

Syria and Egypt. At that time he wrote a long play, his first, entitled al-l;Iayat

Abadan (Life Always); this work was never published, and he has not

discussed its contents. His academic studies did not appeal to him and this

led to him absenting himself from many of the lectures. During his four years

there, he attended about fifty lectures, most of which were lectures by the

leading Egyptian critic, Dr.MulJammad Mandiir, then a Lecturer of Literary

Criticism and Drama, and some other lectures in typing and shorthand,

attendance at which was compulsory.6 The lectures of Dr.Mandiir motivated

Wannus to study modern literature, especially the theatrical arts which

Wanniis found himself attracted to. As Ramadan has suggested it may have

been Mandilr who stimulated Wanniis's love for the theatre?

Mubammad Mandiir (1907-1965), was a highly respected academic and

critic, who had by then published several books and articles on the theatre.

6 Hopwood, p.190

7 RamaQan, p.13

69
His book Fi'l-Adab wa'l-Naqd (On Literature and Criticism, 1949), devotes one

section to the art of drama. In the mid-fifties, a book, based on lectures he had

delivered on Arab dramatists, had been published entitled Mu1;zadarat Ji'l-Adab

wa-Madhahibihi (Lectures on Literature and its Schools, 1955), Mu1;zadarat Can

Kham Mu/riin (Lectures on Khalil Mupan, 1954) and Muhadarat'an Masra1)iyyat

Shawqi (Lectures on the Plays of Shawqi, 1955).8 These books and two long

chapters in his first book dealt with the general principles of play-wrighting,

stage performance and the development of drama in Europe from the days of

the ancient Greeks up to modern times.9 They also gave a detailed account

of the emergence of Arabic drama, followed by an analysis and evaluation of

the best-known works up to then written in Arabic. 1o Mandiir maintained

that the Arabs had borrowed the art of the theatre from Europe. Until the 19th

century they had neither known stage performances nor dramatic composition,

similar to that found in the West. He considered it futile to seek, as some

nationalist writers had done,to find antecedents for this art in classical Arabic

literature. I I

8 Mandur later published al-Masrab (The Theatre, 1963),

al-Masrab al-Nathri (Prose Theatre, 1965) and Masrab
Tawfig aI-Hakim (The Theatre of Tawfiq al-~aklm, 1965).
9 See Semah, D., Four Egyptian Literary Critics, E.J. Brill,
Leiden, 1974.

10 Ibid, p. 1 73
11 Ibid

70
 Mandu.r represents the main stream of Arab criticism which subscribed

to Aristotle's theories and dictum on drama as laid down in the Poetics (c.330

BC). The following quotation illustrates Mandilr's often-expressed notion of

the function of drama:

Literature in its entirety, and not only the art of drama,

should arouse in us an emotional excitement and aesthetic
feelings, or else it defies its very nature and becomes
philosophy, or sociology, anything but literature. 12

His lectures seemed to have provided Wannus with the impetus to pursue

further his studies in this genre of literature. During this period

Wannus, as a result of his thorough reading of the Beirut al-Adab magazine,

became influenced by existentialist thought and philosophy. AI-Adab, since the

early 1960s, had published translations of many articles, books and plays by

existentialist writers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre's Le Mur (al-Jidar), Morts sans

sepulture (Mawta bila Qubur), and his autobiographical novel La Nausee (The

Nausea) (Sirati al-Dhatiyya), Albert Camus' L'etranger (al-Gharib), La Peste (al-

Waba'), and Caligula, and works by Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett,

Alberto Moravia, Eugene Ionesco and many other writers. The journal

published in December 1964 a special issue, number 12, about Sartre,

introducing his thoughts to the Arab reader and discussing his writings and

plays. No doubt influenced by al-Adab, Wannus wrote in 1962 while still in

12 Mandur, M., Mubadarat fi'l-Adab wa-Madhahibihi, JamiCat

al-Duwal al-'Arabiyya, Cairo, 1960, p.78
71
Cairo, the playlet Miduz TuJ:taddiq fi'l-lfayat (Medusa Stares at Life) which was

first published in al-Adab (no.5) in 1963 (pp.3440).

In 1963 WannUs graduated with a B.A in Journalism from Cairo

University and returned to Syria where he was appointed as editor responsible

for literary criticism in the cultural ai-MaC rifa magazine published by the

Ministry of Culture. During his time there, the journal published in 1964 a

special issue about the theatre,13 in which Wanniis wrote, in the section

related to Egypt, an article on the theatre of the absurd entitled "Tawfiq al-

l:Iakim wa-Masral). al-La-Ma~qul" (Tawfiq al-l;Iakim and the Theatre of the

Absurd). He also supervised the cultural section in the party newspaper

al-BaCth, in which he wrote some articles and critical studies.

In quick succession he wrote Fa~d aI-Dam (The Spilling of Blood 1964)),

Ma'sat Bii'ical-Dibs al-Faqir (The Tragedy of the Poor Treacle Seller (1964)),

fuththa cala'I-Ra~iJ (A Corpse on the Pavement (1964)), al-Rasul al-Majhill Ii

Ma'tam Antijilnii (The Unknown Messenger at Antigone's Obsequies (1965)),

ai-farad (The Locusts (1965)), al-Maqhii al-Zujiiji (The Glass Cafe (1965)), Lu'bat

al-Dabiibfs (The Game of Pins (1965)), and finally~ndama Yalcabu'l-Rijal (When

Men Play (1965)). These early plays, as Ismacil has pointed out, were

influenced by existentialist philosophy in one way or another and in particular

13 al-Maerifa (no.34), Damascus, (December 1964), 464 pages.

72
reflect the indirect influence of Ionesco. 14 Describing this period of his

playwrighting he said:

It was a period of psychological and intellectual

anxiety, many metaphysical, romantic and

existentialist tendencies were coming into conflict

in my mind. IS

In general, these early works seem to belong to the category of theatre

des idees, corresponding to the Arabic term al-MasraJ:! al-Dhihni, the best
translation of which is probably "cerebral" or "mental drama".16 These works

share many similarities to the works of al-J:Iakim, in that they contain sections

of great comic or tragic impact and treat important social and philosophical

issues, yet the action is often extremely static and the dramatis personae throw

ideas and theories back and forth in a sort of intellectual tennis game. 17

Wannus entered the early stages of his playwrighting career carrying

with him a rich background of Western theatrical culture and a semi-formed

perception of many of the issues he was to treat in his works. His intellectual

stance towards the theatre found and drew its inspiration from Western

14 Ismacil,I., "Sacd Allah Wannus wa-Rihlat al-Iltizam wa'l-

WUQuJ:1", al-Adab (no.4), Beirut 1978, p.29
15 Ibid, p. 1 91

16 Allen, "Arabic Drama", p.97

17 Ibid, p.97

73
dramatic forms, which were then manifested in the creative artistic forms that

he adopted. 1&rhe avant-garde theatre was in vogue in Europe, especially

France, and the ideas of existentialist philosophy and the theatre of the

absurd 19 could be behind his drift towards the abstract, symbolism and his

general unclear position regarding the issues of oppression, fear and the abuse

of authority.20

In these early plays Wannus addresses the reader rather than the

audience. He has described these:

I was writing plays as texts for reading, and I

continued writing plays for a long period of time
without having any perception of the stage in my
mind. My real theatrical work started after my
study in France?l

This can be seen in his exaggerated description of places, and events and

his emphasis on the physical description of the characters. His language is

semi-poetic and the structure of these plays depends on long monologues

making them closer to a novel. The conflict in most of these works is between

the older and the younger generation. The protagonist in these works is "the

18 Ibid, p. 11 8
19 Theatre of the Absurd, the works of a loosely associated
group of dramatists who shared a similar view of
utility of existence,and the essential absurdity of the
of human behaviour. The plays lack formal logic and
conventional structure.
20 Mu~ammad, Al-Adab al-Masrabi, p.114
21 Dawara, p.191
74
individual human with his internal conflicts, his sufferings and loneliness. He

is under siege, pursued and sometimes sentenced to death."22 The individual

is seen as the product of both a social class and a political system. Such an

individual appears as an opportunist or a powerless and frustrated intellectual

advocating freedom and human justice. These plays will be discussed in detail

in the next chapter.

In 1966 Wannus took study leave and went to Paris to study theatrical

arts in the Theatrical Studies Institute at the Sorbonne. He adapted very

quickly to French society thanks to his previously acquired knowledge of the

French language; he was to be fascinated by the productive and creative

intellectual life in Paris. While he was there, he wrote some short stories and

critical articles about cultural life in Europe. These were published in al-Adab,

al-Mat.rija, and al-BaC.th newspaper. In June 1967 the Six-day War with Israel

took place resulting in the total and devastating defeat of the Arab armies.

This shocked Wannus deeply and as a result he decided to go back to Syria.

In Syria, he found that the defeat had not changed the society or the

system; it was as if nothing had happened. This increased Wannus's inner

torment and depression. He spent four months in Syria, in what he described

as a state of "misery and a state of semi-coma."23 He has reflected on the

impact of that defeat on him:

22 al-Naqqash, "Masra~ s. Wannus", p.76

23 Dawara, p.192

75
 the disaster of 1967 happened while I was in
France. It was a mortal blow. So I returned as soon
as I could. In my opinion it was a serious
tragedy,but in Syria the radio was broadcasting
love songs... the people... the night clubs... the cafes
I decided not to write; I was shattered. After four
months I returned to France and the rich cultural
and intellectual life there revitalized me. After a
short period . of time, my feelings somewhat
matured and I decided to put them down on
paper. In my mind they were a realistic picture of
the reflection of the defeat, as I saw it, in Syria on
both the people's life and on authority,24

He returned to Paris and his love for the theatre helped him overcome

his feelings of isolation enabling him to carry on with his studies. In May 1968

student riots took place in the Paris universities and soon these spread and

escalated allover France supported and accompanied by mass strikes of

workers, arose from all sorts of accu.rnUlated fe.elings of malaise, bringing with

them bloody and violent confrontation with the authorities and the paralysis

of normal life in the country, and for the first in France for many years a near

revolutionary state. The events were a mixture of demands for university

reform, the improvement of conditions of work, worker participation in

management, civil rights agitation, anti-Vietnam sentiments, calls for sexual

liberation, feminism and other forms of anti-authoritarianism. Wanntis found

himself in the middle of these events, not only watching,but participating as

well. He, and some friends, utilized the events as a platform to define the

Palestinian problem before the French people by delivering speeches and

24 Ibid, p.193

76
distributing leaflets. His participation in these events helped him to overcome

the mental agony, which had haunted him since the defeat, yet he did not get

rid of his sensitivity over Arab and nationalist issues.

During his stay in Paris, he began questioning himself about his real

intellectual stance and identity, and during the events that took place in Paris

in 1968, he was given the chance to be involved in politics freely after being

deprived of such freedom previously in his own country. He seized the

opportunity and become politically active with one of the political groups. He

has described his feelings about working with that group by saying: "my

participation with this political group gave me some hope of change, and 1

began to realize that the basic and substantial function of a human being is to

be political."25 Although he has not revealed the identity of this group, it was

most probably one of the Marxist factions, because he has criticized himself for

living previously on the illusions of non-scientific socialism, adopted by

Egypt's cAbd al-N~ir. He was to abandon this road and adopt Marxist

dialectical materialism when he wrote his later plays.

During his stay in France, he also visited some other European

countries, and was able to inyestigate different schools of thought prevailing

in Europe at that time. He attended many seminars related to his studies, as

well as attending many new theatrical experiments which he described as

follows: "I saw different theatrical performances from allover the world, from

Asia, and Africa, as well as Europe representing various schools. 1also started

25 Ibid, p. 1 92

77
to read real criticism that had been scientifically and logically presented."26

He describes how he "saw many works [French and foreign] from the theatre

of the Comedie-Fran9rise, which insists on preserving the French classical

theatrical tradition, to the experiments of an American troup called Living

Theatre, and many avant-garde theatre groupS."Xl These two years he spent

in Paris broadened and enriched his knowledge of the theatre.

His studies in the Sorbonne gave Wanniis the chance to receive training

on the hands of highly qualified directors and theatrical figures such as Jean

Vilar, Bernard Dort and Jean-Marie Serrau28. This has benefitted Wanniis in

his later works, especially in his theatrical techniques. It also transformed

Wanniis's intellectual stance from that of Existentialism to scientific socialism.

He focused his attention on this philosophy and became interested in the

works that advocated it, such as the works of Peter Weiss29 and the epic

theatre of Bertolt Brecht. Wannus described how he met Peter Weiss and

26 Ibid, p. 1 91
27 Wannus interviewed by Khalid RarnaQan, Damascus,1984
28 Jean Vilar (1912-1971), French actor, director and
manager was the founder of the Theatre National Populaire.
Bernard Dort is one of the principal French critics on
Brecht. Jean-Marie Serrau (1915-1973) was the French actor
and director, who championed the Theatre of the Absurd and
the avant-garde movement.
29Peter Weiss (1916-1982), German-born playwright and
novelist, whose works, mainly documentary dramas, has been
translated and performed worldwide (see Living Newspaper).
78
attended the Brecht-Dialo~ in Berlin in 1968, as well as attending many

important theatrical experiments. "31

Wannus was able to add a new dimension to his theatrical knowledge,

by his enthusiastic attendance at various performances, and conferences and

by his studies related to the theatre. This new dimension was represented by

his attempt to explore various aspects of stage craft in order to employ such

knowledge in his playwrighting, as he explained: "in France I became able to

define what exactly I wanted from the theatre and my critical vision of the

European theatrical movements became better shaped. "32

In 1968 he wrote while in Paris his most famous and controversial work

ljaflat Samar min AJl Khamsah Jfuzayran (An Evening's Entertainment for the

Sth of June), as well as publishing an article about the German playwright

Peter Weiss and the documentary theatre entitled "Peter Weiss Amaro Jumhiir

La-Siyasi" (Peter Weiss in front of a. nOh~political Audience), which was

published in al-Macrifa magazine. This play, Bu'Ali Yasin and Nabil Sulayman

have argued "stood in the face of the defeat armed with a scientific and

revolutionary perspective which exposed the falsity that most Arabic plays had

sunk into. The depth, boldness, awareness and veracity of the play made it

the centre of attention all over the Arab World."33 Because of its bold, direct

30 Brecht-Dialog, a conference on Brecht held in Berlin in

1968.
31 Dawara, p.193

32 Rama<;lan, P . 21

33 Yasin and Sulayman, p. 352

79
and open criticism of Arab political institutions, Syrian authorities banned the

play, and it was only in 1971 that the first performance of the play took place

in Damascus. This play will be discussed later.

Towards the end of 1968, Wannus returned to Syria after finishing his

studies in Paris, full of enthusiasm to use in the Syrian theatre what he had

studied and the knowledge and experience he had gained. However, in 1969,

to his amazement, he was appointed, perhaps against his will, editor-in-chief

of a state-run children's magazine called Usama, mainly publishing children's

stories. He stayed in the post till 1975. During 1969, Wannus wrote another

play ai-HI Ya Malik ai-Zaman (The Elephant, Oh King of All Ages!). This play

and Ma'sat Ba'i' al-Dibs al-Faqir (The Tragedy of the Poor Treacle Seller) were

presented in one performance at the first Damascus Festival for Theatrical Arts

held in Damascus in 1969.

In 1970 Wannus conducted two interviews with Bernard Dort and Jean-

Marie Serrau and these interviews were published in al-Macrifa magazine

(nos.102 and 103, 1970). He also wrote some articles under the title "Bayanat

li-MasraJ:t ~Arabi Jadid", which began to appear in al-Macrifa (no.104), and in

1988 were brought together in a book that bears the same title. His play

Mughamarat Ra's al-MamlUk Jabir was published in al-Macrifa (no.10S) in 1971

and in the Beirut al-Adab magazine in 1977. Wanntis, also wrote a film script

entitled Hikiiyat Tall al-5\rab (The Story of the Arabs' Hill), which was supposed

to be directed for the screen by the Egyptian director, Tawfiq ~alal), however

80
the project received harsh critisism from some Arab critics and therefore the

script was banned by the Syrian authorities.34

In 1971 Wanniis worked with the famous Syrian film directorf.Umar

AmiraHiy in a film experiment entitled al-Ifayat al-Yawmiyya tr Qarya Silriya

(Daily Life in a Syrian Village). This documentary film told the story of a

scheme to build a dam in the Euphrates valley, providing a factual and a

historical account of human and material resources available in a Syrian

village, al-Muwaylil), in the region of Dayr al-Ziir.35 During 1971 also, his

work Ifaflat Samar saw its first performance in Damascus. In 1972 he began

writing a weekly column in al-BaCth party newspaper, under the title Kull

AQad (Every Sunday) discussing cultural and socio-political issues. He also

redrafted a play entitled al-Darawish Yab/:latlluncan al-Haqiqa (The Poor are

Searching for the Truth), which had been' originally written in 1970 by a

Syrian playwright, Mu~tafa al-J:IalIaj. The play depicts political injustice and

oppression and issues a warning that such oppression could reach

everybody.36 Wannus also wrote that year his play Sahra maca Abi Kham al-

Qabbani (Soiree with Abu Khalil al-Qabbani, 1972). In 1973 Wannus went to

France on a course to update his knowledge of the new experiments in the

34 Cluny, C., Dictionaire des nouveaux cinemas arabes,

Sindbad, Paris, 1978, p.227

35 Wannus, S., Hawamish Thagafiyya, Dar al-Adab, Beirut,

1992, pp.129-137

36 Muhammad,N., "al-Adab al-Masrahi fi Suriya.:al-ijallaj",

al-Hayat al-Masrahiyya (no.27), Damascus, 1986, pp.46-51

81
theatre. In 1975 Wannus took unpaid leave from his work in the USQma

magazine and became the editor in charge of the cultural section in the

Marxist oriented Lebanese newspaper al-Sa/ir. However, because of the civil

war then raging in the Lebanon, he was forced to return to Syria in 1976. He

translated Jean Vilar's book (De la tradition theatrale (1963)) as (lfawl al-taqalid

ai-Mas ral;t iyya ). He discussed the opinions of the Syrian poet Adonis in the

cultural supplement to al-Thawra, the government newspaper. He also wrote

an adaptation of Brecht's play Torandot or the Congress of White-washers

(published in 1967), as well as translating and adapting Gogol's play The Diary

oj a Madman, which Wannus entitled Yawmiyyat Majnun.

During the year 1976, Wannus was appointed first director of al-Masral)

al-Tajribi (The Experimental Theatre), a government-established and controlled

theatre, at al-Qabbani's Theatre in Damascus. The aim of that theatre,

following developments in European theatre, was to attempt to communicate

with the audience in a new way; this meant continuous enquiry,

experimentation, and the rejection of the traditional relationship between the

stage and the audience. The theatre strived to create a relationship similar to

a dialogue with the audience, benefiting from the whole theatrical heritage, in

order to implement this goal of increased communication.37 Wanniis, like

Brecht in most of his works, emphasized that the structure of this theatre

would be based on the audience, for it would study their responses, their taste

37 Mul}.arrunad, N.," HadhZl 'l-Masra1! .• Hadhih! 'l-~araka al-

Masra1].iyya," al-Thawra, Damascus, 1980, pp.24-29
82
and the problems they faced. Then the theatre would try to find artistic

techniques that might enable it to interact with the audience and play its role

in reshaping the audience's outlook, asserting feelings of a shared destiny.38

In 1977 during the Seventh Damascus Festival for the Theatrical Arts,

al-Masral) al-Tajribi presented Wanntls's adaptation of Gogol's Yawmiyyat

Majnim, directed by the Syrian director Fawaz al-Sajir. This work created a lot

of discussion, especially about the acting in this one-man play, and the

experimental direction of the play, which broke the narrative rhythm of the

play by moving the actor in a quick and successive movements or by using of

alternating stage lighting to create the equivalent of a staccato cinematic

movement.39

The second production of this theatre was in 1978, when Wanniis also

prepared an adaptation of Peter Weiss's How Mr. Mockingpott was Relieved of

his Sufferings (1968), entitled RiJ:llat HantJlla min al-Ghajla ita 'I-YaqtJl (I:I~a's

Journey from Indifference to Awareness).4() The play tells the story of a man

and his misfortunes. The man cannot understand the reasons for his

sufferings and tries different ways to find a solution to them, at the end he

succumbs and has to follow the government's line. The play was also directed

by al-Sajir and presented during the Eighth Festival at al-QabbanT Theatre in

38 wanntis, Bayanat, pp.96,97

39 Aliksan, al-Wilada al-Thaniya, p.87
40~an~ala might be the character mentioned in the story of
King of al-~ira in Iraq, al-Nu~man b. al-Mundhir. He is
also the central character of the first verse play in
Arabic, Khalil al-Yaziji's al-Muru'a wa'l-Wafa'.
83
Damascus. The company's third work was an adaptation of the Argentinian

playwright Osvaldo Dragun's41ljikayat {Jarbat Shams (Historia con carcel) (The

Story of Sunstroke), I;IikQyat $adiquna Bantsh;:' (Historia para ser cotadas) (The

Story of Our Friend Pancho), and Ijikizyat al-Rajul alIadhi $ar Kalb (Historia del

hombre que cobrito en perro) (The Man Who Turned into a Dog). These three
stories depicts the life of an individual crushed in a "Machiavellian" consumer

society.42

In 1977 Wannus established under the control of the Ministry of Culture

a journal specializing in the theatre, called al-l;layat al-Masrahiyya, becoming its

first editor-in-chief. Alongside the Egyptian periodical al-Masrab, this journal

is probably one of the best magazines in the Arab world to specialize in

publishing material, articles, studies, and discussions related to all aspects of

the theatre, and a large number of translations of plays. It embraced all

theatre movements and theories giving a detailed account of the Western

theatre as well as theatre from around the world. This journal has been

published quarterly and Wannus remained its editor-in-chief until 1986. In

1979 Wannus translated a play writen by the Hungarian playwright Istvan

Orkeny4J entitled Totek" (The Tot Family, 1966) (~'ilat Tilt) and published

4'Osvaldo Dragun an Argentinian playwright who presented

realistic situations plays with overt political overtones.
see Allardyce Nicoll, World Drama, London, 1976.
42 Aliksan, pp. 88,89
43 Istvan Orkeny, an avant-garde Hungarian playwright, whose
play Totek (1967) (Tot Family) marks his shift towards the
theatre of the absurd and the theatre of protest. See
Allardyce Nicoll, World Drama, London, 1976.
84
this translation in al-lfayat al-Masrabiyya in 1980. The magazine is still in

business. That same year, the late Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat made

his momentous visit to Israel and consequently signed what many Arabs

regarded as a disgraceful peace treaty between Egypt and Israel ending thirty

odd years of conflict. Wanniis, a committed Arab nationalist, like many in the

Arab world, was deeply shocked by this event. The bilateral treaty violated

the previous Arab unanimity towards Israel. This brought about a void in

Wannus's creativity and as a result he stopped writing. He said describing this

event:

all our generation felt defeated and the project of

Arab unity which provided us with so much
energy and enthusiasm collapsed. All our dreams
of such unity vanished and we were pushed
towards total subordination to capitalism. 45

He also described the situation in the Middle East at that time as

irrational, an Iranian-type revolution was being called for by some religious

groups and Marxist intellectuals suddenly shifted their allegiance to Islam,

something he persistently rejected. He stated: "As an atheist, I don't believe

in religion and cannot envisage how we can build a modern state on religious

principles."46 As a consequence of his state of depression, Wanniis suffered

a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized. Fortunately he soon recovered as

44 See Nicoll, A., World Drama, Harrap, London, 1967, p.869

45 Wannus interviewed by the researcher, 1989.
46 Ibid

85
he said:" I found some internal balance and became more calm; this has

enabled me to resume my writing activity.""7

In 1988 Wanniis published a book, Bayanat li-MasraIJ )\rabi jadid

(Manifestos for a New Arab Theatre), in which he put forward his ideas on

Arab theatre and some other related issues. These ideas had been previously

published in various journals and were collected and revised in this book. His

latest play is entitled al-Ighti~b (The Rape, 1990) and was published by Dar al-

Adab in Beirut (1990). It deals with the Palestinian issue. This play is an

adaptation of a Spanish work (La Doble His to ria del Doctor Valmy (1978)) by the

Spanish playwright Antonio B. Vallejo4B. During 1992, Wannus wrote a new

book entitled Hawamish ThaqaJiyya (Cultural Margins), in which he redefined

his position on many issues and expressed his ideas on previous experiments

in various genres of literature. Wannus is still the director of al-Masr~ al-

Tajiibi at al-Qabbaru Theatre in Damascus.

Wannus's Intellectual Stance:

Wannus has taken as a point of departure in his writings, especially

after the 1967 defeat, a revolutionary Marxist perspective. Within this, he sees

47 Ibid
48Antonio B. Vallejo (1916-?), a well-known 20th century
Spanish playwright, whose first play Historia du una
escalera (Story of a Staircase, 1949), marks the beginning
of the "new" Spanish drama. See Hispanic Classics, Modern
Drama Antonio Vallejo The Shot, trans. by David Johnston,
Warminster, London, 1989.
86
the theatre as a potential major contributor to political and social change. This

is reflected in a statement he has made regarding the function of the theatre:

We know that the theatre is only a part of those

daily and long term efforts, which will open up
one day the prospect of change, and when that
occurs, the starting point will not be a theatre
auditorium, nevertheless, the theatre will have a
role to play in this change.49

Before 1967, and when Wanniis was young, Arab nationalist ideas,

especially in Syria, were strong. He was an advocate of Arab unity and the

establishment of one Arab state, and when the United Arab Republic was

proclaimed, he was an enthusiastic supporter of that union. These feelings

were enhanced by the charismatic personality of Jamal Abd al-N~ir, who was

seen by the Arab masses as a national hero because he appeared as their

potential saviour from colonialism and foreign capitalism. He became the role

model for the younger generation. In Syria this image ofAbd al-N~ir had a

very powerful effect on the young. However, the dissolution of the union

between Syria and Egypt in 1961 brought with it disappointment; Wannus has

said describing the event:

It was a serious blow to me and to my generation,

a shock that raised many questions. We discovered
that the separation was an attack or a counter

49 al-Naqqash, "Masral:l s. Wannus", p.87

87
 measure to a series of socialist decrees,so and an
attempt to block those decrees and return to a free
market, semi-capitalist system. At this stage
everyone realized his place in the class struggle
and I, intellectually at least, became aware, or at
least felt that, I was part of that socialist
movement. 51

That ideological movement which WannUs has labelled as non-scientific

socialism, in other words not based on true Marxist ideology, was, according

to WannUs, that which was adopted by the Egyptian and the Syrian

governments during the 196Os. However, until 1967, Wannus was uncertain

of his ideological commitment, he kept trying to identify himself with existing

intellectual and political movements or ideologies in the Arab world and

accordingly to take a stand on political and social issues. However, his

admiration forcAbd al-Na~ir and what he later came to regard as the illusions

(awham) of non-scientific socialism wavered after the 1%7 defeat. He then

began to think of non-scientific socialism as the socialism of the petite

bourgeoisie mixed with nationalism and dictatorship, and that it aimed at

isolating the masses and preventing them from experiencing democracy. Such

socialism, he argued:

was heading for a dead-end and the people behind

it were not socialists; they were embarking on an
attempt to create a capitalist state, that would

50 The union between the two countries was dominated solely

by Na~ir. He wanted to run the new country alone, something
that may have led the Syrian government of the time to
break up the union.
51 Wannus interviewed by RamaQan, 1984.
88
 support the ruler or the ruling class, which was the
petit bourgeoisie, and would enable them to
control society.52

He therefore abandoned his commitment to N~irism, when he discovered that

it was "imperfect and attempting to seduce the individual rather than create

an active historical, scientific and political commitment. "53

He also began to look at existentialist thought from a different angle.

Describing the specific and deliberate attention that was given to promoting

this during the sixties in the Arab World, especially in Beirut, he argued that

this was done in order to block the development of socialist ideas, such as

Marxism. However, WannUs perhaps is mistaken in concluding that this was

the sole preoccupation of the editors of Arab intellectual journals, particularly

al-Adab, because Beirut at that time was the centre for the propagation of

various schools of thought and not only for existentialism.

In France, Wannus's stance on political and social issues became more

clear and concrete for he was able to practice politics freely. During that

period, "he realized that the prime or substantial human interest is to be a

politician."54 In fact, he has described his theatre as a "politicizing" process or

"the theatre of politicization"; Wannus found himself committed to scientific

socialist thought (Marxist doctrine), something that has coloured most of his

52 RamaQan, Masrab, p.23

S3 Ibid, p. 23
S~ Wannus interviewed by Dawara, p.193
89
later plays and by which he has analyzed the class structure in society from

the perspective of dialectical materialism. He became committed to Marxism,

although he was not officially associated with any particular party. He has

always stressed that he is a fighter (muna!lil) armed with words:

I always strive to accomplish al-kalima wa'l-fill (the

word and action), where the dream and the act of
revolution are bound together and embodied in the
context [of the word]. The role of the spectator
alone was not able to fully encompass the
boundaries of the efficacy Va~aJiyya) I sought, but
the fighter I want to be is, in the end, no more than
a writer whose actions are\.ia words. This was my
problem in essence and I tried to surpass it by
searching for a written language that could
combine within its course (siyaq) these two
roles. 55

Politics became the dominant factor in Wannus's life. He began to move

away from the theatre and engage in arguments about Arab political issues

and follow current affairs from various sources, he described that

In later years, the years of anarchy, political

disarray and setbacks, my theatrical readings
became shallow and my attention drifted towards
the political and social reports and news.56

His deep emotional involvement in politics has overshadowed his

theatrical writing and since the visit of the late Egyptian president, Anwar al-

Sadat to Israel in 1977, he had an emotional breakdown and was to stop

55 Ismacil, al-Kalima, p.223.

56 Wannus interviewed by RamaQan, 1984.

90
writing plays for a period of about thirteen years, during which he made some

translations or adaptations of some Western or foreign works, and wrote some

critical articles concerning politics and theatre. His critical studies and articles

were published in many Arab journals, such as the Egyptian al-Hilal, the

Lebanese al-Adiib, and the Syrian al-Macrifa and al-l;layiit al-Masra1}iyya. Apart

from these articles, he was to express his vision and ideas about the theatre in

the introductions he wrote to some of his plays, to lfaflat Samar, al-Ftl Ya Malik

ai-ZAman, Mughamarat Ra's al-MamlukJabir and Sahra mlfa Abr Khalil al-QabbanT.

In these articles and introductary remarks, he criticized the modern

Arab theatre arguing that it lacked an independent style or identity and that

it did not confront issues concerning the wider masses, only addressing a

limited section of Arab society and confining itself to a framework borrowed

from Western theatre. He invited Arab writers to experiment to evolve a

theatrical form linked both to the past and present of the Arab world.

Western ready-made forms, Wanniis argued, did not represent Arab society

because they were created for a different type of society.57

Wannus has called for a return to the early years of Arab theatre and

for that period to be studied intensively so as to find out its characteristics and

the elements of its success. In this respect, Wannus praised and drew attention

to the efforts of the pioneers of the Arab theatre, and asserts that, Marlin al-

Naqqash, AQrnad Abu Khalil al-Qabbaru and yaC.qub ~anuc despite having

started from zero, had a sound and correct vision of the theatre with respect

57 Dawara, p.181

91
to its two main elements: the actor and the audience. They paid a great deal

of attention to the audience and soon discarded translation and many

European theatrical techniques, which they realized did not suit their

aUdiences.58

He supported the idea of the creation of an Arab theatre with Arab

features. By doing so Wannus has followed in the footsteps of other Arab

playwrights, who have espoused the notion of a return to the Arab heritage.

Amongst those who have done so were Tawfiq al-J:Iakim and the Egyptian

playwright and short-story writer Yiisuf Idris, who promoted this idea in

several articles he wrote and later in his book Na1)wa Masrai) )\rabi (1974). He

called for:

the establishment of an Egyptian theatre which

derives its form and content from the heritage,
ideas and circumstances of Egyptian society. This
theatre, as well, must depend on the visual arts
known to Egyptian society and on popular
theatrical manifestations, like the samir, and employ
these forms in a way that will lead to imprinting
this theatre with features that represent Egyptian
society.59

The emphasis on the role of the audience has been Wannus's main

concern; he believed that the essential element to solve the problems of the

58 Ibid, p. 1 81

59Idris, Y., Nabwa Masrab 'Arabi, a1-Watan a1- e Arabi 1i'1-

Nashr, Beirut, 1974, pp.492-494.

92
Arab theatre was the audience, without which there would be no theatre. He

believed that any study must start from the audience, because as he said:

the defining of the audience's identity, social

structure, cultural conditions, problems and
sufferings will enrich our work and broaden the
limits of our theatrical movement, moreover, it will
be the first step towards specifying the forms of
theatrical presentation suitable to this audience. 60

He also invited those involved in theatre to search in a more vigorous manner

to find their own means of theatrical presentation, whether such presentation

lies in form, method or language. 61

Wannus placed considerable emphasis on theatrical experimentation and

believed that it was the only way that would eventually lead the Arabs to a

theatrical form peculiar to them. Such experimentation, Wannus insisted, must

deal with political issues because, the theatre, as he said:

Started political and still, even when it does not

address politics or avoids discussing political
problems, expresses a political stance and performs
a political function, which is to divert the people's
attention away from their essential problems and
distract them from contemplating their conditions
[of life] and the means of changing such
conditions. 62

60 Wannus, II Bayana t", p. 9

61 Ibid, pp.15-16

62 Ibid

93
Wanniis argued that the theatre must be a provocative and educational

instrument provoking the masses to reflect upon their problems, analyze them

and ultimately to prompt them to work to change their conditions for the

better.63 This clearly reflects the perspectives of the epic theatre of Brecht, and

its function, especially in most of his didactic and epic plays.

Wannus later called his theatre "The Theatre of Politicization", a term

that reflects Wannus's philosophy of the theatre. This theatre, which will be

discussed in detail later, was for him a way of counterbalancing the political

oppression, and through it Wannus attempted to politicize the masses and

enlighten them about the political problems affecting their present and future.

In other words, his theatre was "a dialogue between two spaces, the first is the

theatrical performance which is presented by a group [of actors] that wants to

communicate with the audience, and the second is the audience in the

auditorium, in which all aspects of reality and its problems are reflected. "64

Through his thirty-year voyage in the theatre, through existentialism

and the theatre of the absurd to Marxist ideology and the Brechtian epic

theatre, with his aspirations and ambitions to establish an Arab theatre with

a true Arab identity reflecting Arab problems, Wanniis has been the supreme

example of a playwright committed to his work and dedicated to his audience.

He has become well-known all over the Arab World and his plays have been

63 RamaQan, Masrab, p. 28
64Wanntis,S., al-Fil Ya Malik al-Zaman, Dar al-Adab, Beirut,
1977, p.42

94
performed in many Arab and foreign countries, as well as having been

translated into many languages. I;Iaflat Samar has been presented in the Sudan

(1970), the Lebanon (1970), Iraq (1972) and was translated into Spanish in the

Spanish periodical (Primer Acto (no. 166, 19741..:.65 His play, al-Ftl yti Malik al-

Zaman has been presented in most Arab countries and was translated to
Polish, Russian and English.66 Mughiimarat Ra's al-MamlUk Jiibir was

presented in Iraq (1972), Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, the V.A.E., the Lebanon,

France, and East Germany and has been translated to German and Russian.

Sahra ma~a Abi Khalil al-Qabbiini, has been presented in Syria (1974), Kuwait

(1982), and in Berlin and has been translated to Russian. ai-Malik Huwa'l-

Malik, was presented in Syria (1977), Tunis (1982), Iraq, Egypt, the V.A.E., and

Bahrain and has been translated to Russian and English. The popularity of his

plays shows the prominent place Wannus holds in the Arab theatre and the

respect and appreciation of his work both in Syria and allover the Arab

world. He has captured the hearts and minds of the Arab audience through

his serious and intellectual treatment of issues that concern the wider Arab

audience, and which reflect their hopes and aspirations.

65 Primer Acto is a Spanish periodical. In March 1974 it

published a special section on the Arab theatre, in which
Wannus's perspective on theatre and his play Haflat Samar
were presented in this section.
66 The Syrian Ministry of Culture translated this play and
al-Malik huwa'l-Malik, as part of a Syrian cultural week in
the U.S.A. in 1988. They were performed there, but were not
published in English.
95
 Chapter 3

Existentialism. The Theatre of the Absurd and Wanniis

I read al-Adilb magazine regularly, and through that

I might have been influenced by some Existentialist
ideas... At that period, I read almost every
translation of the plays of Sartre...And in my early
plays I might have been influenced by Eugene
Ionesco. 1

Wannus, like many other Arab writers during the early 19605,

experimented in existentialism and this new form of theatre, the theatre of the

absurd. In order to understand how Existentialism found its way into the

Arab world, especially Egypt, the Lebanon and Syria, a brief background of

the development of Existentialism in Europe and its influence upon Arab

intellectuals and writers will be given.

The emergence of Anarchism,2 Dadaism,3 and later Surrealism· after

World War One shook the world of the arts of painting, poetry, music and

1 Wannus interviewed by Dawara, p.190

2 Anarchism is a political philosophy which holds that
societies can and should exist without rulers. See D.
Miller, Anarchism, London, 1980.

3 Dadaism is a movement in art founded by the Romanian-born

French poet and essayist, Tristan Tzara. It rejected
rationality, sense and order.

4 Surrealism grew out of Dadaism. Its main founder was the

French poet Andre Breton (1896-1966).

96
literature to its roots, and names such as the poet Tristan Tzara, the architect

Hans Arp, the writer Richard Huelsenbeck, Andre Breton, Louis Aragon,

Mikhail Bakunin, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso md others came to the fore. In

addition, a new style of novel emerged in the hands of James Joyce, Marcel

Proust and Frantz Kafka. "Stream of consciousness" coloured the novel with

concepts of darkness, despair and pessimism, 5 engendered in the aftennath

of the horrors of the war, when people began to talk of a feeling of anxiety

and a sense of loss and the word "war" itself became a horrible ghost which

everyone feared.

After World War II, some intellectuals, such as the British historian

Arnold Toynbee, felt that in their hands lay the responsibility for the salvation

of mankind, and that the iconoclastic ideas of Anarchism, Dadaism and

Surrealism were no longer suitable or valid. They called for a return to

Christianity in order to find salvation. This coincided with the appearance of

terms such as "the fall of civilisation," and the emergence of new pro-Soviet

forces in Eastern Europe. As a result the balance of power was shaken,

"bourgeois civilisation began to fade, and a new generation of angry and

discontended writers emerged.6

5 Hafiz, S., " a l-Lugha wa'l-la-MaCqul fi Masral;1 Ionesco",

al':Adab, vol.1l (no.l0), 1963, p.24

6 Ibid

97
 During that period Europe was overwhelmed with existentialise and

absurdist writings; Paris became the centre for such writings, and names such

as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and Gabriel Marcel

began to appear under the spotlight. Meanwhile, a new form of theatre

emerged, the "Theatre of the Absurd,"8 which rocked theatre traditions to its

foundations: figures such as Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco,

Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee and Harold Pinter took the lead in

experimentation and spreading this new form of theatre.

The playwrights of the theatre of the absurd were mainly influenced by

the philosophy of revolt and absurdity of Albert Camus. Theirs was a

metaphysical revolt, absolute and beyond time and place. With it the social

attributes of theatre weakened or even disappeared. The theatre seemed to be

practising self-destruction, even language was no longer a social tool, because

it had lost its function; the characters in the plays of these playwrights were

isolated, as if each one had his own language. They became puppets, who had

7 Existentialism is a philosophy of life, of individualism,

choice and instinct. The seeds of it were found in the
writings of Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, but the
principal founders of this philosophy were the Germans,
Heidegger and Jasper. In France its leading protagonists
were Marcel and Sartre.

8 The word "absurd" was first used by Albert Camus, but

Martin Esslin assigned this name to that new mode of
theatre in his book The Theatre of the Absurd, London,
1962.
98
no control over their own movements and whose strings were in the hands of

Albert Camus did not regard the world as absurd or say that he

regarded man as absurd. What was absurd to him was "the relationship

between man and the objects of his understanding, the link which ties man to

the world. The world is not absurd, it is irrational, incongruous. The absurd

is born of man's dissatisfaction with his irrationality. "10 Camus described this

notion:

This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that

can be said. But what is absurd is the
confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing
for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart.
The· absurd depends as much on man as on the
world. For the moment it is all that links them
together. It binds them one to the other as only
hatred can weld two creatures together. This is all
I can discern clearly in this measureless universe
where my adventure takes place. ll

This notion of Camus and Sartre was unacceptable in Muslim and Arab

societies, because it was an atheistic philosophy promoting atheistic ideas.

Unlike the philosophy of Sartre and Camus, the existentialist philosophy of

Soren Kierkegaard's bears a close resemblance to Sufism in Islam and therefore

would be more acceptable, as cAbd al-RaJ:unan Badawi has argued. He has

9 Hilal,M., Fi'l-Nagd al-Masrabi, Dar Nah9at Mi~r, Cairo,

1955, p.36

10 Master,B., A Student's Guide to Camus, Heinemann,

London, 1974, p.40

11 Camus,A., The Myth of Sisyphus, trans. by Justin

O'Brien, Alfred A. Jnoff, New York, 1969, p.26

99
emphasised that there are close similarities in the principles, methods and the

ends of the two. In principle they start from the idea of "self existence," as

manifested in the perfect human in both philosophies. In Sufism the notion

of the "perfect man" is synonymous to the notion of "l'unique" in Kierkegaard's

existentialism. 12 Badawi asserts that this notion, which is based on religion

is more acceptable to the mentality of Muslim or Arab societies.

Nevertheless, Sartre's atheistic existentialism also generated a response

in the Arab world, as Mu{iammad Mandilr explains:

It calls for emancipation from inherited out-dated

values. This call, naturally, found a response
amongst some of our men of letters, especially the
young, in a period where our revolutions had
started to destroy many old and outdated
traditions and free the citizens from many
restraints and abhorrent chains.13

While Mandtir was not so positive towards the existentialist approach

to the issue of religion, he felt the literati could benefit from existentialist

philosophy:

We do not go along with the Existentialist

philosophy in its rejection of religion and its call
for its abolition, however, we can or we ought to
benefit from its call to free ourselves from many

12 Badawi,A., al-Insaniyya wa'l-Wujudiyya fi 'l-Fikr

al:Arabi, Dar al-Aqlam, Beirut, 1982, pp.73-75
13 Mandur quoted in al£AshmawI, M., al-Masrab, Usuluh wa-
Ittiiahatuh al-Mucasira, Dar al-Nah9a al-~Arabiyya,
Beirut, n.d., p.106

100
 detestable values and principles that have crept
into religion and morality.14

These ideas of Mandtir were shared, to a certain degree, by the traditional

main stream critics and writers in Egypt, such as Talla l:Iusayn.

However, these critics did not accept the theatre of the absurd, because

it did not subscribe to the traditional and classical concepts and rules of

writing. Nevertheless, because this was the new mode of European theatre,

the works of Camus, Beckett, Genet, and Ionesco found some response in the

Arab world; "from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, the works of these

playwrights were in vogue throughout the Arab world, motivating

playwrights to create something similar. "15

During the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, the Existentialist

philosophy and its byproduct, the Theatre of the Absurd, slowly penetrated

the Arab world. At a time when Beirut's bookshops were filled with

translations of works by Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean Wahl, Simone de

Beauvoir16 and Camus, published by al-Adiib magazine, the Masrap al-Jayb

(The Pocket Theatre) in 1962 in Cairo was presenting in Arabic Endgame and

The Chairs by Beckett and Ionesco respectively, translated by 'Abd aI-Qadir al-

14 Ibid, p.107
15 Gourgh,A., "The Sociopolitical and Cultural Ambience
of Walid Ikhla$i", World Literature Today, vol.62,
1988, p.50
16 Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) and Simone de
Beauvoir (1908-1986), alongside Sartre, were some of
the main exponents of "atheistic" Existentialism.

101
 Til mi saru. Tayyib al-~iddiqr, in Morocco, had first translated and produced

Beckett's Waiting for Godol and Ionesco's Amedee in 1957. The Egyptian

Ministry of Culture published translations of many books and plays by

existentialist writers, such as Camus' La Peste, Sartre's Les Mouches, and

Ionesco's Rhinoceros, and Arab newspapers and magazines, such as aI-HilaI, aI-

Adiib, aI-Aqlam,C.A1am al-Ma-C.rifa and many others, were deluged with letters

and articles debating and criticising this new philosophy and theatrical mode,

the theatre of the absurd (masral; al-U-MaC.qiil). Arguments showed a division

between the a~ala and l)adatha, the traditional and the innovative, the "ancients"

and the "moderns, "17 those for and against this new theatre.

The rapid social changes that had swept many parts of the Arab world,

especially Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco and Iraq, as a result of political

upheaval in the 195Os, and the opening up of Arab society to modern life, had

produced a generation wary of the ideals of the past, a generation whose life

was marked by "the absence of social ideology which could replace the

traditional theology, which was no longer able to supply adequate answers."1B

Yi'his generation has been described by the Egyptian writer ShukrT GhaIT as

follows:

A new generation of writers was born... who could

be termed the new wave in our modern literature.
The conditions, in which social change was

17 FayaQ, M., The Impact of the Absurd on Modern Arabic

Literature, (Ph.D, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign), 1986, p.17
1 8 Ibid, p. 1 7

102
 occurring in our nation were, and continue to be,
extremely turbulent and complex, so that the new
experiments of this generation wer.e extremely
turbulent and complex as well. Some of them
thought that the sad tone which occasionally
reached the point of despair in modern Arabic
literature [as a result of the social conditions] was
the right tone for the renewal of the Arabic novel.
They therefore began to find in the theatre of the
Absurd, metaphysical poetry, and the anti-novel,
their means of expression .. · But others
tried to find in the sadness of their nation another
meaning which should create its own forms. ,g

In that period, the crises of the Arab world seemed to shift to become

the crises of the intellectual himself or as they were called, the "crisis of the

Arab conscience;"20 with that shift came a concern with man's condition, as

raised by the existentialist philosophy.

From Existentialism to the Absurd it was only one step, inspired and

accomplished through translations of Camus's works, published by Dar al-

Adab in Beirut. Tawfiq al-I:Iakim, was the first Arab playwright to write in

the vein of the theatre of the Absurd when he wrote yti Talical-Shajara (The

Tree Climber, 1962)),21 in which al-I:Iakim, "found the dramatic techniques of

the theatre of the Absurd suitable to present his philosophical drama which

19 Shukri, G., al-Riwaya al-CArabiyya fi Riblat al-~Adhab,

'Alam al-Kuttub, Cairo, 1971, p.a

20 C Ayyad,S., "al-Riwaya al!Arabiyya al-Muca9ira",'Alarn al-

Fikr, vol.3 (no.3), (Oct.-Dec. 1972), pp.619-649
21 The play was published in English translation as The
Tree Climber, London, 1965-66.

103
he called al-Masral) al-Dhihnf (theatre of the mind), for he deals with abstract

metaphysical language, disconnected verbal communications, dreams,

juxtapositions of time and place, and psychological doubles."22 Amongst the

other writers who experimented in this new form, were Ylisuf Idris, in his play

al-Farajrr (Flipflaps (1964)),23 and al-Mahzala al-Arfliyya (The Terrestrial

Comedy (1966)). The adoption of this new trend in the theatre by long-

established writers such as al-I;IakTm and Idris, although al-I:Iakim's

contribution was perhaps the most significant, more or less sanctioned the

Absurd for the younger generation of writers, one of whom was Sa'd Allah

Wannus, who was studying in Cairo at that time.

Since then, many other Arab playwrights have been encouraged to write

in this vein, especially in Syria and Lebanon, where a general feeling of crisis

of values and rebellion against the old order has led them to look toward

Existentialism and absurd ism as a possible source of ideas?" The Syrian critic

Dr.Nadim Mutlammad has acknowledged that "during the first half of the

1960s, Existentialist and Absurdist philosophical currents have influenced and

affected a large number of Arab writers and artists. In Syria, Ikhl~i, Wanniis

22 al-Shetaiwi,M., The Impact of western Drama upon Modern

Egyptian Drama, (Ph.D, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign), 1983, p.37
23 This play was translated into English in F.'Abd
aI-Wahab, Modern Egyptian Drama, Bibliotheca Islamica, Inc. ,
Minneapolis, 1974.
24 al-Khatib,~., Subul al-Mu'aththirat al-Ajnabiyya,
Damascus, 1981, p.74

104
and some other Syrian writers have fallen captive to the Existentialist current

that prevailed in Syrian literature during that period. "25

Such a mode of expression in Arabic literature, manifested itself

primarily in what was generally called, in Egypt, adab al-(laya,26 (the literature

of loss). The writers of that type of literature can be generally characterized

in the terms of the generation of the sixties in the West!', the likes of Camus,

Beckett and Ionesco described by al-Khatib:

They did not believe in family, society, or the

establishment. Perhaps they believed in one thing:
themselves. But that, in any case, was not certain.
For even this belief in themselves might result in
nothing, since it occurred within the limited
framework of a feeling of loss, fragmentation, and
alienation from the world.28

In Syria, Walid Ikhl~i was probably the first Syrian playwright to write

in the tradition of the theatre of the Absurd. Inspired by translations,

adaptations and productions of plays by Beckett, Ionesco and Friedrich

Durrenmatt,29 Ikhla~r wrote al-Mut'a Wnhid wa-cIshrin (Pleasure no.21 (1962)),

25 MUQammad, al-Adab al-Masrabi, pp.65,78

26 This term meant that this type of literature had no aim
or meaning and its writers have lost their sense of
direction, values and their works did not convey any
serious message to humanity.
27 FayaQ., p.30

28 al-Khatib, p.76

29 Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921- ) Swiss playwright and

novelist, who is regarded, together with Max Frisch, as one
of the two most important post-war German language
dramatists.

105
and Tubiil al-I'dam al- ~shara (The Ten Drums of Execution (1%5)). These two

plays show similarities to al-I;Jakim's interpretation of the theatre of the

Absurd, for which al-Hakim coined the term irrationalism, by which he meant

"the presentation of the rational world in an irrational framework. ,,30

There had been much discussion as to the wisdom of introducing the

Absurd onto the Arab stage. Many articles were written in Arab newspapers

regarding this new form of theatre. The prominent Egyptian critic Luwis

Awad, wrote a series of articles in the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram in 1961,

praising the trend in France with an eye to its adoption by the developing

Arabic theatre.31 The Absurd was defended by some other well-known

writers. In the introduction to his play yti Tali'al-Shajara, al-I:Iakim claims that

the Absurd is rooted in the traditions of the Arabs, in both form and content.

He argued that it was manifested in folkloric tales, such as those of Abu Zayd

al-HilaIi. Other critics defended the Absurd on the basis that great art

transcends national boundaries, and that such plays as Waiting for Godot

represented the human condition as a whole, and dealt specifically with

universal themes.32 However, the explanation of its adoption is perhaps more

mundane for since the art of modern drama was imported into the Arab

30 al-ijakim quoted in Richard Long, Tawfig aI-Hakim,

Playwright of Egypt, Ithaca, London, 1979, p.85
31 Fayac;1, p.32
32 ijabashiyya, H., "al-C.Abath Usltib La Mawdiic:.," al-Majalla,
no.132, (Dec.1967), p.40

106
world, Arab playwrights have followed and imitated every major Western

trend and the theatre of the Absurd is perhaps another example of such a step.

It was not accepted unequivocally; vehement attacks were made against

the Absurd. It was seen by some critics as an "Absurd" experimental

technique based on slapstick and cheap comedy which sought to "trick" the

audience into taking it seriously, but which suffered from a noticeable absence

of meaning and coherence.33 The Egyptian critic, Sami Khashaba remarked

that such a theatre "requires no knowledge of any kind to produce a play with

entangled meanings, mysterious content, poor language, undistinguished

features, with neither connections nor characters."34 Another Egyptian critic,

Shafrq Majli, argued that the Absurd did not reflect Arab society:

Almost all the literature of the Absurd deals with

the crisis of modern man, Western man, who
suffered a great deal from the war and its
aftermath and has come to Ii ve in an atmosphere of
anxiety, tension and despair, after the roots that
connected him with his intellectual past have been
torn, so that his values have become muddled or
have collapsed. 3S

Arab Marxist critics, such as Qasim I:Iawal and 'Abd al-Mun e im Isma-

en, have also attacked or opposed the Absurd. Their argument was based on

the fact that the Absurd writer is not committed, that the Absurd makes no

33 Ibid, p.34

34 Khashaba,S., "a l-Masratl al-Mi~ri wa'l-Thaq~fa

al-CArabiyya", al-Masrah, no.4-5, (April-May 1978), p.14
35 MajlI, S., "lJiwar fi Masral) al-La-Maequl", al-Masrab,
no. 21, ( Sept. 1 965), p. 49

107
attempt to present the real conditions of the people, and that it is a purely

intellectual form of writing produced by the bourgeoisie. For l:Iawal the

Absurd "presupposes the existence of a spectator with a high level of

intelligence, thereby excluding the possibility of succeeding on the level of the

masses or the popular level;"36 Ismacn regarded the Absurd as a dangerous

threat to the drama of social criticism as well as to committed drama. 37

Sacd Allah Wannus is one of those playwrights who have experimented

in the theatre of the Absurd, influenced mainly by al-I:Iakim and Eugene

Ionesco through his studies in Cairo and his reading of al-Adiib magazine. His

early works were short pieces, characterized by "an abstract intellectualism and

a nightmarish, absurd atmosphere,"38 as well as "an indulgence in the use of

symbolism. "39 Wannus described those early works saying: "I was writing

plays to be read and spent a long time writing plays without having in my

mind any image of the stage."4O This view has coloured these plays and

made them "mental plays" rather than realistic social plays.41 The idea of the

36 lj:awal,Q., "AbC-ad Masral;l al-La-mac-qul", al-Adab, no.12,

(Dec.1965), p.46
37 Ismacil,A., "Hazzat fi al-Masral). aI-CAlamI al-Muca$ir",
al-Masrab, no.12, (Dec.1965), p.45
38 IsmacII, F., al-Kalima •. al-FiGl, p.190
39 al-Raci, al-Masrab, p.194
40 Wannus interviewed by Dawara, p.182
41 Ismaeil, "SaC.d Allah Wannus wa Ril;llat al-Iltizam", p.29

108
"mental theatre" (al-Masra/.t al-dhihni) or (cerebral theatreV2 was sparked off,

as has been said, in the Arab world, by Tawfiq al-l:Iakim, especially in his

early plays, which he described by saying:

Today I establish my theatre inside the mind. The

actors are only ideas moving in the absolute of
meanings wearing the clothes of symbols. I still
have dramatic surprise, but that element does not
exist in the action as much as it exists in the
idea."3

Some of Wannus's early plays share almost the same characteristics as

al-I:Iakim's theatre, where the emphasis is on the idea rather than on the

action, and on the use of symbolism and intellectual language. Wanniis,

obviously, was influenced by al-I:Iakim, through his readings and attending

Dr. MandUr's lectures at Cairo University. This academic critic wrote a book

about the theatre of al-I:Iakim describing his plays at that period, a description

that can be applied to some of Wanniis's early plays:

In his plays, the centre is the idea, rather than the

characters, who have no life of their own but are
created only to embody ideas. The conflict is not
between emotions but between ideas, and the
dialogue, in most of his plays, is sophisticated and
intellectual.44

42 Term used by Roger Allen. See his article "Arabic Drama

in Theory and Practice ll , Journal of Arabic Literature
(no. 1 5), 1 984
43 Mandur,M., Masrah TawfIg al-Haklm, Dar NahQat Mi 9 r,
Cairo, 1960, p.34
44 Ibid, pp.34-40

109
 Wannus's plays of that period include; Madiiz Tubaddiq ji'I-J:layat

(Medusa Stares at Life (1962)), Fa¢ ai-Dam (The Spilling of Blood (1963)), Ma~

sat Ba'ic al-Dibs al-Faqir (The Tragedy of the Poor Treacle Seller (1964)), Juththa

cala 'I-Raiif (A Corpse on the Pavement (1964)), al-Rasiil al-Majhul fl Ma'tam

Antijiina (The Unknown Messenger from Antigone's Obsequies (1965)), al-Jarad

(The Locusts (1965)), Lue.bat al-Dablibis (The Game of Pins (1965)), al-Maqhii al-

Zujaji (The Glass Cafe (1965)), andclndama Yalcab 'l-Rijiil (When Men Play

(1965)). These plays will be discussed later according to their chronological

order of appearance.

In these plays, Wannus deals with particular human issues, general and

political ideas that revolve around the relationship between the oppressive

authorities and the people, a theme that prevailed throughout his early and

later works. His position is ambiguous, as a state employee he is having to

criticize his "employer," and yet does not have the independence to do so

directly. Wannus, like most writers of the absurd, concentrates on the conflict

of the individual, his sufferings, and his feelings of uselessness, like the

existentialist theatre of Ionesco, Beckett and Adamov, which concentrates on

the essence of individualism, "deals with the issue of tragedy, its conflicts and

its subjects, such as the human situation and the meaning of life, freedom and

necessity, and the paradox between the absolute and the weakness and

inability of the individual. "45 The atmosphere of these plays is characterized

45 Kott,J., Shakespeare our Contemporary, trans. by B.

Toborski (2nd ed.), Methuen, London, 1981, p.52

110
by gloominess and a sense of isolation, as Raja' al-Naqqash has argued they

"revolve around the individual human with all his inner conflicts, sufferings

and loneliness. He is under siege, chased and condemned. "46 The intellectual

or philosophical atmosphere, which pervades throughout these plays, was a

result of a period of "psychological and intellectual anxiety, and there were

metaphysical, romantic, and existentialist tendencies conflicting within him. ,,47

Wanntis's first published play, Mlidiiz Tul:Jaddiq fi'l-Hayat (1962), which

was "an attempt to research and experiment in the form, the language, and the

local environment,"48 resembles the cerebral theatre of al-I:Jakim. The play

depends on symbolism and abstract metaphysical ideas using long

monologues and abstract intellectual language. The emphasis here is on the

ideas, but as al-Mashayikh has argued "some emphasis is on the individual

with his inner conflicts, his sufferings and isolation. ,,49

The play combines the elements of dramatic dialogue and narration. In

his introduction to the play Wannus explains that:

This is a narrative play which concentrates on the

elements of description and suggestion, which arise
from the narration. In other words, in the
narrative play, the playwright can intervene in the
play, unable to maintain his indifference, and add
plenty of descriptions collected by his own

46 al-Naqqash, "Masral;t s. Wannus", p.76

47 Dawara, p.191
48 Ibid, p.190
49 al-Mashayikh, M., " a l-MasraQ al-I;IadithCind Sacd Allah
Wannus", al-Aglam (no.6), Baghdad, 1980, p.89

111
 personal senses. However, the play is a primitive
experiment lacking theoretical and practical
depth.50

The name in the title of the play, Madiiz, comes from Medusa, the witch

mentioned in Greek mythology, who had snakes as hair and who petrified

anyone looking at her. Medusa is mentioned once in one line in the

introduction to the work, where we are told that she is a "witch who petrifies

objects by staring at them. "51 Wannus may have wanted to emphasize that the

world is turning into "stone", with no room for feelings of love or humanity,

as if Medusa had petrified it. The work is closer to the form of a short-story

than to a play. The language is semi-poetic, full of ambiguity created by the

exaggerated use of figures of speech.

The ruler of the city KUriish and his advisor VidGs plot to gain control

of a new invention, details of which are left vague, made by an honest but

helpless music-lover, Harari. This invention is a new weapon, which will

increase the power of both men, and will enable Kiiri"ish to destroy all his

enemies. KiirUsh and Vidiis represent the Machiavellian individual, for whom

the end justifies the means; Kiiriish's name may be taken from Cyrus the Great

the name of a Persian king of the Achaemenid dynasty. Vidiis encourages

~urilsh to obtain the invention by any means, using Haran's friend and the

lover of Kilrush's daughter Virus, Daryii for that purpose; Virus's name and

50 Wannus,S., wMaduz Tu~addiq fi'l-ijayat: al-Adab (no.5),

1963, pp.34-40

51 Ibid

112
description show that she is Venus, the Roman Goddess of Beauty and Love.

Kiiriish and Vidiis want Vinis to use her beauty to seduce Harari and make

him give the new invention to her father. In the end, the attempt fails, Daryu

commits suicide and Harari discloses that he no longer has control over the

weapon; it has developed self-control and threatens to destroy everybody

including Kiirtish.

This short narrative one-act play, reflects Wannus's reaction to the new

wave of scientific inventions, especially in the armament field, in which

America and the Soviet Union were competing to produce weapons of mass

destruction. Wanntis here raises and explores the idea that such scientific

inventions will eventually control human beings rather than being controlled

by him. The play reflects on the scepticism of the intellectual and his despair

of finding solutions and answers to the problems of the world, and his belief

that man is unconsciously inflicting self-destruction on himself, in his desire

for power in an irrational world. This idea is part of the existentialist

philosophy and the theatre of the Absurd, which "presents the human anxiety,

despair, a sense of loss at the disappearance of solutions, illusions, and

purposefulness. "52 This is reflected implicitly in Harari's "absurd" words at

the end of the play:

Virus, the ultimate beauty ..behind the indifference,

a mysterious and furious desire flares up seeking
an unattainable impossible: that is to become, me

52 Hinchliffe,A., The Absurd, Methuen, London, 1969, p.12

113
 and you .. Oh Dariu, one man .. and the beauty will
become dry, disintegrate, and die.53

There is a lack of communication between the characters in the play,

each is living in his own world, such a world is absurd and meaningless.

Wannus in this play expresses his own anxiety in a turbulent world as he

replies to a question:

I am a persistent "project,· anxious to be active in

my time and environment, and when I look deeply
to the bottom of my rectangular mirror, I find this
project surrounded with difficulties, threatened by
doubts and illusions.54

In this play, there is no meaning to life, because it is a continuous

process of suffering, isolation, despair and purposelessness; Camus has

described such a world saying:

A world that can be explained even with bad

reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand,
in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and
lights, man feels alien, a stranger. His exile is
without remedy since he is deprived of the
memory of a last home or the hope of a promised
land. This divorce between man and his life, the
actor and his setting, is probably the feeling of
absurdity.55

As in almost all the works of Ionesco, Wannus uses poetic images and

language, addresses the theme of incommunicability and dramatizes the

53 Wannus, Maduz, p.40

54 Wannus interviewed by Isma'il in al-Kalima, p.222

55 Camus, A., The Myth of Sisyphus, p.13

114
futility and failure of human existence, as they are only "objects." Ionesco's

theatre too, as Esslin argued:

Is a demonstration of the basic impossibility of

communication. Words cannot convey meanings
because they leave out of account the personal
associations they carry for each individual. 56

For Ionesco, "language consists largely of prefabricated, congealed symbols,

[and] tends to obscure rather than to reveal personal experience."57 Wanniis

has reflected that attitude towards language by saying:

Starting in the early sixties, a problematic

relationship arose between me and language, which
I could not at the time perceive clearly. I felt it
instinctively, or through brief spans of insight.
Now, I can define this relationship, as the
impossible aspiration to uncover through the verbal
word, or in writing, a testimony to the
disintegration of reality, and to start a direct
combative action to change this reality.58

Wannus's original notion of absurdity does not come from the West but

stems from two basic elements in his character: the concept of "playing," and

his general attitude towards language.59 For Wannus, playing is a metaphor

for life and is the only attitude one can take towards experience. In the

56 Esslin, Martin, The Theatre of the Absurd, Eyre &

Spottiswoode, London, 1964, p.l09

57 Ibid, p.146

58 IsmaGil, al-Kalima, p.223

59 Faya9, pp.135-136

115
introduction to his play clndama YalC.ab al-Rijm (When Men Play (1965)), he

explains that notion, describing his early plays:

This play was intended to be one of a series of

plays combined together under one title.. "the
games". This had crystallized for me a certain
understanding of the theatre through its illusive
element, just like a game aiming to be a more
efficient example of the game of life. 60

This notion of "play" resembles Ionesco's notion of the "dream,"

reflected by Berenger in Rhinoceros (1960) when he says: "I do dream, life is a

dream. "61 So if life is only a dream, then man is only a materialization of that

dream,62 and therefore, the concept of "dream" to Ionesco, like the concept of

"game" to Wannus, is the only reality in this world. Wanniis, in his early plays,

and probably his later ones, was concerned above all with the notion of play;

Dr. CAli al-Raci has described one of Wanniis's plays as "puppet theatre," in

which the chorus begins to play and the people discover that playing is

allowed.63 With this in mind, the theme of Maduz Tu~addiq fi'l-I;Iayat depicts

the conflict or "the game" between science and art in their struggle to gain

power and control, without compromise or justice. Wanniis, in the play, has

60 wannus, S.,cIndama Yalcab al-Rijal, in Fasd aI-Dam wa-

Masrabiyyat Thaniya, 2nd. ed., Dar al-Adab, Beirut, 1981,
p.107
61 Ionesco, E., Rhinoceros, trans. by D. Prouse and D.
Watson, Penguin, Aylsbury, 1979, p.14
62 Tharwat,A., "Insan Yiinisku al-Shaqqiy", al-Adab (no.6),
(June 1971), p.34
63 al-Ra'i, p.198

116
placed all the strings of the "game" in the hands of the tyrannic ruler who

cares only about his power and how to expand it.

In his next short one-act play Fa¢ ai-Dam (The Spilling of Blood (1963)),

Wannus wrote in the introduction:

I wrote this play at the end of 1963..The [Arab]

radio stations were cursing each other and
competing to anaesthetize us with the songs of
return [to Palestine] ..In that period, the birth of the
resistance was a dream and each one of us had to
spill his blood in order to generate the spark that
might lead to the emergence of the resistance.64

In this play WannUs's theatrical vision became clearer and his

experience in playwrighting began to develop and improve. For Dr.

MuQammad "Wannus presented a comprehensive panorama of Arab reality

at that time. Arab regimes were fighting amongst themselves and the Arab

people were totally absent from the political scene. "65

The setting of the play consists of a group of people of different ages

and sexes sitting near a wrecked wall surrounded by garbage and ashes. Such

a setting reminds us of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, where the characters live

in garbage bins. The group of people do not say a word throughout the

performance. They only move their heads in a harmonious way indicating

total emptiness; they are lifeless statues. This setting is meant "to deepen in

us the feeling of passivity, emptiness, and the spirit of submission. This

64 Wannus, Fasd aI-Dam, p.65

65 MUQammad, p.117

II?
characterizes Arab people in general, who are represented here by this chorus

of living statues."66

The idea of the play rotates around an intelligent young Palestinian,

presented by Wannus in the playas a double character: cAliwa, its negative

side and ~li its positive side. However, instead of depicting the two conflicting

sides within that character and presenting them by one actor, Wanniis resolved

to divide the character into two separate characters, each perfonned by a

different actor. Through this character, Wannus wanted to materialize the

double nature of "every Arab man in general, and every Palestinian in

particular." 67cAliwa is characterized by his indifference, submission, and love

of pleasure; therefore, to enhance that image, Wannus made him appear,

throughout the play, holding a bottle of whisky and drinking from it from

time to time. CAli, who is cAliwa's double, is characterized by his

determination and prudence. ~Aliwa' s vision of the Palestinian cause is

characterized by despair and submission; he blames others for the problem.

In the play, ~li is chasing~liwa in an attempt to kill him, and therefore to kill

the negative side of himself.

During the chase, cAliwa meets another young man holding a radio and

listening to different Arab radio stations. One is broadcasting military

announcements, another broadcasting songs of victory and a third

broadcasting a speech about democracy. Through such broadcasts, the Arab

66 Ismacil, p.81

67 Fasd aI-Dam, p.65

118
media was trying to convince the public of a phony idea, that is the

invincibility of the regimes. ~liwa then starts a conversation with this man

describing Palestine as a beautiful woman whose cause is labelled with

disgrace and setback:

'Aliwa: Yes, I mean the one who used to

own a beautiful house in the outskirts of the
city, and used to abandon that house
longing for those long soirees with her
relatives chattering about the old days.
Man: (indifferently) The woman whose
house was robbed and occupied by
thieves.
~liwa: And the relatives keep promising her that
they will drive the thieves away and liberate
her house.
Man: (sighing) So many promises were
made by the relatives.68

In this dialogue, Wannus is blaming both the Palestinian and Arab

governments for the crisis, and reflects the distrust and frustration of the

"individual" as well as the indifference of the Arab masses. C.Aliwa, meanwhile,

convinces this young man that there is no use in searching for any truth, and

that it is better to enjoy life, and the young man agrees. Wannus here wants

to reveal the fact that Arab regimes attempt to divert the attention of the

young and channel their thinking away from the key issue. CAli, meanwhile,

meets an elegantly dressed journalist, who wanted to interview him. 'Ali

refuses, but the journalist justifies his insistence on interviewing ~li by saying:

The master wants the constant rule of the regime,

and this entails keeping the people satisfied, and

68 Ibid, p.83

119
 the satisfaction of the people requires acts of
patriotism, heroism, and self-righteousness. Your
case is the most sensitive and suitable of all cases
[for the regime], to dress it with the clothes of
patriotism, heroism and self righteousness.69

CAli succeeds finally in capturing cAliwa, and pulls out a knife to kill

him, but cAliwa, in an attempt to gain time, tries to persuade 1\li to spare his

life. At this moment, a large group of people appear passing by after leaving

their homes, and in front of the group are a man holding a rifle, a woman and

a child. The woman begs the man to leave with them, but the man insists on

staying and tells the woman how to bring up the child, saying: "you will teach

him and awaken in him a manhood that my 'bare back' awaits. "70 This scene

resembles the compulsory mass exodus of the Palestinians in 1947-48. This

moving scene revives the determination of~li and he kills cAliwa repeating:

"now I have spilled my blood, and now I must start."71 Wannus wrote this

play in 1963, before the official birth of the resistance in 196sn, as he

explained in the introd uction:

At that period, the birth of the resistance was a

dream, a hopeless wish..I felt that the birth of the
resistance would not take place until every
Palestinian, in particular, and every Arab person, in

69 Ibid, p.87
70 Ibid, p.89
71 Ibid, p.l05
72 In 1965 Fat~ (victory), the precursor of the P.L.O.,
was established by YasircArafat and was officially
recognised by Arab countries.

120
 general, amputated his impaired half, Which is full
of illusions, lies, and fear. 73

Wannus, in this play, deals with the Palestinian problem from a narrow

perspective, that is from an individual angle without putting a greater effort

into studying it in all its social and political dimensions. This theme of

individuality is associated with the theatre of the absurd; for the absurdist

writer, reality is what lies underneath the external surface of life and the

individual is the central theme of his work?4 Wannus was one of those

playwrights "who have pursued and concentrated, in their works, on the

human psyche and the ego, observing its conflicts and analysing what is

behind the fonns of life and the behaviour of people in their search for the

truth which lies beneath the external surface of life. "75 Fa¢ ai-Dam is

marked by less abstraction and vagueness than Miiduz, and like al-I:Jakim's

early works, it focuses on the idea as well as on the psychological aspects of

the characters. The play is also characterized by the absence of any sense of

group identity, in other words, it focuses only on the Palestinian character in

its duality and the indifference of others. Fa~d ai-Dam, like many works

related to the theatre of the absurd, is a dream-like play, which is a recurrent

theme in the works of Ionesco, because to Ionesco, as well as to Wanniis at

73 Fasd al-Dam, p.65

74 Rama9an, p.44
75 al-Qut,~A., Min Funun al-Adab: al-Masrabiyya, Dar
al-Nah9a al~Arabiyya, Beirut, 1978, p.291

121
that time, "realist theatre is a theatre of cheating, even if the author is sincere,

because true sincerity comes from further away; it comes from the depth of

the irrational, the unconscious. "76

In his next work Ma'sat Ba'ic- al-Dibs al-Faqir (The Tragedy of the Poor

Treac1e77 Seller (1964), Wannus moved a step further in his political views

depicting the relationship between the tyrannical authority and the individual

citizen,78 to the extent that even the poor treacle seller, who is uneducated,

naive and a very simple minded citizen, is not left alone by the state. The

events of the play take place in a "public square in the city..In the square, nine

statues stand gazing at each other, representing the chorus. "79 The individual

citizen is represented by the character of KhadUr, the poor treacle seller, and

the people of the city, any Arab city, are represented here by a chorus of

statues, whose role is only to introduce and comment on the events. This

description of the setting, which is odd and exaggerated to the extent of

abstraction, says something about Wannus's attitude towards the narrative

play. As Well warth has explained, "a common attribute combines the

76 Ionesco, E., "Theatres of the Absurd", Partisan Review

( no. 1 ), 1 989, P • 4 7
77 A treacle seller is a peddler who sells treacle, a very
sweet and thick, marmalade-like, food, eaten with bread. He
is commonly found in Syria, especially in the poorer areas.
78 Ramaslan, p.44
79 Wannus,S., Ba'ie al-Dibs al-Fagir wa-Masrahiyyat
Thaniya, Dar al-Adab, 1978, p.5

122
absurdist writers together. Most important of all are their oddness of artistic

techniques and their opposition to the prevailing rules and social order. "80

The play starts with the chorus delivering a general statement that

conceals within its meaning many artistic, social, and political dimensions.

The use of the chorus acknowledges Wanniis's influence by Greek tragic

drama, as well as the influence of the Roman theatre, especially that of Terence

(195-159 B.C.}.81 The chorus addresses the audience in their first lyric:

In a public square the events start. A square

bounded by columns of people. People who used
to be, but do not exist now. Do not ask for many
details ... because we, like you, are restrained by
fear ...and suspicion is our way of life. When we
sang in the tragedies of the Greeks, fate was less
justified and less trivial. Do not await our just
comments, do not expect us to interfere in the
events, as we are only statues in the square.82

The chorus here has two functions: expressional and symbolic.

Expressional because they are the artistic equivalent of the consciousness of the

people of the city. They are the only spokesman to speak on their behalf, and

present their complaints and sufferings. Secondly, symbolic in the conformity

of their situation with that of the audience in the auditorium, through their

being deprived of the freedom of expression, because like them, the mouth of

80 Wellwarth, G., The Theatre of Protest and Paradox, New

York University Press, New York, 1964, p.34

82 wannus, Ba'ie al-Dibs, pp.5-6

123
the chorus is muzzled.83 Their words reflect the theme of dehumanization

and mechanization of life, in which human beings are reduced to "objects," or,

simply, become empty voices parroting the rhetoric of their masters.84 It is

a recurrent theme in the plays of Ionesco, which Wanntis has obviously

borrowed. Wannus, in this introduction, is asking the audience to become

emotionally involved in the performance, as seen in the chorus's words "do

not ask for many details."

The atmosphere of the play is nightmarish and fear is the prevailing

theme. The fear created by the ruling authority is "connected with oppression,

and there is some form of dialectical relationship between fear and oppression

in Wannus's plays. This means that fear is not an abstract feeling because it

is linked with oppressive authority and not with divine or metaphysical

powers."85 The Egyptian academic and critic, Dr. I:Iamada Ibrahim, has

written; "we confront here characters who feel that they are under the

influence of powers which they are unable [to comprehend], a world of

dreams or nightmares. "86

In such an atmosphere, KhadUr, in his forties, enters the stage carrying

two sacks. His clothes are covered with dirt and his face reflects early ageing.

Such precise and detailed descriptions of KhadUr, and the abstract confused

83 Isma'il, pp.21-22

84 Faya?, pp.144-145

85 Mu~ammad, p.115
86 Ibrahim, ~., al-Masrab al-Mu~asir min al-Mu~arada
ila 'l-Ibda~ Dar al-Fikr al~Arabi, Cairo, 1988, p.148

124
background, remind us, according to IsmaC.U, of the surrealist paintings of

Salvador DaH, where the faces of his subjects reveal the smallest of details, and

the background reflects a vague and illusive atmosphere similar to dreams or

nightmares.87 While Khadlir is wandering the streets of the city trying to

earn some money by selling treacle, he meets l:Iasan, who is described by

Wannus as "having a dog-like chin and a wolf-like glance that reflects malice

and deception ...88 !:Iasan is a government informer working for the secret

police (mukhabarat). The kind hearted Khadfu, who represents the working

class in Syrian society, is approached by l:iasan, who tells him that he is his

neighbour, and how difficult life is in the city, a life which prevents a man

like Khadlir from seeing his newly-born child. I:Iasan cries out "damn this

world which does not give a father time to see his son."89

Gradually and deliberately, in an attempt to lead Khadlir into a slip of

the tongue, I:Jasan starts talking about the regime and how well the men who

serve it are living, "while men like you have to go through hell to live."

Khadfu naively attributes that to God's will, but I:Jasan replies: "you are surely

angry, the circumstances really make one angry,"90 blaming the authorities for

his misfortune. Khadur, however, tells I:Jasan that this thought had never

crossed his mind, but l:Iasan interrupts him, and they have this dialogue:

87 Isrna~il, p.23

88 Ba'i~ al-Dibs, p.6

89 Ibid, p.9
90 Ibid
125
 I:Iasan: But surely you think that they are the
behind the recession?
Khadtir: Who?
I:Iasan: Our legal guardians.
Khadiir: I swear by God. I do not think of
them [the authorities].
I:Iasan: (whispering) They are a gang of
bastards..I admire the way you have
contempt for them.
Khadtir: (in fear) I despise them? Did I say so?
l:Iasan: Since you do not think of them,
you, therefore, consider them too low and n
contemptuous even to cross your mind. 91

I:Iasan considers Khadilr's naivety as artificial; behind it he is concealing a

destructive intelligence. Khadtir is taken by the secret police to be

interrogated, humiliated, and tortured. The chorus lament Khadiir's screams,

saying: "silence.. silence.. bravery has died. It is impossible to talk ..We are the

people who used to be and do not exist now!."92 The chorus (the people) are

helpless, passive, and submissive, and all they can do is to be silent in this

absurdist world.

The second scene is almost a repetition of the first, except that one

column has been destroyed, indicating that Khadiir, as one of the people, has

been destroyed despite his reappearance on stage. Reflecting the absurdity of

the situation and his inability to bring about any change, the "robotic" Khadiir,

at the beginning of the second scene, describes, in a long monologue, his

sufferings during his imprisonment, which lasted six months and four days:

91 Ibid, pp.11-12

92 Ibid, p.16

126
 they used electric shocks, beating, kicking, boiling
water, and icy water, [Explaining that he was not
alone in his ordeal]. There were hundreds of us,
and our screams united daily .. who knows why?
My family died or became beggars.. who knows
why? My son was born and my eyes have not had
a glimpse of him .. who knows why? What shall I do
now? What can I do now?93

This resembles the themes of monotony and mechanization of life and

people in most of Ionesco's works; Khadiir, and the chorus have become

"automated robots", who have no ability to change. Wannus uses this

technique to bring about the feeling of absurdity."94 After being released from

this horrible experience, Khadiir, to his amazement, meets the same character

again, but this time he is called I;Iusayn. Khadiir is terrified, but ijusayn

convinces him that he is a different person and Khadiir naively believes him.

l:Iusayn then starts telling Khadiir to be patient, and that nothing remains the

same in life:

Take, for instance, the circumstances of our

guardians, they change rapidly, so rapidly that one
does not have enough time to retain their names in
one's memory, and what happened a week ago is
very recent. You know, as do all the people, what
happened, don't yoU?95

These words of I:Iusayn, refer to a military coup, that took place a week

before, when Khadlir was still in prison, and that this coup happened very

93 Ba'ieal-Dibs, p.1S

94 Faya9, p.140

95 Ibid, p.23

127
rapidly just changing a few faces at the top, replacing them with new faces

belonging to the same clique and class. This new regime or the "guardians,"

like the previous regime, sends its spies to hunt down people opposed to

them, and J:Iasan or I;Iusayn is one of these spies. When J:Iusayn has failed to

make Khadtir talk about the new "guardians," he tells him a story of how the

new guardians came across a boy named Ibrahim, which was the name of

Khadiir's son, singing songs praising the old guardians, and how he was

killed. Khadfu, naively, falls into the conversational trap by cursing and

damning the killers: "God efface them from the earth. They are damned till

doomsday."96 As a result, Khadiir is arrested again and thrown into prison

to face torture and humiliation. The people of the city remain helpless and

powerless before these developments, as the chorus declare:

The eye is the curse of an angry God. The ear is

the curse of an angry God. The clay of the statues
is not a refuge. The people, who used to be and
do not exist now, are falling and breaking to
pieces.. Bravery is dead and it is impossible to
talk. 97

In these poetic and symbolic words, Wannus highlights the submissive

position of the people, their passivity and indifference. They witness such

degradation in their society, and yet pretend that they do not see or hear, and

of course they cannot speak. They are restrained by fear, that the chorus

describes: "A month passes..after month .. after month ..one early morning the

96 Ibid, pp.25-26

97 Ibid, p.28

128
axes fell down .. one.. two statues were demolished .. and we can only fear and

wait."98 This reflects the situation of the people who are so submerged in fear

that they became "paralysed" and unable to do anything to change the

situation. This theme of fear is recurrent in Wannus's works, even in his later

plays, and this fear to Wannus is unchangeable, as his characters demonstrate.

Apart from being the reality of life in many Arab countries, this theme

could be linked to an existentialist idea that the human being came into this

world against his will, and that he is doomed to die. It reveals also the crisis

of the intellectuals in the Arab world. Khadiir, as an example of that human

being, describes in a two page long monologue his predicament, but

interestingly, part of that monologue cannot truly represent Khadiir's thoughts,

because as a character, he is very simple minded and is incapable of uttering

words that carry deep political and philosophical meanings. This indicates

that Wannus here is intervening and speaking directly through Khadlir's

mouth, when he says:

The wings of the eagle were burned. The blazing

sun has melted them. They were made from white
wax.. No, from red wax ..it does not matter. The
eagle fell from the deep recesses of the sky.99

This metempsychosis described by Wannus, according to Isma'il, is mistaken

in that, because of its rhetorical nature it negates the simple and naive nature

98 Ibid, p.29

99 Ibid, p.31

129
of the character of Khadiir.lOo Wannus in his early plays resorted to the use

of long descriptions and monologues which coloured his works with a

narrative style, a technique that led him, consciously or not, to speak directly

through the work.

In the fourth scene, Khadiir appears walking on the left pavement of the

street and the same man approaches him again, this time his name is Mu1)sin.

As we see Wannus uses the names I:Jasan, J:Iusayn and Mutlsin, which are

from the same Arabic trilateral root, showing that these three characters are

in fact meant to be three faces of one character. Mul;lsin, as J:Iasan and

I:Jusayn before, tries the same old trick with Khadfir but fails to make him

utter one word, so he leaves him. Yet this does not stop the "guardians" from

harassing him. He is approached by a group of men, who question him,

saying: "you .. you frog. Why do you walk on the "left"? What do you want to

prove?"lOl Khadur here is being accused of being a leftist, simply because he

walks on the left hand side pavement. Khadiir, meanwhile, does not know

what to say, so they kick and beat him, even when he attempts to crawl

towards the right hand pavement. On the right hand pavement, another

group started questioning him saying: "you bastard, you tramp .. Why do you

wear these rotten old clothes? Low creatures, like you, are a curse on their

cities.. We know your games."l02 Wan ntis, like Ionesco, is asserting here that

100 IsmaGI1, al-Kalima, p.41

101 Ba'iG al-Dibs, pp.37-38

102 Ibid, p.39

130
"the avant-garde can please neither the right nor the left because it is anti-

bourgeois. "103 Again, to escape the beating and kicking, he crawls to the

middle of the street only to be run over by three men, who keep trampling

over his body until he is finally dead. To illustrate that many people like

Khadiir, regardless of their age or sex, face the same fate, the chorus utter their

final words in the play regarding this and the ever continuous process of

political extermination by saying:

[He is] obliterated .. destroyed .. and some other

statues are demolished. And in the conscience of
the square, there are still many stories which have
not been narrated. Stories about the orange seller,
the student, and the beautiful secretary.104

In this nightmarish atmosphere, Wannus continues his experiment,

exposing the relationship between the oppressive authorities and the

individual. He presents us with a dark, exaggerated surrealistic picture of the

predicament of the individual who is "always chased, under siege and guilty

no matter what he does. "lOS The atmosphere is also coloured with pessimism

and the impossibility of change, a feature of the theatre of the Absurd. The

characters can see and hear, but cannot talk or act, after all, they are only

human statues, and nothing can be done to change their predicament The

people, in Wannus's early plays, are "always condemned through absolute

103 Ionesco,E., Notes and Counter Notes, trans. by Donald

Watson, London, 1964, p.239
104 Ba'~al-Dibs, pp.41-42
105 al-Naqqash,"Masral) S.Wanntis," p.81

131
generalization." 106 In other words, "all" the people are condemned in

Wannus's early works, they all share responsibility for what is happening to

them and what is going to happen, from the simplest person to the highly

educated one, no one is spared.

Wannus used Ionesco's technique of a circular ending, where the

characters can be substituted one for another, in other words, the whole of

human discourse is the same, however different the situation or background

may seem. 107 However, unlike Ionesco, Wannus placed less emphasis on

language. As we see, the same cycle of ending is repeated in every scene with

Khadiir being arrested and released only to be arrested again and again. It is

a vicious circle from which there is no escape. Wannus has also used the

reincarnation theme, exemplified in the characters of !:lasan, I:Iusayn and

Mul;lsin, who represent three aspects of one person reincarnated.

In the play, Wanniis deals with the theme of political oppression,

however, in dealing with this theme, he emphasizes the reasons that have led

the people to adopt that exaggerated passive stance, but meanwhile, he does

not question the reasons that led the regime to behave in this manner. While

KhadGr is ignorant and naive, attributes that lead to his downfall, I:Iasan,

l;Iusayn and Mul)sin are opportunists and manipulators, created by the

existence of people like Khadiir, who will always exist in our world. The

106 CI$mat, R.,"al-Tajarub al-Jadida fi'I-MasraQ. al-Suri

al-~adith, al-AgIam (no.6), Baghdad, 1980, p.99

107 Fays-Si, p.140

132
chorus, meanwhile, is characterized by its passivity, exemplified by its fear of

intervening in the course of events. lOS This attitude of the chorus (the people)

indicates that life has lost its dynamic power, which causes change, and that

the individual is living in an eternal state of despair and submission. Wanniis

also emphasizes the growing feeling of the futility of action, since even if

people acted their action would be passive in its effect. To conclude, Wannus

presents us here with an absurdist surrealist atmosphere coloured with a

nihilistic mood that reflects a general tone of pessimism and the feeling of the

uselessness of any action in life. After all, life is only a game of hide and seek.

Wannus's next play al-RasUl al-Ma;hul ft Ma'tam Antijuna (The Unknown

Messenger at Antigone's Obsequies (1965)), is a continuation of the previous

play. It is a short play in two acts. Antigone is the name of the central

character in Antigone109 (442 Be), a tragedy by Sophocles, who resembles

Khadra, the heroine of Wannus's play. Wannus implicitly refers to that

historical connection in his one line introduction to the play by saying: "what

is the use of history if it does not allow us to predict. "110

The place is the same public square; there are four remaining statues,

whilst the other five are now piles of stones and sand. The chorus of human

108 Ismacil,. pp.56-57

109 Antigone concentrates upon the impact of the central
character's death and sufferings in the hands of Creon.
Since then the play has inspired imitations by numerous
subsequent writers.
110 Wannus, al-Rasul al-Majhul fi Ma'tam Antijuna, in
Ma'sat Ba'ie al-Dibs al-Fagir wa-Masrabiyyat Thaniya, Dar
al-Ad~b, Beirut, 1978, p.43

133
statues starts in the first few pages of the play with a flashback describing the

old days and comparing them to the present, declaring:

Chorus: The grey wind is

spattering spices in the languishing eyes
and the grey faces.
First Statue: The sky was grey .. The
earth was grey.
Second Statue: And the sun was grey...
Third Statue: Antigone is an old story
and time has prevented its repetition.
The Statues: Antigone was brave; she
challenged all the commands, and did
not care about them.
Third Statue: The land of Antigone used
to be an open space, and the human
was still [human] .. but now, the
land is strangled by fences .. very high
and terrible fences. 1l1

The grey colour is of course, the mixture of black and white, truth and

falsity,ll2 a colour which indicates the difficulty of distinguishing between

two contrasted things or ideas; it is the colour of the present time. In other

words, contemporary Arabs are afraid of uttering the truth and afraid of

confronting their reality. They are surrounded by "fences" of secret police and

agents, who are strangling them and preventing them from being humans.

One of these "fences" is I:Iasan, the spy of the previous play, who is now the

head of the regime in the city. After being a tool in the hands of the previous

"guardian", he is now in control, presumably after a military coup led by him.

111 Ibid, pp.44-47

112 Isma~il, pp.56-57

134
The female character Khadra is the continuation of Khadlir and, like Antigone,

she becomes the symbol of the tormented city.

In his attempt to monopolize everything in the city, J:Iasan tries to gain

possession of Khadra after she has lost her family and been raped by the

"agents" of the previous regime. He tells Khadra that he has killed the old

"master," and now he is the new one and that he wants her to be his mistress

and to accompany him to his palace. Ignoring the advice of the statues to be

"careful of being trapped by the tongue, "113 Khadra starts to ask many

questions about the fate of her family:

And my brothers? Oh, my brothers! They were

brave.. the ground used to shake under their feet.
They were always smiling. My brothers.. Where are
they? And where is my father .. mother? where are
we? Where are we?1l4

I:Jasan, like contemporary dictators, warns Khadra not to ask questions, but

she continues to do so, something that infuriates him:

By God I will teach you to shut your mouth (He

comes near her, raising his hand to slap her on the
face) I dreamt of you for so long; my arms were
anxious to hold you. I don't accept what you are
doing. I will not accept that. You must wake up,
you must understand that what has happened .. was
done for yoU.l1S

113 al-Rasul al-Majhul, pp.46-47

114 Ibid, p.59

115 Ibid, p.68

135
 Meanwhile, a nine-year old boy, who is the eponymous unknown

messenger, appears and delivers this message to J:lasan: "My mother wishes

to tell you that you will not survive, and your fate will be the same as those

who went before you. "116 I:Iasan is furious and cuts the boy's tongue out

with a knife, then the boy leaves the stage, only to appear again later to

deliver the same message to E:Iasan, who again cuts his tongue out for a

second time and then kills the boy. This scene reminds us of J:Iasan himself

in the previous play, when he appeared to Khadiir, bearing different names,

as if the game is now turned against its originator. The play ends with the

death of I:Iasan, caused by the stings of imaginary insects, and the

reappearance of the boy, who could be a symbol for hope. Despite the hope

and touch of optimism that appears in this play, the people remain human

statues carrying on wi th their passive response to the events and never trying

to change them. Khadra, the only live character, is a weak character and loses

her mind as a result of her sufferings and the terror she has faced.ll7 In

contrast to Sophocles' character Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, who stood

defiant in the face of Creon with all his tyranny and power, and who proved

by her determination "the evil of dictatorship and one- man rule,"1l8 Khadra

is characterized by her passivity and inability to initiate any action. Although

11 6 Ibid, p. 71
117 RamaQan, p.48
118 ~afi~, A., in his introduction to some of Sophocles'
works, Min al-Masrah al~Alami (no.45), Ministry of
Information, Kuwait, 1973, p.5

136
both characters faced almost the same fate, Antigone was more courageous

and more active in her stand against Creon.

The Absurdist effect on Wannus still persists in this play, exemplified

by the feeling of meaninglessness and the aura of despair and hopelessness

surrounding the characters of the play, as well as the general feeling of

uselessness and submission. The play follows a symbolic, metaphysical, and

idealistic approach reflected in the role of the chorus, the death of I:Iasan, and

the reappearance of the boy, something that "does not go in hannony with the

real materialistic understanding of the cycle of history. "119 We find in it the

exaggeration of melodramatic events, which characterizes Ionesco's plays, and

which also permeates Wannus's play.l20 The play also resembles the

intellectual plays of al-masraQ al-dhihni of al-I:IakTm, where the elements of

abstraction and symbolism colour the dramatic events. The play is also a

continuation of the author's focus on the relationship between the ruler and

the ruled, which Wannus seems to concentrate on in most of his plays.

Wanniis, like most of Arab writers, is obsessed by exploiting this relationship

because it is related to the lack of democracy in most Arab countries, and Arab

writers see that it is part of their role to express and discuss such ideas on

behalf of the people.

Wannus in his next play ai-farad (The Locusts (1965)), is still concerned

with the human psyche in its various inner conflicts, its alienation, and its

119 Isma~il, pp.65-66

120 Fayac;1, p.141

137
longing for the "reality dream."l2l Wanntis in this play explores the space

within us; he is responding to Ionesco's call: "we need explorers, discoverers

of unknown worlds, which lie within us and are waiting to be discovered. "122

The play's structure consists of successive nightmares, where love and hate,

killing and conspiracy are intermixed. The theme of the play, as the Egyptian

critic Farida al-Naqqash has stated, is based on two ideas, the story of QabTI

(Cain) who killed his brother Habil (Abel),in order to marry their sister, and

the Oedipus complex. l2J

From the start of the play, Wannus indicates that it is only a dream,124

depicting what goes on in the subconscious of the main character Yiisuf

during his siesta. Through this dream, Wannus analyses Yusuf's psyche and

uncovers what motivates him and his hidden desires throughout his life since

childhood. Wannus is exploring Ionesco's theme which emphasises that "sub-

reality is realistic. "125 This theme of dreams, which Ionesco paid much

attention to in many of his plays such as Amedee and Rhinoceros, is used by

Wanmls in this play to provide a surrealistic and absurdist picture of man,

because, as the Iraqi critic, Yusuf Abd al-Masih has argued, "dream is the only

121 Ismacil, "Wannus wa-Ril;llat", p.29

122 Ionesco, Notes, p.239
123 al-Naqqash, p.76
124 Wannus,S., al-Jarad in Ma'sat Ba'~ al-Dibs al-Fagir,
2nd edition, Dar al-Adab, Beirut, 1981, p.99
125 Ionesco, p.239

138
truth that can stand in front of the human experiment in this world, a world

which in itself is also a dream. "126

The play starts with a long monologue delivered by Ytlsuf's wife,

reminding Ytisuf of his dedication to his brother, describing that as naivety,

and telling him that his parents and his brother will take control of everything

if he is not alert. The language of the monologue is fragmented, as if it was

coming from a lunatic. Near her Yusuf lies asleep. In Yiisuf's dream, a man,

who represents Yusuf's subconscious, wearing a mask that has openings to

represent the eyes and the mouth, encourages him to kill his wife using

arsenic. A fragmented dialogue goes on between the man and Yusuf, in which

they talk absurdly about the killing and about Yusuf's father. Then suddenly,

another masked man appears (the stranger), who may represents Yiisuf's

conscience, and tonnents Yiisuf about his cruel behaviour towards his brother

during their childhood. The strange man holds a rope, which Yiisuf sees as

a snake, threatening to tie him up with it. At this point, Nadya, YGsuf's sister-

in-law, appears, and the strange masked man disappears. She approaches

Yiisuf' who is happy to see her, because he conceals a deep love for her. He

touches her hand, an indication of his sexual desire, but Nadya is transformed

into his mother, who then starts blaming Yiisuf for being harsh to his brother,

who is ill and requires special care. Yiisuf feels depressed because he loves

his mother and wants her to care for him as she does for his brother:

126 Tharwat, Y., Masrah al-La-Maegul wa Qadaya Ukhra,

Dar al-FarabI, Beirut, 1975, p.34

139
 Yiisuf: It's you, you always give him the
expensive toys, whereas I always get the
cheap ones.. Why did you throw me out that
night?
Mother: (with indifference) That night? You mean
from the bed?
Yusuf: Yes, from the bed. I wanted to
sleep near you.
Mother: You weren't ill.
Yiisuf: But he is always ill, he does not
leave the room at all, and you always spoil
him and get him everything he likes. 127

This dialogue reveals Yusuf's Oedipus complex, but here, his adversary for his

mother's heart and bed is his brother and not his father. The play also

reminds us of the theories of interpretation of dreams by Sigmund Freud, who

argued that dreams, like neuroses, are disguised manifestations of repressed

sexual desires. l28 Wannus also made Nadya, Yusuf's sister-in-law, a front

behind which Yusuf conceals his forbidden incestuous desire for his mother.

Yiisuf makes-an agreement with Nadya to kill his brother by poisoning

him, this reminds us of the story of Qabil and Habil, mentioned in the Qur' an,

where QabTI killed his brother Habil in order to marry their only sister. It may

also reflect another Quranic story of the dream of the prophet Yiisuf Uoseph),

but unlike Wannus's character, who is dreaming about his past, the prophet

Yiisuf was able to see into his future. Wannus may have wanted to draw an

127 al-Jarad, p.113

128 See Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, ed.J.
Starchey, 1955 [1900].

140
analogy between these Quranic stories with their emphasis on forbidden

sexual relationships and his play.

At the end of the dream sequence, Yilsuf's parents appear carrying the

coffin of his brother, surrounded by a group of religious men repeating "there

is no God but Allah, the eternal. "129 They look at Yusuf in anger and his

father repeats one sentence: "you wretched Yiisuf. "130 Meanwhile, the mother,

opens her hand to release a giant black locust that attacks Yusuf in his

abdomen, it is followed by many other locusts that bite his abdomen and

apparently his sexual organs "the locusts are biting beneath my abdomen..it's

being gnawed .. Oh..it's being gnawed .. help."131 Then Yusuf awakes from his

dream frightened, repeating "God protect us from evil. "132

This play is a step further in Wannus's experimentation with the theatre

of the absurd and the "mental" theatre. Like many of Ionesco's works, it

focuses on the absurdity and diversity of human life. Wannus's work

resembles Ionesco in its use of the dream, attempting to assert that "truth lies

in our dreams, in our imagination. "133 Wanniis uses the dream as a medium,

through which he reveals those forbidden desires from the subconscious and

presents them as if they are reality. The complexity of the play made it evolve

129 al-Jadid, p.124

130 Ibid

131 Ibid, p.126

132 Ibid

133 Ioneseo, Notes, p.14

141
in an illogical way may reflect some influence of surrealism in its conception

of dreams, as Andre Breton explained "surrealism believes in the power of

dream. d34

Wannus's work also resembles Ionesco in its use of his technique of on-

stage metamorphosis, exemplified in the characters of Nadya and the mother,

the strange men and the locusts, who transform into other characters. He also

employs another technique of Ionesco, that is the exaggeration of the

prevailing aspects of the characters. Such exaggeration may have been a direct

influence of Cubism, Surrealism and Dadaism, where Jean/Hans Arp'sl35

"law of chance" is closely linked to the basic absurd belief in the arbitrariness

of the universe. These movements have influenced Ionesco as well as

Wannus. From Cubism they have borrowed the technique of concentrating on

the world of objects, a world in which objects assume a central importance.

From expressionism, they have borrowed the concern with the effect an object

produces rather than with the object itself, as well as the use of sharp colours,

and the flattening, "primitive" effects of the visual form.1J6 This proliferation

of objects is rooted in the multiple perspectives and simultaneity of Cubism;

where the "objects, seen from several directions simultaneously, may exchange

134 Breton, A., Manifestes du surrealisme, Pauvert, Paris,

1924, p.53

135 Jean/Hans Arp (1887-1966) was a German/French painter,

sculptor and poet. He was interested in philosophy and
painting experimental abstract landscapes.
136 Faya9, p.3

142
their masses and appear more numerous than they are. "137 The absurd in

this sense is the "shattered mirror in which man sees himself in a constantly

shifting and often superimposed manner. "138

In accordance with Ionesco's refusal to submit to the dictates of realism,

Wannus deliberately sets out to defy the conventions of realistic settings}39

We are constantly reminded and kept in the atmosphere of the dream by the

use of a loud snoring sound throughout the performance. Symbolism and

abstraction are, again, the main features of the work, and the dream here

symbolises the anxiety of human beings, the uselessness of life, and the social

barriers which create a sense of meaninglessness and absurdity.

In Juththa ealii al-Ra~if (A Corpse on the Pavement (1965)), Wannus

continues his experimentation in the theatre of the Absurd and the "mental"

theatre, but a touch of socialism creeps into the work. However, this play, as

Rama~Hin has argued, "did not attain enough maturity, but it did produce

initial signs of WannUs's drift towards socialism."l40 In the play, Wannus

depicts the class struggle between the rich and the poor. The events take place

on a wintry day, with two beggars sitting on the pavement near the wall of a

palace. One beggar is already dead as a result of hunger and cold, and the

other is sitting near him with his feet paralysed from the cold. From the

137 Ibid

138 Ibid

139 Ibid, p.138

140 Rama9an, p.50

143
background, mysterious and frightening humming sounds are heard,

reminding us of the nightmarish atmosphere characteristic of Wanniis's

previous plays, and the setting and atmosphere of Beckett's plays.

The beggar complains to his dead friend about the weather in words

that contain universal philosophical comments regarding life and death,

something that colours the scene with absurdist overtones:

Again a sixth day after a fifth ..It seems that there is

no end to that..it is linked to up there, in the sky.
Who knows? May be it is the beginning of certain
events.. You may know that by now .. Who
knows .. {rubbing his nose) if I can cut it off.. or if the
matter ends, yes, ends as quickly as
possible.. without further suffering.141

This monologue is full of sophisticated language that one would not expect

from a beggar, in fact, it is Wannus who is speaking, as he did before in the

long monologues and descriptions throughout his early plays, perhaps

reflecting a universal crisis, the crisis of the intellectual.

The play continues with a policeman wearing a thick warm uniform,

approaching the two beggars ,anger reflected on his face and in his voice. He

confronts them: "Don't you know that sleeping on the pavement is against the

law?"142 The beggar in response tries to persuade the policeman to go home

and sit near the warm fireplace or lie down in his warm bed, but the

141 Wannus, Juththa cal a al-Rasif in Ma/sat Ba'i' al-Dibs

al-Fagir, Dar al-Adab, Beirut, 1981, p.84
142 Ibid, p.85

144
policeman replies: "And what about duty? Duty does not respect comfort."le

The policeman then orders them to leave; even though he knows that the

second beggar is dead, he insists that the beggar should carry the corpse and

leave, so that his superiors will not accuse him of inefficiency. The beggar

then asks for his help in burying the corpse, but he replies furiously: "Are you

being smart? The devil burn you! If only circumstances were right, my fist

would have taught you the wisest move. "144

Wannus is trying to shock the audience with such an exaggerated

handling of the melodramatic event, to show that life has lost its meaning, as

life and death are two faces of one coin. There is no value in human life, and

certainly no respect for the dead. Wannus, like Ionesco, turns to Jungian

analysis to serve him in creating a "psychodramatic stage," which consists of

"fragmentary and kaleidoscopic mirrorings of existential anxieties, dreams and

daydreams, neurotic conflicts and traumas, dreamful or wishful projection,

discard memoirs."l4S In this situation, and while the policeman and the

beggar are arguing, a wealthy man dressed in leather clothes, accompanied by

a large hungry dog, approaches them, and after checking the corpse offers to

buy it for two silver coins to feed it to his dog, provided that it is not yet

rotten. He asks the policeman to check that At first, the policeman hesitates,

143 Ibid, p.86

144 Ibid, p.91
145 Lazar, M. ed., The Dream and the Play: Ionesco's
Theatrical Quest, Malibu, 1982, p.135

145
assuming that the rich man is joking, but when he realizes that he is serious

in his offer, he agrees and certifies that the bargain under the law is correct

saying: "You have every right sir.. please don't get angry. I will check the

corpse carefully... he is dead. "146

The wealthy man is not satisfied by that and orders the policeman to

cut the corpse with his duty knife to ensure that it is fresh, reminding the

policeman that it is part of his duty to protect the consumer. After cutting the

corpse, and ensuring its freshness, the wealthy man questions the beggar about

his relationship to the deceased. When he discovers that they are only friends,

he claims that the beggar has no right to claim the money for the sale, because

the law does not recognize friendship in these matters. He is backed up by

the policeman, who parrots the words of the wealthy man. The policeman "is

the missing link with one function, to serve the master [the wealthy man]

only. "147 Realizing that he is going to lose the money, the beggar then offers

himself for sale, asking the wealthy man to buy him as well, but the wealthy

man replies "Buy you? I am not that mad to buy living people."I48

Wannus in this play presents two social classes: the poor represented

by the beggars, and the rich or upper classes represented by the wealthy man.

Wannus also emphasizes that the political and legal systems always support

146 Ibid, 95
147 IsmaC.il, "Ril)lat al-Iltizam", p.30
148 Juththa, p.98

146
the rich, considering such a relationship of mutual interest Again, like Bii'i~l­

Dibs, this play revolves around oppressive authority and the exploitation of the

poor or the ordinary person. However, like the characters of Khadtir and

Khadra in the previous plays, the attitude of the beggar or the victim here is

characterised by passivity and total submission, especially when he offers

himself for sale. This exaggerated presentation of characters and events

creates an absurdist situation as well as an overall atmosphere of alienation

and abstraction.

The stage setting and the characters put us in the realm of the

grotesque, a characteristic of much of absurd drama, particularly of Ionesco's

theatre,149 as well as reflecting the themes of dehumanization and

mechanization of life and characters, and the reduction of human beings to

objects or faint voices. Although the play touches on important social and

humanistic issues, such as class conflict, death, life and dignity, Wannus does

not supply any solution to the world's problems, in fact, he seems to submit

to and accept fate. This fatalism imbues the play with an absurdist feeling of

uselessness, pessimism, the arbitrariness of the universe and the impossibility

of any change.

Ld'bal al-Dabiibis (The Game of Pins (1965)), represents Wanniis at the

height of his Absurdist writing. This play clearly reflects the influence of

existentialist philosophy on him. Wannus, in this play, presents us with two

absurd characters, Shadud, the symbol of authority, and Barhtim, the clown,

149 Faya~, pp.139-140

147
who resembles Franz Kafka's character in his story Metamorphosis (1916) in

which an alter ego of Kafka wakes up to find he has been transformed into a

verminous insect. lso Wanniis's play revolves around the idea of "games": life

is a game, and for Wannus, playing or game is a "metaphor for life and is the

only attitude one can take towards experience... lSI Such theme that is

repeatedly emphasized in his works, is the assertion that "man came to this

world without his will, and he is doomed to die, so in order to forget this

situation and this truth, he plays, acts and establishes a theatre presenting the

world on it." 152

The play starts presenting Shadi1d sitting on a "chair" talking to an

imaginary companion. Shadud, who is shaped like a balloon, is engaged in

a long monologue, which is being echoed by two high-pitched voices off stage,

encouraging Shadud to say more. Meanwhile, Barhum, a thin clown-like

character, appears on stage playing and performing some tricks for Shadud,

and insists on his participation in the game:

Here is the needle penetrating my hand, so easily,

as if it was a child passing through a crowd.. How
did you find the trick? It is different.. (smiling)
Would you like to try.. try once at least?l53

150 Isma~il, p.29

151 Fayaq., p.136
152 Ibrahim, al-Masrab al-Mu~asir, p.99
153 Wannus, LuCbat al-Dababis in Fasd aI-Dam wa-
Masrabiyyat Thaniya, 2nd ed., Beirut, 1981, pp.53-54

148
 However, the "game" becomes more and more menacing for Shadiid,

and when Barhtim chases and pricks him with a pin, he explodes. At this

point, two men, al-Tabi'i and al-Bishani, who were making the high-pitched

voices at the beginning, appear from off-stage threatening Barhiim for his

stupidity, which cost them their source of amusement, and threatened their

existence. They, then, start weeping and kicking Barhfun saying:

al-Tabici: On what are we going to live

now?
al-Bishani: And what are we going to do?
(attacking Barhum)
Barhum : (withdrawing) No, in the name
of our out-dated law I protest, I will not
take one kick before knowing the
reason.
al-Tabici: (furiously) You have deprived
us of the reason for our
existence, and you have the gall to ask
about the reason .. Oh.Bishani, who would
have expected such a trap.l54

Finally, they force Barhiim to sit on ShadQd's chair and they play with Barhiim

the same game he performed with Shadud. The play ends up with Barhfun,

like Shadiid, growing larger and larger, and launching into a monologue

similar to that of Shadiid at the beginning of the play.

The play, which resembles many of Ionesco's works, sets out to defy the

conventions of stage realism. The setting comprises a table, a large chair and

props. According to his stage directions, the colours are sharp and abstract,

and deliberately exaggerated so as to draw attention to themselves, rather than

154 Ibid, p.S7

149
blend into the action by becoming simply a background. ISS The setting is

intended to present the world as hemmed in by this geometry, an unreal

world for unreal people. The characters are no more than objects with painted

faces. Shadiid is only a balloon, who speaks to a chair, or rather to an

imaginary companion, as in Ionesco's The Orairs (1952), where the old man

addresses an invisible audience of empty chairs. Objects here assume a central

importance; we are presented in LuCbat al-Dababis with objects which can and

do replace human beings.lS6 To Ionesco, as well as to Wannus, objects and

people have the same significance. Therefore, Wannus presents us with

characters who are caricatures of human beings, who cannot "exist" in any

psychological dimension, and who are empty of any human feelings. 157

Wannus in this play borrows Ionesco's technique in his use of on-stage

metamorphosis, like the imaginative transformation of humans into

rhinoceroses in Ionesco's Rhinoceros (1960), we watch Shadtid, as he slowly

grows larger and larger and finally explodes, transformed into a balloon. The

same technique is used when Barhtim replaces Shadiid. Wannus has also used

the technique of a circular ending, as in The Bald Prima Donna (1950), the

characters can be substituted for one another, in other words "the whole of

155 FayaQ., p.138

156 Ibid
157 Ibrahim, P.101

150
human discourse is the same, however different the situation or background

may seem. "158

Unlike Ionesco, WannUs, in LuCbat al-Dababis, places little emphasis on

language. He emphasizes the lack of identity of the "individual", and although

the characters can be seen differently, as Wannus implies, it is man's situation

whlch gives him identity. The moment Barhum sits on Shadud's chair, he

becomes another Shadud, and there is no doubt that Shadiid took over the

chair from someone else. There is also a pOlitical message in the play, a

mockery of men in power, who are nothing but empty balloons being inflated

by their close companions, and when they explode, another is chosen to repeat

the cycle. In other words, the "identity" of the ruler is formed by the "voices"

of the close companions, and from them he draws his power and the belief

that he is the only master who should be obeyed. l59 As to the voices or close

companions, it does not matter who occupies the chair as long as they

maintain their privileges and status.

Another technique of Ionesco is used by Wannlis in this play, that is the

exaggerated presentation of melodramatic events, such as the explosion of

Shadiid: "a scream..a moan..an explosion. The lights are switched off as pure

piercing laughter ripples through the air, "160 and when Barhum, very

dramatically, performs his pin tricks, as described by Wannus: "he opens his

158 Fayag, p.140

159 Rama9an, p.49

160 LuCbat al-Dababis, p.54

151
mouth, rubs his right cheek, then jabs the pin into it, pulling it through to the

inside until the whole pin disappears. "161 The pins here are powerful objects

threatening the characters on-stage. These pins create a paranoia in Shadiid,

who is amusingly frightened by them. The pins assume "magical"

characteristics that are totally out of proportion with reality. The pin also, as

a single object, may represent a "phallic symbol", which becomes a means of

aggression and defeat. 162 Like the imaginary knife, in Ionesco's The Lesson

(1951), which raped the girl, Shadi1d is blown up with a pin. The pin and the

knife represent the phallocentric struggle for supremacy. There is also a

resemblance between Barhum and Ionesco's character Berenger in (Rhinoceros),

as "victims of duty." Like Berenger, Barhum is forced to submit to the

pressure of the two voices, the voices of social order, something too strong for

him to withstand. Barhtun also represents the irrationality of the world and

the fragility of human beings. Finally,' the "game" continues, with Barhum

today and someone else tomorrow.

In al-Maqha al-Zujaji (The Glass Cafe, 1965), Wannus addresses a more

general human issue, that is the conflict between the older and the younger

generation. The events take place in a traditional cafe, described by Wannus

as a "cafe like any other cafe, except that its walls are made of thick glass

161 Ibid, p.52

162 Faya9, p.143

152
faded yellow indicating decadence, ageing and neglect. "163 It is a microcosm,

whose regular inhabitants have passed the age of forty. The customers are

engaged in playing backgammon and other traditional games, the popular

pursuit of many in Arab cafes. Although they share the place as one

community, this does not reduce their feeling of alienation, their lack of

communication and sense of absurdity.

The owner of the cafe, ~a, is concerned with catching fleas, which

greatly amuses him. He is afraid of time and does not want anybody to

remind him of it, and when the waiter asks him what day it is, he replies

furiously: "I won't allow that. I may be remiss in some trivial matters, but not

in such questions. What a crime? You know very well our regulations in this

cafe, you know our work laws, you ... "164 The waiter, who lives in a world of

his own, is obsessed with his views about how his mother was blown up,

while she was, indefatigably, working with her sewing machine, and tries to

tell ~~a about that but he is not interested:

Waiter: My mother was blown up recently.

Za~a: Blown up? Who?
Waiter: My mother
~~a: (indifferent) Is she crazy? I despise
explosions and those who explode. l6S

163 Wannus,S., al-Magha al-Zujaji in Fasd aI-Dam wa-

Masrahiyyat Thaniya, 2nd ed. Dar al-Ad§b, Beirut, 1981, p.5
164 Ibid, p.29
165 Ibid, p.l0

153
 This atmosphere of alienation is further seen in the characters of ]asim

and Uns!, who play backgammon together, but each lives in his own world.

While ]asim is solely concerned with the game, Unsi is obsessed with his

anxieties about his son's abnormal growth, fearing that he will block out

Unsi's life and prevent air reaching him; "I remember him as a handful of red

flesh, and here he is growing larger and larger.. He is filling all the space in the

room .. He squeezes me against the wall..[he is trying to] eliminate me.. "l66

Unsi also fears losing the backgammon game, because that may lead to his

death similar to what happened to two previous customers, Abu Fahmi and

Khartabil al-Nal;ltawi, who died after losing their games.

This sense of lack of communication and indifference culminates after

the sudden death of one of the cafe's customers, C.Abd al-I:Iamid ai-DarWish,

who is supposed to be part of the "community", yet nobody is particularly

concerned:

Customer 1: God have mercy upon him.

Customer 2: We are all following the same
path.
Customer 3: The burial should not be
delayed ...
Waiter: We've lost a customer, master
Zaza.
..
Zaz~: (disapprovingly) Is this what
you think? Many died, and the cafe has
remained full of customers .. after a while
someone else will fill his chair.. 167

166 Ibid, p.20

167 Ibid, pp.24-25

154
This dialogue reflects Wannus's belief that this generation is living in a void

and that their life is characterized by absurdity and isolation. They fear the

passing of time and eventually death.

As the play progresses, Unsi becomes more and more nervous, and

begins to hear the sound of stones being thrown at the walls of the cafe.

When he tries to warn the others of the danger they will face, ~a orders the

waiter to throw him out of the cafe. This indicates, as Mul;1ammad al-

Mashayyikh has argued, that "outside danger may happen to any human

being, and he/she should be aware of matters around him, and alert others of

that danger."l68 This is a very simplistic analysiS of the play, as it conveys a

deeper message beneath the surface, that is the conflict between traditional and

modern values, between old ideas and new ones.

al-Maqhti al-Zujajr represents the lack of communication consequent

upon the failure of language to set up a communicative act between two

people. This is a recurrent theme in Ionesco's works and a major element of

the theatre of the Absurd, as Aragon asserted that "the Absurdist play rejects

the prevailing traditional norms in the theatre by employing disconnection in

scenes and dialogues, as well as depending on the absurd, which is reflected

in the characters' behaviour. "169 The dialogue of al-Maqhii al-Zujaji, especially

in the beginning, lacks cohesion and consists almost entirely of antiquated

168 al-Mashayyikh, M., p.90

169 Aragon, L., Traite du style, Gallimard, Paris, 1928,
p.73

155
Turkish terms related to the numbers of the moves in the backgammon game,

and which only have meaning for aficionados of the game. The characters are

merely hollow voices, who cannot find words to express themselves. Unsi

tries to threaten and expose the falsity of the "game", in which all the cafe's

customers are participating. He struggles to find the words, because for him,

words are a new instrument which he has never learned to use:

I am not talking about losing at backgammon,

there is something worse. Look outside.. there it is
coming! Our skulls will be crushed .. I know, since
that incident with my son.. everything was quiet,
and suddenly, my son appeared, he reminded me
of those who are dead ... We are dead. 170

Unsi has realized the meaninglessness of the lives around him, and

becomes the absurd hero, who wants to disturb this atmosphere of indifference

and the monotony of life, without knowing how or being able to do anything.

?~ senses the danger, and sees that the atmosphere of the cafe is threatened

by Unsi. Therefore, he gives the order: "it seems that he is becoming

dangerous. Hurry up and do something".l7l This act of ~~a reflects a

political dimension, because "we are faced here with a dictator who denies free

self-expression, but yet to whom words have a potency and power which can

disrupt the whole system. "In

170 al-Magha al-Zujaji, p.35

171 Ibid, p.37

172 Faya9, p.148

156
 The play also demonstrates the absence of the listener. We see Unsi,

when he becomes aware of his situation, seeking to enlighten the others, but

no one listens to him. He addresses ~ and the waiter, who do not pay any

attention to his concerns, instead, the waiter offers him tea with lemon, but

Unsi replies:

I said, I don't want tea. I guess you don't believe

me .. Oh! look carefully .. Three successive
stones.. God have mercy on us ..Is that a joke?
No .. the stones will continue until everything
collapses on our heads.. Shouldn't we do
something?173

Unsi's voice becomes a voice in the wilderness, predicting destruction,

but no one listens or cares. This theme of the absence of the listener can be

seen throughout the play. The waiter is struggling to understand what has

happened to his mother, but unlike Unsi, he submits to the rule of non-

communication imposed by ~~a in the cafe. Wannus in the play gives an

explanation for this refusal to listen. The customers' egotism prevents them

from concerning themselves with others. They are all withdrawn inside the

glass walls of the cafe, that may indicate their immediate fear of the outside

world beyond the walls, a "womb-like enclosure which satisfies their

regressive tendencies. "174 In some ways, the cafe, the archetypal Arab

environment, is the only protection against the "void" and its companion

death. Man has no choice, he must submit to the absurd world and accept it.

173 al-Maqha al-Zujaji, p.34

174 Faya9, p.150

157
The world inside the cafe is safe and protected, beyond its walls exist "them,"

the invisible threat, the void, frightening and uncomprehensible. 175

This gives the audience the impression that the characters are in fact

puppets and that the audience are watching a puppet show. Thus they are

described in Wannus's stage direction:

What is noticeable in almost all the customers is

the resemblance between their faces, which appear
as though they had undergone a slow
transformation that dissolved all their differences,
and coated them with a layer of imbecility, which
covered all those present.Jost eyes behind eyelids
with no eyelashes, gave all the faces a frozen and
empty look.176

This repeated theme of dehumanisation is clearly seen when the body

of their long-time colleague is dragged away through the back door of the cafe'

without being shown any respect. It is total degradation; he has become a

"thing" or an "object". This scene resembles the treatment of the corpse in

Ionesco's Amedee (1954), in which a vast dead body in the next room haunting

a couple, when it is dragged through the street. Another resemblance

between the two plays appears in their claustrophobic atmosphere. Like the

couple in Amedee, the customers of the cafe are closed in upon themselves.

Wanniis has also borrowed the theme of abnormal growth from Kafka,

especially in his story Metamorphosis as well as from Ionesco. This is

exemplified by UnsTs son. Like the corpse in Ionesco's play, which revolves

175 FayaQ, p.153

176 al-Magha al-Zujaji, p.6

158
around the world of objects, Unsi's son keeps growing abnormally, posing a

threat just to his father and leaving him fighting for space:

Unsi: (angrily) But what does he want? He grew

up suddenly, and began to grow, and grow.
I feel his body will crowd out the whole city.
He extends right as far as this remote
place..What does he want?177

As in Amedee, the growth of this object indicates decay and decadence.

Another object is the stones. Their being thrown at him contribute to the

feeling of guilt and punishment against which Unsi is struggling. The stones

may resemble lonesco's mushrooms in Amedee in their rapid increase,

suggesting a lack of control.

Wannus, in this play, condemns the old traditions and norms, as well

as the spirit of submission and indifference that prevails in Arab societies.

However, this condemnation stems from an absurdist vision, because failure

and despair await anyone who dares to confront such issues, or even

anticipates the coming danger, even if it is the wind of change exemplified by

the new generation. 178

The last play Wannus wrote, which can be considered as work of the

absurd, is clndama Yalcab al-Rijal (When Men Play (1965)). Influenced by

Cubism and Surrealism, this one-act play is set in what appears to be an

artificial garden, similar to that seen in children's drawings. The colours used

177 Ibid, p.27

178 Ismacil, al-Kalima, p.75

159
are very sharp and bright, the angles are geometrically defined, and the trees

are painted on paper or textile. This setting "in fact, is an imitation of reality,

but it is an imitation of the imitation of reality. In other words, the methodical

and scholastic form of the garden must be emphasised, so as to give an idea

of a new certain reality. "179 Wanniis here is inventing his own world,

reflecting Picasso's well-known statement "I paint things as I think them, not

as I see them. In this "true" world, Wanniis proclaims Ionesco's explanation

If

"we seem no longer to realize that a world we invent cannot be false. "ISO He

is attacking the prevailing geometry, which governs this world, and uses the

setting to represent the world of his characters who live hemmed in by this

geometry, an unreal world for unreal people.l8l

In this surrealistic and abstract atmosphere, ~bd al~lim (servant of the

Omniscient) a young intellectual hence his Arabic name, appears to be sitting

on an imaginary painted chair, and in the background there are two old men,

Dawiid and "Umar, whose "features are not clearly identifiable. -182 Dawiid

andC:Umar are playing a game of marbles, meanwhile a group of old men and

women, described as having thin faces and faded eyesl83, appear on stage

179 Wannus, eIndama Yaleab al-Rijal in Fasd aI-Dam wa-

Masrabiyyat Thaniya, 2nd ed., Beirut, 1981, p.108
180 Ionesco, Notes, p.47
181 FayaQ, p.138
182 e lndama Yaleab al-Rijal, p.108
183 Ibid, p.109

160
 making a loud noise while playing a game of hide and seek. An old man,

Taysir, approaches ~bd al-'l\lim and starts a conversation with him:

Taysir: Are you always immersed in

your thoughts?
'Abd al!Alim: Don't exaggerate uncle
Taysir, please sit down.
Taysir: It's not necessary, as I find these chairs
un-comfortable, do you find
them any different?
cAbd al-)\Iim: They are new chairs as far
as I know.
Taysir: I think they are not
solid ..1 prefer the old ones.
eAbd al-~lim: (smiling) But there are
always new things that we
should get used to, and
normally, the new things are
better than the old. l84

This dialogue symbolises the conflict between the old and the new, between

tradition and modernity. Taysir represents the older generation who do not

want or are afraid to see any change, and ~bd al:-Alim represents the opposite.

The climax of the play take place when Dawiid andcUmar engage in a

fight, after Dawud has won the game they were playing. cAbd al-~lim, who

is a good man, intervenes to stop the fight, but the situation deteriorates.

C.Umar pulls out a dagger, attempts to stab Dawiid, however he misses him and

stabs ~bd al-~lim instead, who falls dead. Ironically, the two men run away,

and the group of people resume their game of hide and seek. In this scene,

Wannus has employed another technique of lonesco, the ritualization of the

action or the "macabre dance." From the moment ~bd al-~im gets involved

184 Ibid, pp.113-114

161
in the fight, the audience begins to sense that they are witnesses to a slow-

motion dance which gradually increases in tempo until it reaches the

"ejaculative" moment of the killing!8S

Wanniis here is depicting the monotony and absurdity of life

exemplified in these useless games, where the idea of "good" is lost in an

atmosphere of indifference. Life continues with its empty and hollow game

without any meaning, evil is rewarded, and hope that would give life value

or meaning does not exist. 186

Like al-Maqha al-Zujaj~ this play, depicting life as a game, represents the

conflict between the old and the new generation, between 1;adiitha

(modernization) and a~la (tradition) in the Arab world; whether such a game

is played by children or adults makes no difference and has no importance.

Drtwud and cUmar see life from the side of personal gain or loss. In contrast,

~bd al-~lim is a considerate character, who sees life from its good side and

dies a victim of his beliefs. He is the tragic hero who becomes the absurd

hero in a life characterised by absurdity, meaninglessness and indifference.

The general atmosphere of the play is exemplified by the futility of the

action, even if it is positive, and ·the impotence of the will, even when it is

geared towards good. This leads us to confront the absurdity and triviality of

life. 187 Wannus has described the playas the "last work written in a period

185 Faya9, pp.143-144

186 Rarna9an, p.41
187 IsrnacIl, p.86

162
full of anxieties and illusions. "l8&fhis play, as well the previous ones, were

intended to be a series of plays sharing the common title "the games," as that

"notion created for me a certain understanding of the theatre, which through

its illusory basis, aims to provide a better alternative model of life. "189

Wanniis, in these plays, has depicted the "human psyche in its conflict

to find some sort of self unity, its alienation and its longing for the dreamed

reality. "190 This was influenced by the prevailing mood of social injustice in

the Arab world, the existence of outdated tradition that restricted any

development crowned with the conflict of generations at that time. Such

problems were in harmony with Wannus's existentialist vision of life at that

time, which led him to adopt a "naive idea about the nature of the movement

of history, in which, anxiety and submission are absolutes and all human

conditions move in a closed circle. "191 This led to him imprinting his

characters with an individual pattern in these works. If we take in mind

Wannus's being influenced by the existentialist philosophy and an

understanding of history, where anxiety, submission and the uselessness of

any effort prevail, as well as the prevalence of the concept of the individual

in these works, we will understand the reason behind the alienation, the

189 Ibid ,p.107

190 Ismacil, "Wannus wa-Riplat al-Iltizam", p.29

191 Badran, N., "Mu'allif ijakaya Jawqat al-Tamathil",

al-Akhbar, Beirut, 30 May 1971, p.5

163
nightmarish atmospheres, the abstraction and the absurdist and metaphysical

dimensions that imprint Wannus's works of this phase.

The plays of Wanniis were written and performed in standard Arabic

language (fu~ha), which may indicate Wannus's desire to make them

comprehensible and accessible in all Arab countries. He has used symbolic,

semi-poetic and figurative language, especially in his first plays. Such usage

confined the understanding of the themes and the aims of these plays to

limited group of the audience, the intellectuals, as well as stamping these plays

as "mental" works to be read and not performed, something the common

audience would not appreciate. Nevertheless, the social and political messages

of some of these plays and the quality of their presentation made Wanniis

well-known amongst the literati.

Wannus in these works was influenced by many: the Egyptian

playwright Tawfiq al-J:Iakim, Kafka, leaders of the Dadaist and Surrealist

movements, especially Tristan Tzara and Andre Breton,l92 and perhaps in the

first place by Eugene Ionesco. He borrowed not only his most typical themes,

but also many of his techniques. These plays, which express a mood of

dejection and despair, a trademark of the theatre of the Absurd, mark the first

phase of Wannus's writings, after which, he was to adopt a totally different

vision for his theatre as we shall see in the next chapter.

192 Wannus wrote an article about him entitled "Thawrat

Br'itun", in al-Adab (no.12), December 1966.

164
 Chapter 4

Scientific Socialism, Weiss, Brecht and Wanniis

, The second phase of Wanniis's playwrighting started while he was in

France in 1968. Deeply shocked by the 1967 defeat and profoundly influenced

by the 1968 political events in Paris, he began to associate himself with Marxist

political movements drifting away from his early existentialist tendencies. He

began to identify himself with scientific socialism with its dialectical

materialistic philosophy and this was reflected in his writings and life. He

saw this new ideology as the solution to the problems of the Arab world, and

accordingly formulated his ideas about his theatre in that phase, saying that

"we want a theatre for the masses, the oppressed, and the working classes, if

we are to achieve any social and political change."l This shows the influence

of Marxism on Wanniis, because, like Brecht before him, he has been more

concerned with the interpretation of reality and not the description of it,

reflecting Karl Marx and Engels when they said that "up until now

1Wannus interviewed by the researcher in Damascus, October,

1989.

165
philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point now is to change

He believed that politics should be the main concern for any human

being, and that applied to art, especially the theatre "and such a view was

reflected in his post-1967 works. The first play, Ifaflat Samar min Ajl Khamsah

l;lU7Ayran (An Evening's Entertainment for the Fifth of June, 1968), was

probably his most controversial work and the one he owes much of his success

to. Since then he wrote al-Ff1 Y5 Malik ai-Zaman (The Elephant. Oh King of All

Ages!, 1969), Mughamarat Ra's al-Mamliik Jabir (The Adventure of the Slave

Jabir's Head, 1970), Sahra maea Abi Khalil al-Qabbiini (A Soiree With Abu KhalTI

al-Qabbaru, 1972), ai-Malik Huwa'l-Malik (The King is the King, 1977), RiJ:zlat

lfanpzla min al-GhafIa ili'l-Yaqpz (HaI1.?4la's Journey from Indifference to

Awareness, 1978), which was an adaptation of Peter Weiss's How Mr.

Mockingpott was Relieved of his Sufferings, and al-Ighti~b (1990), which may

alternatively mean "The Rape" or "Usurpation". In writing these plays,

Wanniis was mainly influenced by Peter Weiss's documentary theatre, the

theatre of the Italian Luigi Pirandello, and perhaps most of all the epic theatre

of Bertolt Brecht. Before discussing these plays, and in order to fully

appreciate these works, it is relevant here to give a brief account of the

emergence of socialism in the Arab world, and to present a wider perspective

of the impact of socialist ideology on Wanniis and his works.

2 Marx, K. and F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerback and the Outcome

of Classical German Philosophy, Peking: Foreign Languages
Press, 1976, p.66

166
Islamic and Arab Socialism:

As the Arabs are "by nature and upbringing religious in character, the

application of Arab socialism has found roots in Islam. Distinction, therefore,

has to be made between [Arab] socialistregime[s] and the atheistic Communist

tendencies in other countries of the world."3 In this regard, Dr. Abd al-Aziz

al-DurT, an Iraqi academic, has argued out that socialism has been always part

of Arab and Islamic culture. He explained that "Arab socialism is not another

image of Marxism, as it h~s emerged from the reality of the Arab nation, from

its civilized heritage, and within it their basic values and moral concepts

evolved;"4 has a different connotation from the Arabic term for communism

shuyueiyyah, as this term has become synonymous with atheism. He also

explains that the Arab socialist conscious is not new, for it had begun to

emerge more than a century ago amongst Arab intellectuals. They linked Arab

backwardness and the exploitation of Arab resources to foreign intervention.

The danger of such intervention motivated them to seek to reform themselves

by taking active steps of a socialist nature.s

3eAtiya, A., in the forward to S. Hanna, and G. Gardner,

Arab Socialism, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1969.
4 al-Dur!, A., "al-Judhur al-Ta'rikhiyya li'l-Ishtirakiyyah
al-eArabiyya", al-Adab, vol.13 (no.3, March 1965, p.18
5 Ibid, p. 11 4

167
 Dr. al-Diiri has also argued that socialism is imbedded in Islam, in the

law of Takajur (mutual or joint responsibility) and that Islam is founded on

the concept of social justice. Islam prohibited monopoly and usury and

created a fair system of wealth distribution? This view was shared by the

rector of al-Azhar, in a statement published on December 22, 1961, declaring

that the most perfect, complete, useful and profound socialism is that

prescribed by Islam, and resting on the foundations of the faith.8 This

statement coincided with N~ir's introduction of his socialist charter.

Although the concept of socialism, in its modem meaning came from

Europe, Sami Hanna and George Gardner argued that "it moved easily into

[the] Arabic language and drew into a contemporary focus all the scattered

concepts of communality so deep embedded in Middle East traditional

culture."9 Some Arab and Muslim scholars realized that in their own culture

there existed a rich heritage of relevant ideas and values, which were the

counterpart of Europe's socialist principles. These scholars gave careful

6 This principle is manifested in many texts of the Qur'an

and Sunnah. This principle in Islam can be divided into: 1-
al-takaful al-adabi (mutual responsibility with respect to
social manners1 2- al-takaful a1 3ilmi (with respect to
education), 3- al-takaful al-siyasi (with respect to
politics) .See Mu:;;~afa al-SibaC.r "al-Takaful al-IjtimaC.r" in
S. Hanna and G. Gardner Arab Socialism.
7 Ibid, pp.19-20
8 Hanna, p.2
9 Ibid, p.51

168
attention to the ideas of such men as Saint Simon (1760-1825), Robert Owen

(1771-1958), Pierre Proudhon (1809-1%5) and Karl Marx (1818-1883).

However, Arab and Muslim scholars always stressed that Arab

Socialism differs from that of Europe or any other socialism in the world. This

view was emphasized by Jamal id-Din al-Afghlini,lo who, according to

Hanna, played the key role in this Arabizing or Islamizing of Socialism. al-

Afgharu wrote concerning European socialism:

Western socialism in its present condition, its

principles and the fumbling of its promoters, all
militate against the results expected from it; it can
only do harm instead of the good anticipated.
Western socialism owes its being solely to the
vindictive feelings against unjust rulers and injust
laws and the jealousy on the part of the workers of
those who have grown rich from their labor and
toil. 11

aI-Afghani contrasts with European socialism the principle of ishtirakiyyah

(socialism) in traditional Middle Eastern society and speaks of ishtirilkiyyah

islamiyyah (Islamic Socialism). He wrote: "Socialism is part and parcel of the

religion of Islam; it is also related to the character of its people from the time

when they were nomad and pagans. "12 He argued that:

10 Jamal ad.-Din aI-Afghani (1838-1897), was probably the

most important figure, both in his capacity as a promUlgator
of a reaction to the West with his pan-Islamic revivalism,
and in his influence upon almost all of the important
thinkers of his time. See Hanna and Gardner.
11 Hanna, p. 51
12 Ibid

169
 Islamic socialism can best guarantee its
effectiveness and usefulness; it is viable because the
Quran, its sacred scriptures, contain many pointers
to this very thing ...The reader of the Qur-'an knows
that the Qur an instructs and even orders the
mighty, the warrior, and the conqueror to defend
the rights of the weak, to the effect that those who
cannot take part in the holy war Jihad, should have
a share (of the spoil) ...Thus the first fifth goes to
Allah; the second goes to the prophet; and the third
to relatives ... All this is based on the wisdom of
sharing. 13

This view of Islamic Socialism was further emphasized by al-Afgharu's

disciple Mul)ammad 'Abduh14 who embarked on a social refonn mission or

movement. He was acutely conscious of the conditions of his fellow country

men during that time:

The people of Egypt are used to seeing their

private and public lives controlled by their
supreme ruler and whoever he delegates to run
their affairs. He exploits them according to his will.
They believe that their happiness and misery are
subject to his integrity or to his dishonesty and
injustice. IS

~bduh goes on to describe these conditions in detail, in his efforts to awaken

a social reform movement based on Islamic socialism explaining that:

13 Ibid

14 Sheikh Mu~ammad cAbduh (1849-1905), one of Egypt's

greatest modern reformers, was a disciple of aI-Afghani. He
was involved in the first amorphous nationalist movement in
Egypt (1878). See F. Gabrieli, The Arab Revival, Thames,
London, 1961, p.55

15RiQa, M. Rashid, Ta'rlkh aI-Imam MubammadcAbduh, vol.I

(2nd ed.), al-Manar Press, Cairo, 1927, p.35

170
 The natives of our country are overloaded with
financial burdens. Heavy taxes are always renewed
as the months and the years go by. Fines are
imposed on individuals haphazardly without limit
or end, to such an extent that they become
completely unable to pay... Many can find no way
out except by borrowing from the banks, which are
supporters of the oppressors...They overload the
farmers and other citizens with huge debts, which
force them to sell their property, or to put it up as
security, or to abandon it. Poverty surrounds them,
and their conditions are getting worse. 16

After the turn of the twentieth century, these views of an Islamic

socialism became less attractive to some modern scholars and social reformers,

who were fascinated by Europe, especially France and England. They were

attracted to the wave of European nationalism and began to identify

themselves with Arabism rather than concentrating on Islam. 17 One of these

scholars, Salama Musa,18 played a pioneering role in the emergence of Arab

socialism in its modern European image. In England he came to know

socialism first hand, its thought patterns offered him a framework within

which to crystallize his thinking about modernization and reorganization of his

own society.19 In 1910 he published his first book Muqaddimat al-Sub/irman

16 Ibid, II, pp.56-57

17 Kenny,L., "The Khedive Isma iI's Dream of Civilization",
Muslim World, 55 (April 1965), pp.142-155
18Salama Musa (1887-1958) a pioneer of Arab Socialism, was
a member of the small Coptic minority of Egypt, who visited
France as well as England and was deeply influenced by the
Fabians and their socialist ideology.
19 Hanna, p. 53

171
(Prelude to Superman), which might have been influenced by George Bernard

Shaw's Man and Superman (1902), revealing much of the trend of his

developing thought. He came to the striking conclusion that "the most

important tasks facing Egyptians are economic liberation, which gives equal

job opportunity to all individuals by means of al-sushyaliyyah [his Arabic

rendering of socialism], and literary liberation, so that the inferior... may be

discarded, and only the superior may live.....20

When he returned to Egypt in 1914, Miisa was joined by YaCqUb ~arriif

and Faral;l Antiin21 in presenting this leaven of ideas to the public through the

medium of a weekly magazine al-Mustaqbal. They wrote in the most avant-

garde manner on evolution, national unity, positivism, socialism and the

like. 22 Musa's goal in presenting these ideas, was to establish a new and

"modern" way of thinking amongst the public. He wanted to replace deep

religious feelings with national feelings, as he described "when I returned to

Egypt, I found that religious feeling was much greater and deeper than the

national feeling among Muslims as well as Copts. Then my aim became to

20 Musa, S., Mugaddimat al-Subirman, al-Hilal Press, Cairo,

1910, p.29
21 Yaequb $arriif (1852-1927) and Faral;l Antun (1874-1922)
were well-known Arab writers and journalists in the late
19th and early 20th centuries.
22 Hanna, p.55

172
combat superstition by disseminating the theory of evolution in order that

science might replace faith."23

This view of Milsa was adopted by Wanniis after the 1967 defeat and

was reflected in his approach by giving greater emphasis to Arabism and

nationalist feelings over Islamic faith in his writings. His vision of scientific

socialism, is reflected also by many other contemporary writers and thinkers.

cAbd al-H3di al-Fakayki explains that "Arab scientific socialism is in fact a

movement that evolves from Arab reality, and had been able to assert its

existence and justify itself both intellectually and morally."24 He stressed the

link between Arab socialism and pan-Arabism and viewed them in the context

of social revolution, without which, as he argued, socialism would be a "Sufist

and magical movement in the hands of the opportunists, the reactionaries and

the bourgeois. "25

Marxist materialist views, grew unchecked from 1945 onward, under the

umbrella of natiomilist feelings and resentment of all foreign interference, so

that its supporters "were able to combine a policy of xenophobia with their

radical programme of social revolution."26 They also afforded the final proof

23 Musa, S., Tarbiyat Salama Musa, al-Khanki, Cairo, 1957,

p.269
24 al-Fakaykl, A., "al-Ishtirakiyyah al~Arabiyya bayn al-
Na~ariyya wa'l-Tatbiq", al-Adab, vol.13 (no.1), January
1965, pp.18-21
25 Ibid, p.19

26 Gabrieli, F., The Arab Revival, Thames and Hudson,

London, 1961, p.168

173
that it was possible to reconcile these viewpoints with Islam, which retreated

ever more and more into the background whenever the ideas of the nationalist

movement prevailed in the Arab revival, but was not totally eliminated.27

Na~ir's Socialism:

The wave of Arab Socialism, which was to be embraced in Na~ir's

concept of pan-Arabism, and the growing interest of Arab theoreticians and

intellectuals in Marxism was perhaps related to the Arab world's openness to

scientific socialist thought after World War Two.28 This was further enhanced

by the 1952 Egyptian revolution, which Jamal Abd al-Na~ir, who emerged as

the great Arab leader of his generation, was to push to the fore. Although it

is difficult to associate Na~ir directly with Marxism or even socialism at that

time, he delivered several speeches after the revolution indicating that such a

tendency might develop in his thought. He believed in the concept of "two

revolutions", social and political,29 as he stated in 1953:

Every nation on earth undergoes two revolutions:

one is political, in which it recovers its right for
self-government from an imposed despot, or an
aggressive army occupying its territory without its
consent. The second revolution is social, in which

27 Ibid

28 $afadI, M., "al-Thawriyya alEArabiyya am am al-Marksiyya",

al-Adab, vol.12 (no.l0), p.3

29Sayegh, F., "The Theoretical Structure of Na!;;ir' s

Socialism" in Hanna and Gardner, Arab Socialism, p.l01

174
 the classes of the society struggle against each
other until justice for all countrymen has been
gained and conditions have become stable.30

These two revolutions may not occur simultaneously, and could be separated

by many years, for he emphasized that:

Other nations have preceded us along the path of

human progress and passed through the two
revolutions but not simultaneously. Hundreds of
years separated the one from the other. In the case
of our nation, it is going through the two
revolutions together.31

He stressed that socialism was the pursuit of self- sufficiency, justice,

and freedom. By sufficiency, N~ir meant the expansion of the nation's total

wealth. Justice connoted freedom from exploitation and the enjoyment of

equal opportunity to develop one's self and to receive a fair share of the

national wealth according to one's efforts. Freedom was the right of

participation in shaping the nation's destiny.32

From the mid-fifties to mid-sixties Na~irism was the major driving force

in the Arab world. Na~ir's views of Arab socialism and pan-Arabism created

much hope and led to the expansion of nationalist feelings. Na~irism was

manifested in various genres of literature, especially the theatre which joined

30 Na9ir, J., Falsafat al-Thawra (The Philosophy of the

Revolution), Economica Books, Buffalo, N. Y., 1959 (trans.
by Dar al-Macarif, Cairo), p.36
31 Ibid
32 Sayegh, p. 1 08

175
the campaign to promote socialist ideas in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq,

Morocco and other parts of the Arab world. Playwrights such as Nucman

cAshiir, Lu~fi al-Khiili, SaC.d al-Din Wahba, Tawfiq al-f,Iakim and Yusuf Idris,

were to lend their support to N~irist socialism. Like many Arab young men

at that time, Wannlis saw in N~ir and N~irism hope for the fulfillment of

Arab aspirations exemplified in Arab unity and consequently the establishment

of one Arab state.

This dream and hope was further strengthened with the seizure of

power by the BaCth party in both Syria and Iraq in 1963. Despite the fact that

there is an ideological difference in the interpretation of the term thawra

(revolution) in N~irism, and inqiliib (coup d'etat) for the Ba thistS3, Bacthist

ideology revolved around almost the same views as N~irism. The Bac th

programme included the redistribution of wealth, the national ownership of

public utilities and resources, limitations on the ownership of land, social

insurance, labour legislation, the establishment of free trade unions and the

guarantee of a minimum standard of living. It believed that Arab

independence, Arab unity, and social justice could not be achieved apart from

each other; socialism was an essential part of Arab nationalism. The B({th was

socialist not communist34

33 Hanna, p. 304

34 Hourani, A., Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939,

Oxford University Press, New York, 1962, p.375

176
 Although the programmes of both N~irism and the BaCofu appealed to

many Arab people and created hope in the restoration of Arab pride and past

glory, they were in fact merely resounding slogans that were not to be

materialized in reality. N~irism suffered a humiliating setback after the 1967

defeat and the BaC:th went through an internal split between its own factions.

The dream of Arab unity, advocated by both ideologies, was shattered and this

had a devastating effect on both the populace as well as on intellectuals.

Wanniis, one of these intellectuals, expressed his regret that he had

believed in such fonns of socialism, especially N~irism, when he was in Paris

in 1968. He began to adopt Marxism or scientific socialism (al-ishtiriikiyyah al-

Cilmiyya), and regarded other forms of Arab socialisms as:

socialisms of the petty bourgeoisie mixed with pan-

Arabism and the dictatorship of the individual, that
stands for isolating the masses and preventing
them from establishing and practising democracy...
Such socialisms face a dead end road, and in fact
they are not socialisms but they are attempts to
create a capitalist state that would enable the ruler
or the ruling class, which is the petty bourgeoisie,
to consolidate its power in Arab society.35

Influenced by this new ideology, and the theatrical teachings of Jean

Vilar, Bernard Dort and other French theatre directors and critics, Wanniis

began to attend theatrical performances and experiments advocating scientific

socialist thought. Dort was one of the principal French critics of Brecht, and

influenced Wannus to study Brecht's theatre and to adopt his ideas of epic

35 Wannus interviewed by K. RamaQan, Damascus, April 1984,

and used in his book Masrab Saed Allah Wannus, p.23

177
theatre when writing his later plays.J6 Wanniis attended plays written by

Peter Weiss and Brecht and began to employ their ideas and techniques in his

plays. In order to appreciate these plays, it will be useful for the reader to

have an idea about the emergence of Brecht in Arab theatre and how his epic

theatre was perceived.

Brecht in the Arab perspective:

An increased interest in Brecht, by Wannus as well as by many other

Arab playwrights, was a marked feature of their works after the 1967 defeat,

as:

cultural institutions developed an orientation

towards socialist thought in countries like Egypt,
Syria and Iraq. Moreover, with the Arab defeat of
1967 and the ensuing national frustrations, Arab
dramatists discovered that Brecht's epic theatre
techniques provided them with the freedom to
address their audiences, explain to them the
national, social, and political causes of the
catastrophe, and teach them how to cope with and
try to transcend its consequences. 37

Brecht's Man's a Man (1926) marked the beginnings of his theory of epic

theatre, in which acting, direction, set design, and all aspects of theatrical

36 Wannus interviewed by F. Dawara, al-Hilal, April 1977,

p.191
37 Gorygh, A., "The Socio-political and Cultural Ambience of
WalId Ikhla.$i", World Literature Today, vol.62, 1988, p.S1

178
production were organised to produce a dramatic effect which challenged the

audience and which implicated them in the dramatic events. Central to his

theatre was the "Verfremdungseffekt" (alienation or distancing effect), which

refers to devices in staging, acting, music and direction which encourage the

spectator to avoid cathartic identification.

The adoption of Brecht's epic theatre in the Arab world, mainly by

socialist and Marxist playwrights, was motivated by the desire to change the

reality of Arab society after the defeat. It was also seen as the form of theatre

most suitable to Arab theatre. Despite that bias "we find, mostly, confusion

and misunderstanding [arising] amongst Arab writers regarding the life of

Brecht and his theatre, on both theoretical and practical levels."38 al-

QarashUlli has argued that the introduction of Brecht's ideas in the early sixties

into Arab theatre was not accompanied by full understanding of his works.

When Sharif Khazindar, the Syrian director, directed Brecht's The Exception and

the Rule in Damascus, and Faruq al-Damardash, the Egyptian director, directed

the same play in Cairo, they both understood this work to be related to

expressionism, which according to QarashUlli was a misunderstanding of

Brecht because this was related to Brecht's didactic theatre. 39 This

misconception of Brecht's epic theatre, as al-Qarashulli has argued, was rife

amongst many critics of the theatre; critics, such as Mul)ammad Mandiir,

38 al-Qarashulli, A., "Bertolt Brecht fi'l-Mir'at al-

CArabiyya" , al-ijayat al-Masrabiyya (no.11-12), 1980, p.5
39 Ibid

179
 Luwis ~waQ, cAli al-Rti and Raja' al-Naqqash, were applying an Aristotelian

perspective in their criticism of works related to the epic theatre.

However, in the 1960s and 1970s most of Brecht's works were translated

into Arabic, and many of these works were performed in Cairo, Damascus,

Baghdad, Morocco and elsewhere in the Arab world. Arab playwrights began

to write in the form of the epic theatre and several studies of this theatre, its

function and ideas began to appear in Arab magazines.40

This interest in Brecht's epic theatre, according to an Iraqi academic, l;Iayat

Mul)ammad, occurred because this theatre deals with political and social

issues of concern to the Arab people, as well as because of its emphasis on the

social function of the individual. 41 Many of Brecht's works, such as Baal

(1918), Drums in the Night (1922), Man's a Man (1926), The Threepenny Opera

(1928), Mother Courage and Her Ozildren (1941), The Caucasian Ozalk Circle (1945),

and Herr Puntila and his Servant Matti (1948), were produced and performed

by various government and private theatre troupes in Algiers, Cairo, Morocco,

Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq throughout the 1960s and 70s. In Egypt several plays

were written in the vein of epic theatre, amongst them Ra'tif Muscad's

40 See c Abd al-Muncim al-l;Iafni, "Bertolt Brecht," al-Katib,

October, 1962. Sacd Ardash, " a l-Malhamiyya wa'l-Tarbiya
al-IjtimaCiyya fi Masral;l Brecht," ai-Masrab, April, 1964.
Amin al.!=Ayiiti, "al-Masral;l al-Mall;lami'ind Brecht," al-Masrab,
November, 1966. Ibrahim ijamada, "Mafhtlm al-Taghrib fi Masral;l
Brecht," al-Masrah wa'I-Sinama, July, 1968. Faruq'Abd al-
Wahab, "al-Urganun al $aghir li'I-Masral)." (translation), al-
Masrab, August, 1965.
41 MuQ.ammad, H., "aI-Drama al-Malhamiyya fi Mi:?r 1960-70",
(...Xlam al-Fikr,' vol.15 (no.1), 1984', p.84

180
Liimiimba (1965) and al-Nafaq (The Tunnel, 1966), Rashad Rushdrs Itfaraj YQ

Salam (Come to the Peepshow/Come and Look, How Marvelous It Is, 1966),

Alfred Faraj's al-Zir Salim (Prince Salim, 1967), and Mucin BsiSu's lAylat Ma~rac

JiJara (The Night Guevara was Killed, 1969).

These plays are epic works because they have as an "antecedent the

wider social background of their characters."42 The historification (ta'rikhiyya)

is the common factor all of them, as these plays are all constructed around

events derived from ancient or modem history, which is a significant feature

of the epic theatre, as Bernard Dort, in his discussion of this theatre, argued

that:

The great plays should be produced in such a way

that they show the social conditions in which they
are set as belonging to the past. Such a
presentation, in turn, would lead today's spectators
to interrogate their own society and would make
them understand that their own society is also
changeable and that they possess the power to
transform it.43

In this regard, an Algerian critic of Brecht, cAbd al-Qadir All Ula explains

why Brecht and his theatre is important, because:

Brecht offers a synthesis which is of particular

importance for world theatre. He is different from
other theatre theoretidans in that his theory offers
a complete world-view based on historical
materialism, and the use of the V-Effekt as a
necessary means to heighten awareness of the

42 Ibid

43 Dort, B., Theatre public, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1967,

p.26

181
 concrete and the essential in life. We are interested
in his views about the structure of the
theatre... Ours is not dramatic, but a narrative
theatre. We tell a story. There are no "positive"
heroes, the mover of the action is not the
individual, but a collective hero. By understanding
Brecht and using his theory in our theatre, we can
break away from the Aristotelian convention,
which limits our works.""

Wannus also echoes such an idea when revealing the influence of Brecht

on him:

I have benefited greatly from Brecht in identifying

the function of the theatre; how to link this with
reality and how to analyze certain social events. I
am interested in Brecht's idea that says: "it is not
the function of the theatre any more to describe
reality, but to change it. " Of course Brecht took that
from Karl Marx, but he has implemented it in the
theatre. this has influenced me very much up to
the present day:l.5

The elements of social and political commitment manifested in the epic

theatre, accompanied by the call for breaking the imaginative barrier (fourth

wall) between the stage and the audience, which characterizes this theatre,

gave this theatre a boost, especially in the Arab socialist countries during the

mid-sixties and seventies. A call for commitment in the theatre in the Arab

world began to circulate. Ma1)miid AmTn al-C.Xlim invited Arab writers to seek

CAllula, A. quoted in El-Amari Lamice, "Brecht Of Course:

.(4

The Advent of B.B. in the Gulf," Communications (CrBS),

vol.17, 1987, p.65

4S Wannus interviewed by the researcher in Damascus, October

1989.

182
inspiration (istilhfun) from the reality of our human experiment and to respond

to the "needs of our social revolution."46 Dr. Nadim M~ammad praises the

efforts of a those young actors who believed in the committed theatre and its

political and social functions.47 Farl)an Bulbul urged Arab theatre to dedicate

its art to serving Arab issues, and directing it to the "wider audience of the

workers, farmers, and other oppressed people. "48

These ideas were raised in earnest after the 1967 defeat. Wanniis as

well as other Marxist and socialist- oriented writers, especially in Syria, found

the form, function, ideas and technique of Brecht's epic theatre, the appropriate

forum to present Arab theatre. They employed the "alienation effect", an

essential element in the epic theatre, in their works, in order to evoke an

intellectual response from their audience. Brecht has described such an effect

by saying: "what is involved here is, briefly, a technique of taking the human

social incidents to be portrayed and labelling them as something striking,

,
something that calls for explanation, is not to be taken for granted, not just

natural. The object of this "effect" is to allow the spectator to criticize

constructively from a social point of view."49 This means that the main

46 al-Wajh wa' l-QinaC. fi Masrabina al-Muc asir,

al~Alim, M.,
Dar al-Adab, 1st ed. Beirut, 1973, p.36
41 Mul)ammad, N., al-Judrim al-ArbaC. a (Dirasat Tatbigiyya
fi'l-Masrab, Ministry of Culture, Damascus, 1980, p.26
48 Bulbul, F., "Shakhl?iyyat al-Mu'allif al-Masral;>.i_al-cArabi
wa- Ta' aththuruh bi' I-Tayyarat al-Masral;>.iyya al-C,Alamiyya",
al-Hayat al-Masrahiyya (no.2), Damascus 1977, p.125
49 Brecht, B., Brecht on Theatre, ed. John Willett, Methuen,
London, 1978, p.125

183
purpose of this effect is to "break the total empathic response by breaking

illusion and reminding the audience that they are in a theatre watching a

reflection of reality, and not reality itself, that the real problems lie outside the

theatre, not on the stage."so He insisted that theatre carry this illusive element,

and the audience should always be aware of this fact, and the way to achieve

that is by breaking the imaginary fourth wall which separates the stage from

the audience.

Brecht used many techniques to create this alienation effect, and one of

these is "historification." The use of this technique, which has been adopted

by Wannus, meant to give the audience the opportunity "not only to judge

these historical events, but be led to recognize since things have changed,

present conditions may be altered."SI Wannus, used this technique in most of

his post-1967 plays, not to "establish a true Arab theatre, because this in itself

is not enough to do so, but actually to give the audience the opportunity to

contemplate the story or the event (parable), which they previously know, and

to see it differently by concentrating on its relevance to their daily life. "52

In most of his plays, "Wannus is much more concerned with the process

of using history to illustrate the contemporary problems of Arabic drama and

to project some of his own suggestions as to how these problems might be

50 Ibid, ( 1 964), p. 125

S1 Brockett, o. and R. Findlay, century of Innovation,
Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1973, p.419
52 Wannus interviewed by Nabil Haffar and published in S.
Wannus, Bayanat li-Masrah cArabi Jadid, Dar al-Fikr al-
JadId, Beirut, 1988, p.118-9

184
solved."53 The plays of Wannus, like those of Brecht "were presented not for

their timeless values but for their connection to an identifiable historical period

of time,"54 through such a presentation of that period of history in a certain

society; the dialectical relation implies that history repeats itself and the change

that has happened then could happen now. He wanted the audience to be

historians identifying themselves with the playwright, because the playwright

translates on stage what the audience think, that is how social change should

occur.55 Wannus made the audience, not the performance, the main element

in his theatre. He wanted to politicize them, so as to make them participate

in the work and consequently to try to change their conditions.

This theme of political and social change and the relationship between

the ruler and the ruled were the main force behind his later works, influenced

by Marxist ideologies in the treatment of his themes and insisting on

revolutionary change in society, as the only way to create the desired Arab

society. He, in his post-1967 plays, which will be discussed later in their

chronological order, embarked on a process of politicization of the audience

and regarded that as the first step in the direction of enlightening the people

and to inciting them by intellectual means to create social and political change.

These plays will be extensively described so that to give the reader a better

53 Allen, R., "Arabic Drama in Theory and Practice ll , Journal

of Arabic Literature, (no.1S), 1984, p.108

54 Van Erven, E., Radical People'S Theatre, Indiana

University Press, Indiana, 1988, p.13

55 Rashid, A., Masrab Brecht, Dar al-Nah<;ia alEArabiyya,

Beirut, 1988, p.88

185
understanding of the narrative and epic style used by Wannus in most of these

plays, as they contain considerable descriptions of characters, events and stage

directions. Such description will also show the influence of Brecht, Weiss and

Pirandello on Wannils's plays.

Wanniis and the Documentary and Epic Theatres:

Bearing in mind all the vibrant political and social upheaval that took

place in Europe and in the Arab world during 1967 and 1968, and with his

apparent leanings towards Marxism, Wannus took the first step with his play

lfaflat Samar min Ajl Khamsah I;luzayran (An Evening's Entertainment for the

Fifth of June, 1968). This play, which bears the marks of Peter Weiss's

documentary theatre,56 was the turning point in Wannus's career. It

·confronted the defeat, and was armed with a clear scientific and revolutionary

perspective. It revealed the falsity of most other Arab plays that dealt with the

defeat."S] Wannus described his feelings whilst writing the play saying: "I did

not think of any theatrical forms (u~ul), or any requirements of any specific

literary genre, 1 wanted only to bare the reality of the defeat."58 The play was

56Documentary theatre is a form of theatre, developed in

the 1950s and 60s by German writers, amongst whom is Peter
Weiss, in which productions are closely based upon
historical truth (facts).
57 ya.sin and Sulayman, p.325
58 Wannus interviewed by Ismaeil, p.225

186
"a kind of a positive expression.. that made me sense my ability to take part in

responding to the defeat. "59

lfaflat Samar could be considered a manifesto for a new Arab theatre for

the second half of the 1960s.IDJ'he public success of the play was not achieved

by any other Arab play. Among many literary works which responded to the

1967 defeat were a number of plays; there can be little doubt that lfaflat Samar

is the most famous and even notorious amongst them. 61 It created controversy

and arguments more than any other play in the Arab world. The play is

indeed "a distinguished work of art from the point of view of both form and

content. It displays the intellectual daring of its author, as well as his

expressive powers and his artistic authenticity."62

Wanniis in the play adds another dimension to the function of the

theatre, not only to entertain, and/or educate, but to politicize as well. This

function to Wanniis became the most essential in his theatre and the object of

which was to create the possibility for the desired social change. He, actually,

has called his theatre the "Theatre of Politicization", and has outlined his own

views on the theory and practice of drama, as shall be discussed in the next

chapter. Wanniis has been concerned with promoting the audience's political

awareness, and like Brecht, to bring the greatest pleasure through "productive

59 Wannus interviewed by Dawara, p.193

60 Mul)~lInrnad, a 1-Adab , p. 1 21

61 Allen, "Arabic Drama", p.14

c.-
62 al-Alim, al-Wajh wa'l-Qina', p.29

187
participation."63 The play is part of the agit-prop theatre, which seeks to

provoke the audience and drive them to participate in the show. 64

In this play, as al~lim, argued:

There are no symbols or allusions; it points and it

speaks with a terrifyingly direct clarity and a
realism that is absolute and crude in its impact.
However, in spite of the directness of the impact
and crudity of the message, we never lose touch
with candour and truth. Things never degenerate
into mere chatter; instead we live reality itself
within a clearly focused framework, in the essence
of the essence as it moves and careens in front of
us, around us, in us. 6S

Wanniis in ijajlat Samar "did not participate in the circle of justification, which

many [Arab] writers who wrote about the defeat have fallen into, and who

could not, or did not want to confront the truth."66 The play aroused many

political, social, and cultural issues, and demonstrated the intennixture of these

issues from a progressive perspective.

Although Wannus insisted that he had not contemplated any specific

theatrical form when writing the play, the nature of the issue he was treating,

and its closeness to the audience, and the degree of his emotional involvement,

as well as his vision of the work, determined that he should look for a suitable

form in which to present his vision, because "the vision of the artist Vannan)

63 Wannus, Bayanat, p.127

64 al-CIshary, al-Masrabiyya al-Siyasiyya, pp.80-81

65 al~Alim, pp.225-6

66 al-Naqqash I "Masral) S. Wannus", p. 81

188
does not only becomes effective in his choice of subject, but it becomes

responsible for the choice of the form in which he presents this subject. "67

Therefore, the vision of Wanniis, as Rama<;tan argued, "has determined the

choice of the documentary theatre as the suitable fonn to present his subject,

and to assume, within this form, the role of witness, whose statements would

lead to the conviction of all parties responsible for the defeat."68 Since

Wannus was assuming the role of the witness in this trial of "regimes,

foundations, structure, ideas and leaders, "69 the documentary fonn was the

most appropriate to the nature of the subject, because documentary theatre is

considered to be "part of the makeup of life in general, reflecting in a

particular way the attitude of the wider masses. "70

In the play, and influenced by Weiss's and Brecht's techniques, Wannus

ignores linear chronology and the traditional use of plot, and presents events,

experiences and ideas about the defeat. Despite the disconnected and

improvisational nature of the individual scenes, "their social and political

relevance generated a cohesive impression in the mind of the beholder familiar

with the implications of the 1967 conflict."71 In the form of play within a play,

67 Badr, A., al-Riwaya wa'l-e ArQ , Dar al-Macarif, 2nd ed.,

Cairo, 1979, p.31
68 Rama<;lan, p. 78
69cAbd aI-Qadir, F., Izdihar wa-Sugut al-Masrah al-Misri
al-Mueasir, Dar al-Fikr al-Mu'a$ir, 1979, p.164
70 Weiss, P.37
71 Gouryh, "Recent Trends", p. 21 9

189
the acting occurs both on stage and amongst the audience. In an attempt to

bridge the gap between stage and audience, Wannus seated some actors

among the audience, and whenever a discussion got heated on stage, it drew

a response from an actor in the auditorium; as the stage-actor/audience-actor

dialogue intensifies, members of the "real" audience loosen up and get

involved in the discussion. Through this process and the free movement of

the actors between stage and auditorium, Wannus is able to put the people at

ease and encourage them to participate in the performance.n

In his initial comments, Wannus makes it abundantly clear, that this is

not envisaged as any kind of traditional play. Here the entire theatre becomes

the stage; to quote the subtitle, the participants are "the public (jumhur),

history, officials and professional: actors." 73 It is carefully noted also that this

is to be an official, state-run theatre performance74, overseen by the

bureaucrats of the cultural sector who have handed out the usual invitations

both to significant power figures and also to a token number of refugees?5

Wannus then goes on to define the general atmosphere as well as the audience

attending the play:

In the aftermath of the June war, most of the

directors of the cultural institutions, especially the
official ones, were striving, with their traditional

72 Ibid

73 Wannus, S., Haflat Samar min Ail Khamsah Huzayran, Dar

al-Adab, Beirut, 2nd ed. (April 1980).
74 Ibid, p. 3

75 Allen, pp. 1 00-1

190
 enthusiasm, to reestablish the existence of their
institutions. At events concerning the state, the
official institutions are represented, and the June
war, for them, was only one of these state
events?6

Such a definition of the audience signifies that the theatre is set to be a court

room, in which the events of June and the official institutions responsible for

its occurrence are to be put on trial. By doing so, Wannus does not only invite

the audience to participate in expressing their viewpoints, but to participate

in the acting as well. n

The play involves two main axes, the first one concerns the content and

aims to present a critical view of the "setback" from the point view of the

authorities ($ul/a) and the people. The second axis concerns the structure of

the play which invites the audience to participate in the play. These two axes

intermix and interact in a Marxist dialectical way enhancing each other?8

Wannus uses the form of play within a play, which is to be the opening

night of a play entitled $aftr al-Arwa~ (The Whistling of the Spirits) by Abd a1

Ghani al-ShrtCir79, however, the start of the "performance" is to be delayed for

as long as is necessary to make the audience tense and agitated, and this

period of mounting concern and tension is interrupted, as is the whole play,

76 I;Iaflat Samar, p.3

77 Ismacil, F., al-Kalima, p.95
78 Ibid
H Haflat Samar, p.3,5

191
by a series of discordant and increasingly relevant comments and questions

posed by actors from amongst the audience itself: 80 "What is this, we are not

the slaves of your fathers .. What a shame! Is this a theatre or a hotel? We did

not come here to sleep ...Technical fault! It might be a problem behind the

scenes.. This is despicable..It could be an imperialistic conspiracy?!"81

It is into this scenario fraught with anger and anticipation that the

director of the inner play (an actor, of course) steps to share with the audience

his problems, which have prevented the performance itself from starting. He

begins to explain:

What a difficult situation. But please don't think

badly of us. If we could call the matter deceit, then
we are victims as well...I'll explain in detail. We as
artists expect surprises but nothing like this. We
were deprived of our roles .. we were trapped [by
the author~bd ai-Cham aI_ShaC.ir].82

The director explains that the author has actually withdrawn his text at the last

minute, and that he should be blamed for creating this problem. By doing so,

the director provokes the audience and increases the tension amongst them by

placing them in the middle of the problem. This conflict between the author

and the director has put them in a de-facto situation, that is their exclusion

from the performance, so that they are requesting a solution. At this point,

Wannus starts to present the position of the authorities regarding the defeat,

80 Allen, p. 100

81 Haflat Samar, pp.5-6

82 Ibid, pp. 7,8-9

192
in other words, he starts displaying an official picture of the defeat through

the suggestion of the director that a poetic evening (umsiya shi'riyya), and a

theatrical perfonnance be staged instead of the original performance. The

director goes on to explain that:

You know the difficult historical period we are

passing through now .. we all were shocked .. we all
have endured the bitter taste of that conflict...1
don't want to provoke your feelings by this sad
memory, because memory does not concern the
theatre. It may be the concern of a historian, as for
us we are concerned with art only..83

The director also explains that he has thought of staging a poetic

evening where "poems arising from the current period are delivered in an

emotional theatrical form, the light shall be dimmed and the sound of bullets

emerge from it.."84 At this point a chorus appears on stage, their faces are

stiff, repeating the lyrical pieces: "fear is the sob of a country that we do not

know,"85 accompanied by a theatrical interpretation of these as previously

explained by the director. The poetry does not touch on the issue of the

defeat, in fact it talks about the imaginary heroism of a legendary people in an

imaginary country. This deviation from the issue indicates that the authorities

are refusing to accept the reality of the defeat.86

83 Ibid

84 Ibid

85 Ibid

86 I sma C i 1, P . 97

193
 After this scene, the director stages a dialogue with. an actor

representing the author, during which 'Abd al-Ghani al-Shacir rises in protest

from amongst the audience and comes up on stage to discuss with the director

what they had in mind for this production. This scene reminds us of a scene

in Pirandello's Each in His Own Way, where the conflict starts between "the

heroes of a true story which took place in real life, and the actors on stage,

while they were performing the true story. "87 A long dialogue take place

between the director and ~bd al-Ghani al-Shacir. It is a duel between both

men inviting the audience to accept or reject what they say and to comment

on that. Whilst talking about the imagination of the author and the use of this

imagination to achieve something useful, ~bd aI-Ghani reminds the director

about the defeat, explaining that:

t.Abd ai-Ghani: But remember that the

defeat reduces the imagination and
limits it.
Director: The defeat?
CAbd ai-Ghani: Yes .. are you surprised by

the word, or does it have a

strange sound.
Director: Damn the defeat..and who is
talking about the defeat now?
~bd ai-Ghani: So!
Director: What is in my mind is heroism not
defeat. You see.. You are in a field
and I am in another. Heroism, as you
know, is inexhaustible inspiration. 88

87 Pirandello, L, Kull Shaykh lahu Tariga, trans. by M.

MUQammad, al-Mu'assasa al-Mi~riyya al-cAmrna li'l-Nashr,
Cairo, 1968, p.5
88 Ibid, pp.20-21

194
 C.Abd aI-Ghani justifies withdrawing his text saying "I felt like throwing

garbage at the people's faces ..! told myself: when one's mouth smells bad, one

should not talk. "89 Wannus here, by dealing with the character of the author,

may have wanted to convey a message to Arab authors, who had been

supportive to the authorities in their countries, asking them to look deep

within themselves after the defeat had uncovered the true involvement of their

masters.90

As the director proceeds, a member of the audience interrupts to say

that the director's ideas are sheer rubbish and do not reflect reality. Such

support for the author by the audience reflects the desire of Wannus to

disclose the thrust of the people's opposition and their rejection of what was

broadcast to them by the authorities through its media, if not rejecting the

authorities themselves. 91 The director then explains to the audience that: "I am

not claiming to present a documentary account of what happened. We are

putting together a piece of drama. You have undoubtedly got it all wrong. "92

But, in spite of the director's hopes, reality continues to intrude into his plans.

Whilst lamenting the defeat and reliving its memory, a group of villagers,

from a village near the enemy border, discuss whether to stay in their homes

or run away; the argument and "accompanying shouting are heated. 'Abd

89 Ibid, pp.68-69

90 IsmaC.ll, p. 100-1
91 Ibid

~ Haflat Samar, p.27

195
Allah, one of the villagers, advocates remaining "you want me to give my

land, which I have inherited from my ancestors, to the first bastard who

attacks us ... We will resist and withstand until death .. this is a very critical

moment. "93 However, when the Israelis drop napalm on the village, the

mukhtlir (the head man and the local symbol of authority) leads the rush to get

out: "staying is impossible as you see.. Let's ask help from God and get OUt."94

Such is the play which the director had in mind, he tells cAbd ai-Ghani and the

audience. Wannus here is portraying the understanding of the populace of a

war, for which they have paid a heavy price without knowing the reasons for

it. They are too busy with their daily concerns, that is how to obtain their

food, while they are surrounded by illness, ignorance and superstition.

They were not visited by anyone, and no body has

explained anything to them. They slept in seclusion
and [were busy] reproducing, until the land was in
flames around them and the four points of the
compass were lost. They were visited by
government officials, a policeman and a tax
co IIector.9S

However, when the director and the author get down to the business

of putting this into dramatic form, which includes the obligatory happy ending

for officialdom's sake, a group of peasants in the audience protest that the

village which has been portrayed is unrecognizable. To the growing

93 Ibid, pp. 48,50

94 Ibid, p.62

9S'Abd aI-Qadir, F., "al-Wajh al-Da'icfi'I-Mir'at", Ruz al-

Yusuf, Cairo, 8 June 1970, p.48

196
consternation and anger of the director, three characters from a village, who

were on the front line, cAbd aI-Ra~an,tlzzat and Abu Faraj, advance towards

the stage, recounting what really happened at the front line during the war,

saying:

~bd al-Ratunan: The villages of aI- Takharim,

aI-Kafr, aI-Ruwaysa and Bani
clzz96, had been abandoned by
their people, who were rushing,
frightened, in the narrow and
difficult terrain.
Aba Faraj: Wherever we go we face
angry tongues and frowning
faces.
cAbd al-Ral;lman: Even the bite of food we
eat is mixed with swearing.
c1zzat: A bite worse than begging.
Abu Faraj: By God, Izzat, you're telling the
truth. It is better to beg.
cAbd al-RaI:unfu\: It is true that we used to
starve sometimes in our
village. When the rain stopped
falling,and we had a bad harvest, we
starved in our village, but our
dignity was never humiliated.
Aba Faraj: And what is left of our
dignity? We said once:hell is better than
Ii ving like this, but they spat in our
faces.
cAbd al-Ral:tman: (Sobbing) I wish I hadn't
been born..Oh what a wasted life, my
face was spat at before being
buried.97

96These are the actual names of Syrian villages in the

Golan Hights.
97 Ibid, pp.82-90

197
Like Brecht's, the characters symbolize certain intellectual, cultural and class

stances rather than representing actual characters. In addition to the villagers,

actors representing civil servants, the workers, the revolutionaries and students

appear on stage raising several questions.

At this point, an actor sitting in the front row and representing one of

the figures of authority signals to the back of the theatre that the doors are to

be manned. 98 The audience is, of course, eager to hear what actually

happened and listens in anger at the stories about the total breakdown of

authority and communication. The director tries to remind them of the

possible consequences of their behaviour: "Where's all this leading? Has the

theatre turned into a public square or something? Have you all forgotten

where you are?"99 Wannus here is questioning the function of the theatre and

the playwright in the Arab world. The theatre is a place for entertainment

only, and the author and audience must not forget that, if they want to be

"safe."

The debate then turns to the even more thorny issue of responsibility

and the perceived benefit and public interest in saying nothing. Here, the

author, leaves the stage and joins the audience, the people. The director tries

in vain to stop this by getting a dance troupe to perfonn a dabka (a local

traditional dance). This shows how pliant the authorities are in using the

theatre's stage, so that it can be a platform to recite poetry, or a place, if

98 Ibid, p.85

99 Ibid, p. 1 00

198
needed, to present public shows, or to be a platform, if necessary, to deliver

political speeches, or even to be a place to arrest people,l°O as well as being

a stage for theatrical performances. This pliancy leads to the conclusion that

the theatre's stage, as understood by the authorities, is no more than a

"window for the authorities, through which they implement propaganda

techniques, or its oppressive ones. There is no big difference. "101 This has led

Wannus to comment on that issue:

What is required from the audience, before

anything else, is to change its school-like approach
to the theatre ..and to question its acceptance of
what it sees on stage. They should intervene,
frankly and openly, when they witness lies or
deception and triviality. They should stop those
who are trying to "hypnotize" them. 102

The conflict now shifts from the author and the director to a broader

sphere. It becomes a conflict between the people and the authorities. The

debate now concentrates on the June war and the people attribute its

consequences to ignorance, which was a result of a media blackout and to

them "not being ready for the war as we should have been, and not

responding to the people when they demanded to be armed. "103 In addition

100 At the end of the play, the authorities' "men" arrest

everyone on stage except the director.
101 Isma Coil, p. 102

102Qataya, S., "l;Iaflat Samar min Ajl Khamsah I;Iuzayran , II

al-Talica al-Suriya , 19 September 1970, p.3

103 Minai 1;1. I "Ru'uS Aqlam l;lawl Masratl1yyat l;laflat Samar II I

al-Talica al-Suriya, 10 May 1971, p.15

199
the authorities resorted to "accusing those demanding to be armed before and

during the war of being against the regime and conspirators. "104Wanniis is

trying to reveal the mask that the authorities were wearing by displaying some

of their rhetoric thus showing the lack of trust on the authorities' side, when

they were telling the people: "return to your homes, and follow, through the

radio, the heroism of our brave army .. we understand your feelings, but you

are making the mission of the enemies of the people and the conspirators

against the regime easy .. the war is not your concem .. "lOS

The dramatic game is further expanded to include the authorities' men

who, after a signal from a man sitting in the front row, raise their guns to

point them at the audience. So the soiree is replaced by a "struggle, and the

acting by reality, and the mask is replaced by the true face in all its wrinkles

and pain marks."l06 In the ensuing uproar all resemblance of order is lost and

the play concludes as one of the officials in the front row stops the production,

accusing everyone of sedition. After uttering a whole series of political

platitudes threatening the audience: "Do you think that the regime is

finished ... We said let's leave them a while to see what they are up to, but it

seems that we are confronting a conspiracy whose dimensions we still do not

104 Ibid
1~ Haflat Samar, pp.136-7
106al- cIshari, J., "Haflat Nidal La Haflat Samar",
al-Akhbar, (The Literary suppiement): Beirut, 30 May 1971,
p.3

200
know, "107 the entire theatre audience is placed under arrest and escorted out,

while one of the audience repeats "today we have improvised, as for tomorrow

we hope you will go beyond improvisation. "108

Wanniis in l;laflat Samar borrows some Brechtian techniques including

the use of a large film screen to project various images, such as newspaper

headlines regarding the June war. 109 The actors in Wannus's plays keep a

distance between themselves and the characters they present, another

Brechtian technique in which "the actor must remain a demonstrator

presenting the person demonstrated as a stranger, he must not suppress the

"he did that he said that" element in his performance. He must not go so far

as to be wholly transformed into the person demonstrated. "110 Unlike his

earlier works, where he sought to strengthen the dramatic sense in order to

achieve a greater dramatic illusion, Wannus here is trying other methods to

break such dramatic illusion by resorting to an open change of decor and

setting, making the audience aware of that theatrical change, as in the incident

of four soldiers characters in the play returning to life, after being shot dead.

Such Brechtian technique is meant to prevent the audience's total empathy to

the work, and to remind the audience that they are in a theatre watching

107 Ibid, pp.142-3

108
Ibid, p.149
109
Ibid, p.5
110
Brecht, p.125

201
theatrical games. The characters in the play have no significance, they are only

symbols representing different cultural and class stances. 111

The perfonned event becomes the central hero of the play, a feature of

the epic and documentary theatre, where the "dramatic form is broken, leading

the way to the establishment of a narrative theatre."112 Such narrative form

is employed by Wannus in I;Iaflat Samar, when he depends, to uncover the full

dimensions of the June event, on the narrative style, using short, indirect

phrases, narrating the particular details of the events through the various

stories of the characters. Here the acting diminishes and the piece changes to

a narration of events appealing directly to the audience to provoke their

participation. In addition, the entire theatre becomes the stage, demonstrating

the Brechtian technique of breaking the imaginary "fourth wall", and the

audience is invited to participate in the play, as they become part of it.

Wannus in l;laflat Samar also resembles Weiss in his documentary drama when

the latter in his plays Song of the Lusitanian Bogey (1968), a record of an

uprising in Angola and its suppression by the Portuguese, Vietnam Discourse

(1968), a record of the American involvement in Vietnam, and How Mr.

Mockingpott was Relieved of his Sufferings (1968) "involves the audience in the

trial, in a way that is different from what happened in a real court..and makes

111 I sma e iI, p. 11 5

112 Zondi, P., Na~ariyyat aI-Drama al-Haditha (The Theory of
Modern Drama), trans. by AQmad ~aydar, Ministry of
Culture, Damascus, 1977, p.126

202
them participate in discovering the situation."l13 In Wannus's play the

audience participate in the dialogue, narration and the exchange of opinions

regarding the issues presented to them, exactly as what might happen in a

unconventional court room. All this occurs through "open improvisation in

the events that carry political imprint. "114

On the broadest level, Allen has argued, it may be observed that lfaflat

Samar falls into the not unusual category of a play within a play, although the

fact that it is the circumstances surrounding the failure to perform the inner

play,US which make up the outer play, does render it somewhat out of the

ordinary.116

This violent, critical play struck a responsive chord in the questioning,

recriminative and sobering atmosphere of Arab society after June 1967. The

message of the play was to point out the reality behind the Arab-Israeli War

of 1967 and that every Arab citizen bears a responsibility for its consequences.

Wanniis expresses his opinion regarding the play, saying: "as far as I am

concerned, it was not a play, but more of an adventure (mughiimara) in a

113 Weiss, P., Song of the Lusitanian Bogey, 1968, p.25

114 Ibid, p.13
115 Yiisuf Idris's play al-Farafir (Flipflaps, 1964) also I

starts with the failure of a dramatist to complete his

latest work. His play also makes use of actors from within
the audience. Idris relates his play to the tradition of
the samir, a word derived from the same roots as samar in
the title of Wannus's play.
116 Allen, p.101

203
defeated land which had been exposed to such a vicious jolt from history. d17

Wanniis held high hopes that his play lfaflat Samar might create some form of

radical response from the audience, yet that did not occur, and Wannus felt

depressed, as he said:

When the play was performed ..I felt the taste of

bitterness renewing every night inside me. The
audience applauded at the end of the play, then
they left the theatre. It is another theatrical
performance for them .. Nothing happened .. the
auditorium did not witness any demonstration nor
were those who ascended the theatre's steps
intending to do anything. u8

With this in mind, Wannus continued his search for a means of

expressing his views about this period of Arab history on the lines of the

Brechtian epic theatre by using the Brechtian technique of presenting a Parable

story (UmthUlah) in his next play aI-HI Yti Malik aI-Zaman (The Elephant, Oh

King of All Ages, 1969). The play is based on a popular tale. 1l9 This return

to the Arab heritage is related to a feeling of "lack of identity". Such a crisis

of identity had assumed a fateful dimension for the Arabs, because they felt

that there was something in the modern world threatening their identity, and

therefore Arab dramatists, went searching for that identity in the vast world

of historical, geographical, social and inherited source material relating to the

117 Wanniis interviewed in Shier (no.42) I Spring 1969, quoted

in Yasin and Sulayman, al-Adab wa'l-Idyulujya, p.354

118 Wannus interviewed by IsmaC.il in Damascus, (March 1979),

p.226

119 Hijazl, A., "C.Ard al-Mawsim Kharij al-Qahira" I Ruz al-

Yusuf, 12 June 1972, p.53

204
Arab world. l20 Wannus explained that such a use of the Arab heritage and

the use of parable was purely for technical reasons, for this "may create an

opportunity for the audience to contemplate a parable, they are familiar with,

in more depth and clarity. This means that they will not be overwhelmed by

the story and therefore may get some advice (Cibrah) out of it. "121

Wannus, in this and later works, embarks on a political "adventure" to

explore the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, the authorities ($ul/a)

and the masses. The play consists of four scenes: the first one consisting of an

"alley squeezed between miserable-looking houses covered with dirt and [signs

of] ageing, "122 such a transposition into the past reflects the alienation effect

of Brecht.123 Wannus here is presenting the general atmosphere of fear and

consternation, which surrounds the people of the city due to the existence of

a vicious elephant that roams the streets of the city killing people and

destroying their crops in the nearby fields. No one is able to stop him, simply

because he is the elephant of the king. Wannus pays special attention in the

dialogue to describing an incident involving the killing of a child by the

elephant without performing that event on stage.

Man 3: A heart breaking scene. I saw

him with my own eyes becoming a

120Shawool, P., al-Masrab al- cArabi al-Hadith, Riad EI-

Rayyes Books Ltd, London, 1989, pp.27-28

121 Wannus, Bayanat, p.119

122 Wannus, S., al-Fil Ya Malik aI-Zaman, Dar al-Adab, 3rd.

ed. Beirut 1980, p.7
123 Brecht, On Theatre, p.138

205
 dough of blood and flesh. The
elephant stepped on his chest, no,
a bit lower. I saw how his abdomen was
crushed and how his organs were mixed
with the sand in the alley.
Woman 2: There's no security for life or
property.
Woman 3: And no one dare talk ..
Man 3: This is the king's elephant,
you .. woman. 124

This scene embraces the extremes of the relationship between the authorities

and the people, a relationship "governed by fear and terror, "125 in which even

the most heinous crimes go unrevenged.

WannUs's characters, in the play, have no names and descriptions,

except the main character Zakariya. They are referred to as numbers, to

indicate their generality and to give the event a universal dimension. l26

Zakariya, "a slim young man with a tense look, his eyes (are) filled with

anger, "127 gathers the people together and convinces them to confront the

king and protest to him about the elephant, so that he may relieve them from

this evil, Zakariya having "... schooled the people in a polite way of

protesting. "128 This suggests that people have to endure more hardship,

misery and humiliation if they try to see any figure of authority, never mind

124 al-FII, pp.8-14

125 Hijazi, p.53

126 Ismae.II, p.145

127 al-Fil, p.14

128 Sha(.ban, F., "Wajha QitC.at al-Naqd f1 Ma'sat al-Insan

al-Muca~ir", al-Thawra, 1 June 1969, p.4

206
seeing the king himself. Such a description of the play is essential in order to

demonstrate Wannus's usage of the narrative style as a means of creating the

element of alienation amongst the audience, so as to prevent them from being

emotionally absorbed in the events.

In the second scene the training process begins. Zakariya is to be the

speaker and he will start his speech addressing the king and then the group

in one voice are to say what they have been trained to say. This will "make

the protest a general one, so that no one individual can be held

responsible. ,,129 People have got used to being passive and fear controls

them. On the way to the king's palace, in the third scene, Wannus embodies

the way in which the authorities treat the people, through showing how the

people are humiliated and despised by the palace guards. They order the

people to:

Clean your shoes well before entering and shake

your clothes so that no lice or fleas jump out of
them, and most importantly use self discipline and
be polite. Don't touch anything and remember you
are not in your dustbins (mazabil)[houses], you are
in the king's palaceYo

He also implies, indirectly, that the king is in great fear of his own people, by

hiding himself behind many doors guarded by hundreds of mercenary

soldiers. This is done by a naive penetrating question asked by a little girl

1~ Rama~An, p.112
130 Ibid, p.32

207
accompanying the group: "Where does the king hide?"131 This is typical of

many Arab rulers who hide themselves behind "doors" or in bunkers and have

become obsessed by fear of the people.

The enthusiasm of the people, who come to confront the king, quickly

wanes when they are in the king's presence, showing that the oppressed feel

uncomfortable in the presence of figures of authority and find themselves

dumbstruck. 132 Zakariya finds himself alone in this confrontation, and

changes from a polite protester to an opportunist. He approaches the angry

king and, in the name of the "good" people, pleads with the king to marry off

his beloved elephant. The king agrees and appoints Zakariya as the personal

guard to the elephant. Wannus here is condemning that opportunist group of

people who appear to be on the side of the masses, but when the time comes

and the people need them, they betray the people's cause by their

opportunism. He is also condemning the masses for not being united and for

not abandoning their fear and passivity arising from their ignorance.133

The play ends with the actors saying to the audience: "Do you know

now why elephants exist? Do you know now why elephants increase [in

131 Ibid, p. 34

132 $ubl}.i, M., "al-Fil Ya Malik al-Zaman", al-Mawgif al-

Adabi, May 1972, p.29

133CI9mat, R., "Ma'sat Ba'ic al-Dibs wa'l-Fil Ya Malik al-

Zaman", al-Talica, Damascus, 17 July 1969, p.45

208
numbers]?"l34 These questions represent a slap in the face for the audience

since they too are responsible for the continuing injustice. l3S This method of

addressing the audience directly is a feature of Brecht's didactic and epic

theatre aiming to break the dramatic illusion, so as "to enable and encourage

the audience to draw abstract conclusions. "136 This is also meant to "appeal

less to the feelings than to the spectators' reason. Instead of sharing an

experience the spectator must come to grips with things. "137 Wannus in al-

Fil Yo Malik ai-Zaman succeeds in presenting this traditional parable following

the ideas of epic theatre which give the parable depth of meaning and novelty

through the dramatic employment of its story.

Continuing the method of using history to illustrate current problems

and further exploring the relationship between the ruler and the ruled in the

Arab world, Wanniis wrote his next work Mughiimarat Ra's al-MamlUk Jlibir

(The Adventure of the Mamluk ]abir's Head, 1970). Wannus has described

this play:

It was the next step in the context of experiment,

the experiment in the theatre of politicization. I
myself didn't imagine this play would be
performed on traditional stages but unfortunately
this is what happened. I was hoping, since writing
the play, that it would be an integrated project, but

134 Wannus, al-Fil, p.38

135 I sma c. r 1, pp. 1 4 5 - 6

1~ Brecht, On theatre, p.100

137 Ibid, p.23

209
 up till now I have not see any integration, all I
have seen is a repetition of the project. l38

In the play, the communal catharsis through anger and resentment

which characterizes lfaflat Samar is replaced by a more considered reflection

prompted by the dramatic interplay between history and the present. 139 The

play emphasises this passive reflection of the masses on the defeat, based on

their fear, helplessness and their rulers exploitation of them l40:

First Man: They order us to pledge

allegiance.
The Group: So we do.
Second Man: They order us to obey them.
The Group: So we do.
First Woman: This is the secret of
survival at this period of
time. 141

The play operates on two levels and it is the innermost level which

provides the play with its title. The first level, what we may call "narrative

level", is manifested in the cafe, where the bakawati (story-teller) ~mm Mu'nis

(uncle Mu'nis) reads from an old book. He introduces the story and links its

different parts together. The second level is manifested by the acting of the

events of the story on stage in accordance with the narration ofAmm Mu'nis.

Such a technique reflects Brecht in his ideas for a new theatre, where he

138 Wannus, Bayanat, p.117

139 Allen, p.l02

140 al-Mashayikh, "al-Masral) al-l;Iadith", p.92

141 Mughamarat, p. 56

210
emphasized the two parts of a play; the first is "meant to help the text, i.e.

introduce it and interrupt it, which is best done by apparatus, the other,

pedagogical part is the text for exercise."142

The audiences sees acted out in front of them the events surrounding

a clash between the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir (295/908) and his vizier

Mu.l)ammad al:Alqami. The Caliph, in the play, reaches an agreement with

the emirs of the provinces (wiliiyat) to support him and enforce a blockade on

the vizier's supporters. Meanwhile the vizier, secretly, seeks the help of the

Persian king Munkatim Ibn Dawiid. While the populace in Baghdad are left

to suffer terrible hardship, the wily mamluk of the vizier, J§bir, manages to

escape the blockade carrying a secret message written under his hair which

has been shaved off for this purpose and then allowed to grow again. The

mamluk Jabir did not intend to become involved in the political intrigue, but

he quickly sees how he can capitalise on it. He wants his freedom, an

important position in the country, lots of money and to be able to marry his

beloved, lady-in-waiting to the vizier's wife, Zumurud. However, when J§bir

reaches his destination at the court of the Persian king, he is led off to be

executed. In undertaking this hazardous mission, he has been unaware that

the vizier has made his execution part of his request to the Persian king. The

king and his son meanwhile make plans to destroy Baghdad.

This series of events is acted out on stage, making use of several

Brechtian techniques to ensure that the sequence is perceived to be a narrative.

'42 Brecht, On Thea tre , p. 31

211
The scenery is carried on and off the stage by the actors, and indeed the same

actors play more than one role: one actor in particular plays the roles of

Caliph, vizier, and the King of Persia, while another plays the assistants to the

first two and the son of the third. l43 This is all aiming at breaking the

dramatic illusion as well as allowing the actor to "do all he can to make

hiIll$elf observed as standing between the spectator and the event. "144 As he

did in al-Ff1 Yii Malik aI-Zamiin, the people of Baghdad, in Mughiimarat Ra's al-

Mamlilk Jabir remain anonymous, called "First Man," "Second Man," and so on,

while all other characters are given names. The anonymity of these Baghdadis

extends to their lack of individual sentiment, their shared feelings of lassitude

and indifference:

Group One: The dispute is between a

Caliph and a vizier.
Group Two: Each has his object and his
plan.
Group One: Whereas, we have nothing to
do with that dispute.
Group Two: The best we can do is to hide
our heads between our
shoulders.
Group One: We did not see or hear
[anything].
Group Two: We wait and observe the
results. 145

143Wanniis, Mughamarat Ra's al-Mamluk Jabir, Dar al-Adab,

3rd. edition, Beirut, 1980.

144 Brecht, p.58

145 Ibid, pp.82-83

212
This feeling also is well captured at the end of the play, when the story-teller,

the Fourth Man and Zumurud carry Jiibir's head towards the customers in the

cafe and point out in chorus that such is the fate of those who keep saying:

"We have learnt to call anyone, who marries our mother, uncle. "146 This

means that any passive stance to a new situation would lead in the end to the

downfall of everyone including those who take that stance.

The scenes of the play are acted on stage in response to a narration

provided on the second level of the play, that of the bakawati, ~mm Mu'nis.

The story-teller here is not merely a means of communication, but rather a

symbol of history itself.147 This idea is reflected by Wannus's describing him

as being:

over fifty years old ... with a face like a page in the
ancient books which he is carrying... his eyes have
a frozen stare to them ... and suggest a cold
neutrality. In fact, the most crucial feature about
C.Amm Mu'nis's face which we can notice is this
cold neutrality which he will maintain almost
throughout the performance. l48

This type of character is well-known in the works of Brecht, such as The

Caucasian Otalk Circle, where he/she plays a central narrative role in the play

aiming to asserts the alienation effect. Such character, in the first place, is a

very traditional one in the Arab world, the like of whom has for centuries

recounted before the public the great tales of heroism and romance from early

146 Ibid

147 Yasin and Sulayman, al-Adab wa'l-Idyulujya, p.365

148 Mughamarat, p.50

213
Arab history. This function is further illustrated by the usage of highly

stereotyped language in which he narrates the tale of ]abir the Mamhik,

characterized by parallelism and rhyming prose.149 He also contributes to the

entire atmosphere of the play by his appearance and general demeanour.

The story-teller's role, in the play, is to bring to life the events of history

and to be the line of communication with the outermost level of the play, the

customers in the cafe. These customers are eager to hear the famous saga of

Sultan Baybars who defeated the Mongols in the 13th century, but cAmm

Mu'nis tells them "stories are linked to each other, one cannot come before the

other. The Baybars lSO saga will come all in good time, but only after we

have finished with the earlier stories we have started to tell. "151 In this way

history, personified in cAmm Mu'nis, instructs us that nothing ever happens

accidentally without forewarning or specific conditions. l52 This reflects the

Marxist idea that says "those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it."

However, when the customers insist on hearing the Baybars saga, cAmm

Mu'nis tells them: "Don't hurry matters .. the saga of al-~hir Baybars will come

and you will hear it during the coming nights, but now other tales have to be

told first. "153 Throughout the action of the play, the interaction between the

149 Allen, p.l03

150al-~ahir Baybars (1223-1277) the founder and greatest
sultan of the Mamluk dynasty.
151 Mughamarat, pp.52-3
152 Yasin and Sulayman, p.365
153 Mughamarat, p.53

214
"artificial" audience (the customers in the cafe), the narrator and the performers

are reminiscent of the agreeable old evenings of storytelling sessions in public

cafes to be witnessed throughout the Arab world in former times. 154 Unlike

I;laflat Samar, Wannus uses this setting as a means to establish a relaxed

atmosphere. The actors are instructed to relax on the stage as though they

were in any normal cafe, to listen to songs and behave in general in such a

way to establish a feeling of rapport and harmony with the audience. The

audience in the auditorium therefore becomes an extension of the audience in

the cafe, their reaction to the events must resemble those of the customers;

they are watching the same incidents and have a similar understanding of the

story-teller'S role and about what goes on in the cafe. 155

The story-teller thus serves as a medium between the inner and outer

levels of this play, carefully ordering the actors so as to be able to manipulate

the emotional response of the audience to the fullest advantage. 156 The

customers rapidly identify themselves with J§bir, the resourceful and

obsequious servant trying to obtain, by fair means or foul, his freedom and

his beloved; "the son of his times (ibn zamanih), he knows life very well, as if

154 Faizo, L., The Cycles of Arabic Drama, (Ph.D.

dissertation, University of Colorado), 1985, p.108
155 Gouryh,A., The Plays of Walid Ikhl~sr, (Ph.D.
dissertation, City University of New York, 1983, pp.32-36
156 Allen, p. 104

215
he has experienced it for generations... he knows how to take advantage of

it. "157 Jabir resembles Galileo, the character in Brecht's play Galileo (1943),

representing the "cunning opportunistic individual who may resort to anything

in order to achieve his aims and who sees things from a narrow and

individual vision without pausing to consider the political consequences or

circumstances. 11158

The customers are outraged when Jabir at the end is executed. The

J:rakawati intercedes to point out that the betrayal came from within the palace

and that the fault was Jabir's for not asking the right questions. In contrast to

the Mamluk J§bir, Man~Ur, another Mamh..lk and friend of Jabir, is presented

as the opposite of Jabir. Unlike Jabir, Man~iir shows concern for the general

well ,being of the people, fearing the conflict between the two sides on one

hand, and condemning the behaviour of his friend Jabir on the other

M~tir: The woman and the fortunes ..

yes .. this is all that he sees.
What is behind them ... can he see
destruction? his destruction ... and
may be yours as well ...and may be
mine ... may be the destruction of all
of US. 1S9

We find the extension of this character amongst the general public in the play

exemplified in the character of the "Fourth Man," who, throughout the play,

157 Mughamarat, p.63

al-Qarashulli, A., "Brecht fi'l-Mir'at al=Arabiyya

158
(part.3)", al-Hayat al-Masrahiyya (no.13), Summer 1980, p.5
159 Mughamarat, p. 145

216
asks the people to abandon their indifference and passivity, bearing in mind

"his capabilities as an individual and that no radical change will happen unless

the masses work for such change. "160

Wannus at the end of the play leaves the audience wondering whether

the import of the presentation has really sunk in with the customers and, by

implication, with the audience: in the climatic scene in which ]abir's execution

is mimed, two customers in the cafe are still capable of mixing their sense of

anger and outrage with an amazing degree of detachment:

Customer 1: God forbid, how horrible!

More tea, Abu Mubammad.
Customer 2: Yes, really terrible! A cup of
coffee for me toO.161

As everyone leaves, one customer threatens to stop coming if the bakawllti

c.A mm Mu'nis does not start the Baybars tale. To the general bewilderment of

the customers, eAmm Mu'nis replies that it all depends on them. 162 This

reply implies that "glorious" stories should only be narrated in glorious times,

and achieving these hoped-for times depends on you [the peopleV63

Wannus, in Mughamarat Ra's al-Mamluk Jabir, exposes in a remarkable

way the deadly diseases of defeatism and opportunism that are the hallmarks

160 al-Naqqash, p.85

161 Ibid, p.163

162 Ibid, p.167

163 Isinacil, al-Kalima, p.155

217
of life in the contemporary Arab world: 64 In this he is helped by his choice

of story, its appropriateness to the Arab tradition, and his ability to capture the

audience's attention and be convincing. WannUs also manages to adhere to

his concepts and theories of the theatre of politicization using the epic theatre's

techniques and ideas to achieve his objectives. The play provides a living

model of the theatre's potential as a place for revolutionizing the masses. 16S

The audience of these kinds of plays, as Brecht stated: "Are not going to satisfy

the old aesthetics; they are going to destroy it. "166 Wan nus here condemns

the oppressive authorities and their internal power struggle and condemns the

masses as well for not abandoning their indifference and passivity, regarding

mass revolution as the only way towards constructive change. Wannus has

linked the people's sufferings to their passive ineffective stance on the one

hand, and the seizure of power by opportunists and the continuation of

oppression and brutality.167

Wannus continued his experimentation with the political theatre

employing his Marxist ideas exemplified in the use of the techniques of

Brecht's epic theatre and Weiss's documentary theatre in his next play Sahra

164 Yasin and Sulayman, p.362

165
Ibid, p.363
166
Brecht, On Theatre, p.22
167
Mul)anunad, al-Adab al-MasraQi, pp.134-5

218
maCa Abi Kham al-Qabban;l68 (Soiree With Abu KhaITI al-Qabbani, 1972). The

play attempts to reflect the reality of the early history of al-Qabbaru's theatre

in Syria. It is based on tales culled from The Arabian Nights, and takes the

somewhat familiar form of a play within a play, or, like Peter Weiss's Marat-

Sade, the issues connected with putting on a play in specific circumstances.

The inner play in Sahra maC.a al-Qabbani is al-Qabbarii's actual work Harlin al-

Rashid maca Ghanim ibn Ayyub wa-Qut al-QulUb, taken from the earlier sections

(night 36) of The Arabian Nights. 169 The outer play is concerned with the

problems which al-Qabbani faced in bringing this and his other plays before

an audience in Damascus during the 1870s and 8Os. 170 To achieve that,

Wannus tried to benefit from "the documentary theatre by employing a

documentary mode in the play."171

168 Wanntis, Sahra maCa Abi Khalil al-Qabh3ni, Ittil;lad al-

Kuttab al-eArab, Damascus, 1973, (2nd ed. Beirut 1978, 3rd.
ed.1981). In Cairo (1986) al-Hay'a al-Mi$riyya al-cAmma
li'l-Kitab published a collection by NuC.mancAshur entitled
Min aI-Drama al-Watha'igiyya which includes a play similar
to Wannus's on another pioneer of Arab theatre entitled
Masra.p YaCqub bin $anii c •

169 Nights 36-44; see Mia Gerhardt, The Art of Story-telling,

E.J.Brill, Leiden, 1963.
170 yaC.qub ~anuc had also written a play entitled Moliere
Misr wa-Ma Yugasih, in which he illustrated the difficulties
he and other playwrights faced in forming a troupe and
presenting their art at that time in the Arab world. This
play may have influenced Wannus to write his play about
al-Qabbani.
171 Abu'l-Na$r, A., "Fi'l-Maktaba al-Masral;liyya wa'l-
Sinama'iyya", al-Masrab wa'l-Sinama, Baghdad, July 1974,
p.77

219
 When al-Qabbani opened his theatre, he soon faced opposition from

conservative ulema, especially Sheikh Saerd al-Ghabral72, widely fluctuating

attitudes on the part of the Ottoman governors of the province, and the first

manifestations of Arab nationalism in their resistance to the Ottomans, all

these are vividly portrayed by Wanniis in an almost documentary fashion

recalling some of the statements of Peter Weiss. Wanniis in the introduction

to the play wrote:

There are two levels in this work, the first is al-

Qabbani's Harim aI-Rashid acted as it was in those
days and the second level is the historical and
documentary circumstances which narrate the story
of al-Qabbani since the beginning of his theatrical
activities until the closing and burning of his
theatre by the reactionaries. 173

Wannus's here is more concerned with portraying the difficulties that

al-QabbanI faced during that time in founding his theatre and drawing an

analogy with the present time, exemplified in the censorship and interference

and even the banning of plays by the authorities. The audience in the

auditorium will find similarities between al-Qabbani's struggle to present his

art against "the forces of the reactionaries during that time and the struggle

between the same old fashioned, reactionary forces and the progressive forces

172 Sheikh Sa'id al-Ghabra 'complained to the ottoman Sultan

about al-Qabbani's theatrical activities calling them
heresy (bidea) and requested that these activities be
stopped. As a consequence al-Qabbani was to close his
theatre and emigrate to Egypt seeking a better milieu for
his theatre, in which he was to run one of the most
important theatrical troupes.
173 Sahra ma'a al-Qabbani, pp.5-6.

220
 in present times. "174 This makes the audience aware of the issues the play

raises and sympathize with the protagonist, because they identify themselves

with him, in his inability to adapt in front of overwhelming forces, whatever

these forces were, allowing them to share with him his agitation and
sufferings. 175

Allen has argued that Wannus is much more concerned with the

uS'tge of history to illustrate contemporary problems of Arabic drama

and to project some of his own suggestions as to how those problems might

be solved. 176 Wannus's interest in the audience (jumhur) is now given

historical precedent. He states in the introduction to the play that the

audience in al-Qabbani's time would comment and criticize volubly during the

performance without feeling self-conscious in any way.l7l In fact the

audience, in those days, forced $anu to change the script of his plays several

times in response to their vocal suggestions. This shows us how these early

playwrights changed their scripts to suit the audience. Wannus has used

Brecht's technique (alienation effect), which he termed taghrib in the play in

both its levels, exemplified in the character of the town-crier (munadi) and the

174 RamaQ,an, Masrah S. Wannus, p.99

175 Fahmi, F.,al-Mafhum al-Trajldi fi'l-Drama al-Haditha,
al-Majlis al-Acla li-Ri~ayat al-Adab wa'l-Funun wa'l-
eUI Um al-IjtimaGiyya, Cairo, 1967, p.71
116 Allen, p. 108
177 Sahra, p.6

221
participation of the prompter in the play helping the actors when they fumble

their lines, as was particularly the case during al-Qabbaru's time.

The play presents most of the past and contemporary events

simultaneously on stage, as occurs in Brecht's Galileo and The Days of the

Commune. This is done, in Wannus's play, by separating the stage into front

and rear spaces, and sometimes three spaces. In the front space actors perform

the life of the inhabitants of Damascus during the last third of the 19th century

portraying their "situation, problems and their living conditions."178 In the

rear space other actors perform al-Qabbani's play exactly as it was performed

in his days, using a "low (waJi'a) curtain which supports a large picture of old

Damascus"179 to separate the two spaces, and using spot lights to highlight

movements between these spaces. ISO This resembles the Brechtian epic

theatre, or what Riya~ CI~mat called "narrative epic theatre" explaining that

such a theatre presents a story or even a tale from the past creating a distance

between what is happening on stage and the event. 181 The stage is extended

to include the two front rows in the auditorium using them to seat actors who

178 al-Mashayikh, p.93

179 wanniis, Sahra, p.11

180 Mal)abik, Z., "al-Masratt Dakhil al-Masral).", Maiallat

al-Kuwayt (no.75), November 1988, p.71
181CI~mat, R., Shay tan al-Masrab, Tlasdar, Damascus, 1987,
p.510

222
are performing special parts representing the audience of al-Qabbani's:82

This is another feature of the Brechtian influence on Wannus.

To break the dramatic illusion and the feeling of empathy of the

audience, Wanniis makes the town-crier pass between the rows 'in the

auditorium repeating:

Ladies and gentlemen ...our soiree tonight includes

an important lesson, entertainment, singing,
dandng and acting of a love,a literary and a
musical story... written by the Sheikh Al;lmad Abu
KhalTI al-Qabbani.183

In addition to summoning the people of old Damascus, Wan nus makes the

town-crier summons the audience of today by saying "tonight you will see the

story of al-Qabbani with Sheikh Sacid al-Ghabra ...a realistic story, we gathered

its threads from documents and [other] information ... we shall revive the

memory of an artist who suffered and made many sacrifices. "184

The audience, within the theatrical device, represent two types of

people, one who pay for their tickets, the middle classes, and the second who

enter the theatre free of charge, the upper classes, and their bodyguards. 1ss

The upper classes were close to the ruling Ottoman Sultan and they imposed

1~ Ism~ell, al-Kalima, p.1S7

183 Sahra, pp. 12-1 3
184 Ibid, p.13
185al-Qabbani was pandering to the upper classes to keep his
theatre going, and he gave free tickets to the middle
classes to encourage them to attend his theatre.

223
their class morality on the social system at that time. In fact most of aI-

Qabbaru's plays deal with people from this and the ruling class.

As the performance starts the Emir Ghanim Ibn Ayyllb is seen sitting

in the desert near a cave; he hides when he hears a loud noise. Meanwhile,

several men appear carrying a large box and then they leave after discarding

the box; Ghanim approaches and opens it to find his beloved Qut al-QulUb in

it. Because the Caliph Harlin aI-Rashid was madly in love with her, his wife

Zubayda, out of jealousy, ordered her men to cast her into the desert. When

Qut al-QulUb sees Ghanim they start a conversation which results in rude

comments from the bodyguards amongst the audience and quickly these

comments are transformed into fights between them, something that leads the

actors to "stop the performance and leave the stage to help calm the

audience. "186 Similar incidents occurred to ~anue when the audience shouted

complaining about what he was writing about. l87 Wannus here wanted to

highlight the atmosphere that aI-Qabbani worked in during that time, in

addition to refer to the fierce attacks on him by theculema, especially in their

claim that "personification is like photography and both are forbidden in

religion. "188 This indicates that at the time "al-Qabbani's theatrical experiment

186 Sahra, pp. 23-24

187 See MUQammad °Abu'l-C.Al a al-Salamuni's play on $anu c Abu

Naddara, al-Hay'a al-Mi$riyya al-C.Amma li'l-Kitab, Cairo,
1988.
188 Sahra, p. 56

224
was not a cultural extravaganza, but rather a social and intellectual war. "189

Added to he describes that the demise of the Ottomans and the emergence of

Arab nationalist sentiments; Wannus here is projecting his own sentiments on

al-Qabbaru in relation to Arab nationalism in its modern sense.

To depict these three pictures, Wan nus resorts to dividing the stage into

three sections: the right section represents circles of incessant Sufi repetition

of words in praise of God (halqat al-dhikr), especially by Sheikh Sacid al-

Ghabra, the middle section represents the Ottoman's governor's palace, and

the left one represents a traditional cafe, in which the educated youth of

Damascus gathered to plan to resist the Ottoman occupation. l90 Through the

interaction between these three sections and the story of Harlin al-Rashid,

Wannus shows the various aspects of the cultural, social and political

circumstances of Damascus during that time and reflects on the contemporary

situation, with its fear, anxiety, oppression, dictatorship and the consequent

disrespect for art and artists in the Arab world. So like the ideas of the

Brechtian epic theatre, the conflict is transformed from a conflict between

characters around a certain problem to a type of juridical conflict around a

more general issue. 191 The characters in the play interact to register the

historical events from that period and to portray the ongoing movement in

189 Abu'1- Na 9 r , p.77

190 There is no evidence that al-Qabbani resisted the Ottoman

presence, in fact it was the governer Mid~at Pacha who is
said to have financed his first theatre.
191 al- eAshmawl, M., al-Masrah, Dar al-Nahc;ia al~Arabiyya,
Beirut, U.D., p.146

225
society, so that the historical period becomes the dramatic hero in the epic and

documentary theatre. l92

Wannus in Sahra maca Abi Khalil al-Qabbani was concerned to present a

documentary image for the performance, aiming to appeal to the audience's

reason and create the element of alienation, as well as making them aware of

the political message conveyed in the play. To achieve that, the actors

exchange opinions regarding their roles, and rehearse in front of the audience.

A male actor performs the female role of Qut al-QulUb 193 going so far as to

wear men's clothes in the beginning, and the prompter, as in the old days,

appears with the actors on stage reminding them of their lines. This is all

presented in the rear section of the stage, while in the front section the events

are presented in a narrative style giving a comprehensive picture, with all its

political, economic and social dimensions, of Damascus at that time through

a "committed progressive content,"l94 exemplified by al-Qabbani's stand

against the religious leadership in Damascus.

The influence of the Brechtian theatrical school on Wannus reaches its

peak with his next and perhaps best work ai-Malik huwa'l-Malik (The King is

192 Weiss, P., Unshiida t Anj iila (Song of the Lusi tanian
Bogey), trans. by Yusuf Khamis, Silsilat al-Masratl al-(Alami
(World Theatre Series), Ministry of Information, Kuwait,
1970, p.11
193 It was common in early Arab theatre for males to play the
parts of women.
1~ al-Batlra, N., Abidith wa-Tajarlb Masrahiyya, Itti~Ad al-
Kuttab al~Arab, Damascus, 1977, p.40

226
the King, 1977). In this work Wannus employs most successfully the Brechtian

technique of alienation effect. 195 Dr. cAli al-Rfl'T has described the play:

In my view, ai-Malik Huwa'l-Malik represents the

most effective adaptation yet by a modern Arab
dramatist from the heritage of The Thousand and
One Nights; more than any other previous work, it
succeeds in making use of these tales by bringing
them out of the frozen past and placing them
squarely within the lively, bustling atmosphere of
the present, in the process of conveying a political
message. l96

The original tale entitled al-Nii'im wa'l-Yaq~nl'17 (The Sleeper and The

Waker) tells how Hartin aI-Rashid became exasperated at the burdens of his

office one night and decided to take his minister out with him for a walk

around the city. They hear a man, Abu'I-I:iasan, saying: "Oh, if only I were

king, I would make sure people were just to each other, and I would do this

and that..." So the Caliph decides to take the man to his palace and make him

Caliph for one day. Wannus also utilizes another tale, which tells how Harlin

ai-Rashid goes out with his minister in disguise looking for some good

company. They discover a man dressed exactly like Harlin aI-Rashid, even to

195 Allen, p.108

196 aI-Rae. i, al-Masrab, p. 195
197Night 153, see Mutlammad Y. Najrn, al-Masrab al-eArabi:
Marlin al-Naggash, Dar al-Thaqafa, Beirut, 1961, for his
introduction to the plays of Martin al-Naqqash.

227
 the extent of having a minister and executioner with him. He had performed

this role so well that no one can tell him apart from the real Caliph. 198

Wannus, however, does not exactly follow the tale from The Arabian

Nights, he has modified the tale by adding new characters and events in order

to make it more universally relevant. l99 The play is related to a work by

another Syro-Lebanese pioneer of modem Arabic drama, Marun al-Naqqash,

with the title, Abu 'l-l;lasan al-Mughaffal (1850).200 Wannus in this play also

concentrates on the use of stage techniques, such as alienating the parable

(taghrib) rather than continuing his process of audience participation, at least

within the text of the play itself, thus coming closer and closer to the

techniques of the epic theatre of Brecht.201

The actors are brought on to the stage by two figures called zahid and

'Ubayd, who, in their own words "lead the play along," while remaining

outside the dramatic framework. 202 The actors, as Wannus explain in his

stage directions, "enter the stage as if they were players in a circus, doing

acrobatics, whilst wearing the costumes of their characters. "203 The need for

contrast illustrated by caricature, clowning, puppetry and sheer histrionics is

198 al-Raci, p.195

199 Gouryh, "Recent Trends", p. 219

200 Wanntis, Bayanat, p. 1 56

201 Ismacil, pp. 166-7

202 Wannus, S., al-Malik huwa'l-Malik, 4th ed., Dar al-Adab,

Beirut, March 1983, p.5
203 Ibid

228
expressed by Wannus not only in the stage directions but also in his retort to

criticism of the play.204 This way of coming on stage aims to achieve two

purposes: firstly to create a sense of detachment between the characters and

the audience, an essential element of the epic theatre, so that the audience "can

watch what [they] he sees on stage critically,"205 and secondly to convince the

audience that they are only watching a theatrical game, which does not

represent reality.

The actors range themselves behind the two figures: behinlUbayd one

group represents the king and his men; behind Zahid the group of Abt{Izza.

In the first scene and the central tale, the King is so bored by the monotony

of his royal life that he decides to disguise himself and go with his vizier into

the city. They come across AbucIzza, a hen-pecked husband and merchant,

who has been deprived of much of his property by the wiles of the

Shahbandar, a rich merchant, and Sheikh Taha, the local Imam. On

overhearing AbuC.Izza craving for vengeance against those who have tricked

him, the king decides to carry the game one step further by making AbucIzza

drunk and taking him to the palace and putting him on the throne. This, the

King imagines, will be a wonderfully entertaining episode. However, Abu

cIzza wakes-up and very quickly assumes the mantle and demeanour of

Kingship, and the real King's plans go rapidly awry. No one is nonplussed

by the change, not even the Queen, and AbucIzza becomes so involved in hi~

204 Allen, p.111

205 Crocket t and Findlay, p. 41 9

229
 new status that he fails to recognize his own wife and daughter who came to

ask him to relieve them from oppression. At the end of this play, unlike the

original tale, Abuclzza is still King and has become even crueller than the

previous King to the amazement of everyone.206

This is to be a fantasy land, one where fantasy, illusions and dreams are

permitted (masmuh), while converting such things into reality is strictly

forbidden (mamnuc.),207 This is emphasized from the start whenCUbayd, Abu

(Izza and the King repeat "it's a game.. .it's a game... we are playing."208 This

concept of "game" is a recurrent theme in the works of Wan nus, and well

embedded in the ideas of the epic theatre, aiming to raise the audience's

awareness of being in a theatre and watching a well rehearsed work of art.

Wanniis combined this concept with the use of symbolism, exemplified by the

fact that the character AbucIzza was able to assume the kingship so easily and

in the characters of Shahbandar al-Tujjar (the head of the merchants), and

Sheikh raha (the local Imam), who are shown to be operating puppets, i.e.

manipulating the common people through the economy and religion. They are

positioned at a comer of the stage where they operate puppets during the

performance of the inner tale. The play operates on two levels; the first the

inner level, summarized above, is related through a number of scenes in which

the characters, while not "fully three-dimensional, do at least give portrayal to

206 al-Mashayikh, "al-Masral)", p.92-3

207 Allen, p. 109

208 Ibid

230
both actions and feelings in a realistic fashion ...The outer level, gives both the

characters and their relationship with each other a clear symbolic function and

therefrom a political fOCUS."209 The main two characters 2ahid and'Ubayd

introduce not only the playas a whole but also each scene by reading out

aloud a placard which describes the events that are to follow, a Brechtian

method to help alienate the actions and remarks of the character "being

portrayed speaking the stage directions out loud. "210 They both layout a

moral and political message, which reflect Wannus's Marxist leanings, when

they repeat at the same time that, "details may differ, but the essential features

do not. In any system which involves disguise and property ownership, the

above is the primary prindple. "211 Wan nus is stressing here that since the

emergence of private ownership, people have experienced alienation. People

are no longer themselves; they play roles and wear masks.212 This is related

to selfishness, opportunism and private interest and suspicion created by the

sodal and economic conditions.

The play was linked, by many critics, with Brecht's Mann ist mann

(Man's a Man), such as the Syrian critic, Dr. Al;unad al-I:Jamu, who claimed

that Wannus has copied Brecht's play literally. Wannus has dismissed this

argument saying that "this reveals a misunderstanding of Brecht and his work,

209 Allen, p.110

210 Brecht, On Theatre, p.138

211 al-Malik, pp.52-55

212 Gouryh, p.219

231
because the original story is taken from the The Arabian Nights, and this

argument would imply that Brecht has taken his story from the same

source."213 Nevertheless, the play bears many similarities to Brecht's play;

firstly the title resembles that of Brecht, seCondly Wannus like Brecht adopts

the general idea that is built on the concept of substituting one human being

for another by changing his appearance and circumstances, as happens in

Wannus's work where AbucIzza is given the crown of the king and his gown,

so he became a king, like Galy Gay, Brecht's character who replaces the soldier

Jeraiah Jip by wearing his uniform and carrying his gun. The commonly-held

idea here is that "clothes makes the man."214 However in Wannus's work, the

rule of the Cali ph or king is:

stripped of its peculiarity and presented as a

phenomenon whose nature derives from the
growing self-interest of an entire class. Thus,
whether al-Rashid is replaced by Abu'l-I:iasan [as
in Naqqash's play] or by someone else, nothing
changes; it is the social class that determines the
course of events, not by the individual ruler.2 1s

Thirdly, Wanniis's work resembles that of Brecht through the substitution, for

it starts as a joke by the Caliph in Wannus's work, and likewise in Brecht's

work. Fourthly the protagonist in WannUs's work Abu(.Izza resembles Galy

Gay in Brecht's work, for both characters are, in the beginning of the play,

213 Ibid, p.1 53-154

214 Shawool,P., al-Masrab al~Arabi al-Hadith, pp.519-20
215 Gouryh, "Recent", p.219

232
naive, simple and easily persuaded and tricked, and both quickly accept their

new environment In the end of both works they become dominant characters

in their new status and both characters see their previous adversaries as allies.

However, in Naqqash's work, the Caliph returns to his throne, whereas in

Wannus's Abr{Izza continue to be king. In the fifth scene of ai-Malik, AbucIzza

fails to recognize his wife and daughter, and that is exactly what happens to

Galy Gay in Mann ist Mann. Finally the fate of the King in Wannus's play

resembles the fate of Jeraiah Jip in Brecht's work, where the former becomes

a poor and a miserable nobody, and the latter becomes a rambling idiot.

In ai-Malik huwa'l-Malik, Wannus deals with the issue of government

(bukm) and the relationship between the ruler and the ruled from a Marxist

perspective, conveying the message that the ruler derives his existence and

power from the people surrounding him and those who manipulate him in

order to maintain their status and interest, therefore, replacing individuals

does not necessarily mean a change in the system. Galy Gay started as a

humble Indian porter and was changed into a vicious example of British

soldiery. Wannus here, like Brecht stresses the Marxist tenet that human

beings are not static but dynamic and capable of change, and what determines

this change is the economic factor, which is responSible for all change in

society.216 This idea can be seen when Galy Gay insists on being paid as well

as taking the other soldiers' pay cheques and food, which reflects a crude form

216 Badawi, A., Fann al-Masrab cind Brecht, Selected works,

Ministry of Information, Kuwait, 1975, pp.16-17

233
of materialism. AbucIzza, likewise, clings to kingship for what this might

provide him of power and wealth.

By using a parable known to the audience, Wannils aims to create a

sense of estrangement so that the audience may think critically of what they

see on stage. To keep the audience from empathizing too much with the

characters, he destroys the illusion of reality and stresses the sense of being in

a theatre, so that, at the end, "they may derive a lesson and a better knowledge

of themselves and their world ... To sum up, so they may learn."217 To achieve

that element of didacticism and alienation, he narrates events, uses placards

to describe scenes, has actors address the audience directly, and makes

characters dismantle scenes without blackouts, as in Brecht's Man's a Man,

Mother Courage and Her O1ildren, and other plays. All these techniques are of

course drawn from the epic and didactic theatre, which undoubtedly greatly

influenced Wannus's ideas of the modem and committed theatre, when

writing this and other plays, something Wannus has always stressed.

Wannus's next work was Ri1,tlat lfan~la min al-Ghafla ilii'l-Yaq~a

(Han~ala's Journey from Indifference to Awareness, 1978). This work is an

adaptation of Peter Weiss's How Mr Mockingpott was Relieved of his Sufferings;

Wannils describes his play in the title page as a "rewriting of Weiss's text."218

Wanntis, S., "Bidayat al-Masral;l al-Mall;lami (.ind Brecht"

217
(Kull ~ad), al-BaCth (no.2744), 20 February 1972, p.8
218~annus,S. Riblat Han~ala min al-Ghafla ila'l-Yag~a, Dar
al-Adab, Beirut, 1990. (First published in al-Hayat al-
Masrabiyya (no.6) 1978, pp.69-86).

234
The play revolves around the character I:Ia~la and his journey of learning

in the school of life and his transformation, from a simple and naive person,

into a politically and socially active person. I:Ian~la, like Mockingpott, the

protagonist in Weiss's work, is subjected to oppression and imprisonment

without committing any crime. His wife abandons him, his lawyer steals his

money, the doctor mocks him and regards him as absurd, and the priest

advises him to accept his fate and face up to reality. This net of exploiters

creates the feelings of misery and subjection in Mokingpott as well as in

I:I~a. The play did not receive as much critical or public attention as the

previous plays had, perhaps because of it being an adaptation.

This issue has been the subject of many debates and arguments in the

Arab world. Some see it due to the inability of an author to produce an

original work, others, like Wannus, regard theatrical adaptation as "an

important step in establishing a true Arab theatre, provided that it is

accompanied by the awareness to convert it [the adaptation] to suit the local

environment and the historical period for which the text was written. "219

Wannus has also explained why he resorts to theatrical adaptation by saying

that "we do that because we are searching for our own Arab vision which

responds to our reality, or because we are trying to give our theatre a

contemporary influence, in other words, to be effective "here" and "now"."220

'Apya Masiih, a Syrian critic, has argued that although theatrical adaptation

219 Wannus, Bayanat, p. 79

220 Ibid, p.84

235
was more acceptable during the early years of Arab theatre, "it is much more

necessary in our age. Since the emergence of the Capitalist system, the

intellectual and cultural borders between nations have been eliminated, and

the different cultures were in a state of intermarriage...and the intellectual

activity of the human being exceeded the limits of one country and one

language. "221 Peter Weiss in his work lays down the issue of oppression in

all its realistic and social dimensions. If a society is built on a competitive

basis, people then are divided into exploiters and exploited. In fact in the

beginning of the play f;I~a lays out his principles in life; "walk beside the

wall and say God protect me ... Save your white [good] "penny" for your black

days ... Make the wall between you and your neighbour thick ... Close the

window that lets in the wind. 222 l;Iarfush, his companion and teacher in his

journey throughout the play, describes what is awaiting Han~ala:

misery and wretchedness, this is the horoscope for

our friend I:Ian~la. He lives now in an ordeal, and
more severe ordeals await him ... he does not know
the reason for his agonies and the secret of his
ordeal, he must therefore, endure torment after
torment and walk for a long time on the path of
suffering.. J do not like to rejoice at his misfortunes,
to be blind is one thing, but to have healthy eyes
and not to be able to see through them is
something else. ,,223

Masutl, c. A., "l;Iawl al-Iqtibas al-Masratll", al-Hayat al-

221
Masrahiyya (no.9), Damascus, Summer 1979, p.43
222 Rihla t Hanzala, p. 6
223 Ibid, p. 6-7

236
 This is I;Ian~ala, who represents the common Arab man of today, who

tries to avoid being part of the process of change out of fear and indifference.

The misery of I;I~ala is not a result of fate, but a consequence of the social

injustice and oppression perpetrated by the authorities; he is condemned also

because he allows such oppression to take place and therefore has to go

through the journey of pain in order to learn, and this is what happens to

I:I~a at the end when he begins to realize that his previous life was "a

deceit and that this deceit must stop. "224 His principles are changed at the

end, he is now more vigilant "everything around me concerns me, because my

destiny is linked to it...To say "walk beside the wall and say God protect me"

never brings protection."225 I:Iarfilsh declares, in a propagandistic way and

addressing the audience, at the end that "Han=?ala is now vigilant...The journey

was tedious but worth passing through .. He understands now that he was the

reason for his sufferings, and that he is the only one that can alter the course

of his life?26

The change in I:Ia~ala's character is not confined to attaining a new

awareness, but is a change in his attitude to life, something ,that reflects a

Brechtian conception. He is led to that change by l;iarfilsh, who guides him

through an obvious didactic role to reach that change. Wannus added a scene

to the play, that of the newspaper, in which he questions the political and

224 Ibid, p.64

225 Ibid, p.65

226 Ibid, p.64

237
social role of the Arab media, asserting that it, like most of the government

institutions, participates in the general oppression of the people. He also made

the government men play the roles of the doctor, the jailor, the religious man

and the landlord, as they symbolically represent the powers that control

society and are considered part of the government machinery.

Wannus makes I:Iarfiish act in a clownish style delivering sometimes

long monologues. His costume is exaggerated in its enormous size may be to

illustrate the naivety and ordinariness of l:Ia~ala as well as to make the

audience identify themselves with him as the victim. The common or garden

fellow 1:Ian+-.-=lia, is a hero who does not resemble former heroes; "the times of

great heroes have gone."'1Zl Like a story-teller, he narrates the story to the

audience directly making sure that he stimulates their awareness of the

situation and directs their attention to the issues.

The story is performed in episodes, each scene is self contained and part

of the whole work, a feature of Brec'1t's technique, as in The Caucasian O1alk

Circle (1945). The performance is like a fari~qSy, a world of dreams, defying

realism, that ensures that the audience are kept ~'lware of that fact. Wannus

has succeeded in using this work to suit the local and Arab environment and

sticking to his process of politicization by raising the political a~~r,~reness of the

audience, asking them to reject the other side of I:I~ala, the passive side, that

urged upon him by I:IarfUsh (his positive side), and which exists in each and

everyone of us if we want political and social change.

227 Ibid, p.5

238
 Wannus's latest work entitled al-Ighti~ab (1990), which can be interpreted

as "The Rape" or "Extortion", is an adaptation of the Spanish playwright

Antonio B. Vallejo's La dable histaria del doctor Valmy (The Double Story of Dr.

Palmi, 1978).228 The structure of Vallejo's play consists of two stories; the

second and main one concerns the character Daniel Barnes, a member of the

se<!l'et police, who castrates a political enemy and then becomes impotent

himself through a kind of sympathetic echo. As a result, his wife Mary,

sexually frustrated, loses her mind, and finally kills him. The first story

presents a well-dressed couple that appear briefly at the beginning and near

the end of the Barnes' story, the play proper.229 Wannus keeps almost the

same structure as Vallejo's play putting more emphasis on the issue of the

sexual impotence element and the motives behind it, the relationship between

the mother of the secret policeman and his boss at work, and the basic feature

of the character of.Dr. Palmi himself, that is his rejection of what is happening

as he says "I do not accept these actions under the auspices of any governing

system. "230

228 The play was translated into Arabic by Dr. $aUt~

FaQI,c An al-Masrah aI-CAlami (World Theatre Series), Kuwait,
1974. It was performed by the Egyptian National Theatre
Troupe in Cairo under the title Dima' "ala Maliibis al-Sahra
(1979-80) .

229 Nicholas, R, The TragiC stages of Antonio B. Vallejo,

Department of Romance Languages (Spanish Studies),
University of North Carolina, (Madrid, 1972), p.77

230Vallejo, A., al-Qissa al-Muzdawaja li'l-Duktur P:almi,

trans. by Dr. $al§h FaQl, Kuwait, April 1974, p.4 7

239
 While the original play was a cri de coeur against Fascist rule in Spain

during the reign of Franco and the political torture accompanying that regime,

al-Ighti~b emphasises that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not "the product of

today, it is part of and connected to a complete historical structure that is

deep-rooted in the past, in Talmudic roots, and this intermixes with the

present.231 The play contains "two narrators and two stories, a Palestinian

narrator and an Israeli narrator, a Palestinian story and an Israeli story. Both

stories intermix and permeate in their development. I dream of an exceptional

performance that gives significant to the Israeli story as well as to the

Palestinian one. "232

The play set in Israel and the occupied territories presents a

comprehensive picture of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It represents "a

manifesto both in a political sense and an aesthetic one. It is a denunciation

of man's inhumanity to man and cries out for justice."233 It follows a

Freudian psycho-analytical method in presenting the characters of the Israelis

and their deep rooted hatred of the Arabs. Such hatred appears in the

inhuman torture of Ismacil, a Palestinian character, to the extent that he loses

his manhood, and in the rape of his wife Dalal. This hatred culminates when

Maier, an Israeli secret policeman, who is sexually impotent, "rapes" her with

231 c.Abd al-Qadir, F., "al-Ightil?ab: Masral;liyya Jadida li-Saccl.

All~h Wannus, al-Adab, vol.38 (no.4-6), 1990, p.45

232 Wannus in the introduction to the play, p.8

233 Nicholas, p. 80

240
a razor cutting her nipples, reflecting what Wannus feels to be extreme

manifestations of this hatred in the psyche of some Israelis leading to sadistic

behaviour.

Both sides of the story refuse to accept the possibility of coexistence, as

reflected in Dalal's words "the land cannot take us both ... the land is narrower

than a grave. If they don't disappear..its either "us" or "them."234 Meanwhile,

al-Fari~, another Palestinian woman, who seems to represent the moderate

tendency that accepts the idea of coexistence, replies when DalaI says that the

land is not big enough, saying: "the land is blessed, and if it were not for their

hostile intentions and hatred, the land would be big enough for all of us. "235

This idea of the impossibility of coexistence is also repeated by IsmaC,il when

he replies to Maier's words regarding the identity of the Palestinians:

The Palestinians whet their imagination in order to

imagine an ideal state big enough for you and me,
a state where our rights are equal and our freedom
is guaranteed. They dream that one day you are
going to demolish this "civilized" police station,
and accept the rights that accompany citizenship,
not force, and we will work together, you and I, so
that our human potentials can flourish. Imagine,
master, what illusions we give to our children.2J6

The message delivered here by Isma~l is that imagining the establishment of

a country that has a room for both the victim and the victimiser, and where

234 Wannus, al-Ightisab, p.60

235 Ibid, p.59

236 Ibid, p.64

241
all rights and freedoms of the citizen are respected, on the basis of the

entitlements of such citizenship, not force, is an illusion and a mirage.237

The Israeli story, on the other hand, depicts the inner sufferings of

Isl)aq, a member of the Israeli secret police, whose wife RatUI is admired and

pursued by Maier, his boss, who also has a relationship with his mother. He

relishes torture and rape parties describing how these " provoke in me ecstasy

of a religious kind ... yes, religious."238 Ironically, Raljil is also raped savagely

by her husband's friend and policeman ]adCun, who considers her as a whore,

whose behaviour seems to invite such a violent act. This shows Wannus's

view that this sadistic behaviour has so completely overwhelmed people that

they will behave like that even with their own kind. Rattil meanwhile seeks

advise from the Doctor, who like the Palestinian character aI-Farica, believes

in the possibility of coexistence and rejects much of what the Israelis are doing.

He tells ISQaq, Ral)il's husband, who feels a sense of guilt and who seeks

psychiatric treatment after witnessing and participating in the torture "parties",

especially that concerning Dalal, that:

My loyalty is to justice and not to the law; there is

no justice in what you do. There is no justice in
occupying other people's land and there is no
justice in the Zionist austerity which the Israeli
state was established on.. J do not accept what you
do, no matter the reason behind it.239

237 (Abd aI-Qadir, p. 45

238 Ibid, p. 50

239 Ibid, p.56

242
 The doctor Abraham Manuhin here resembles Dr. Palmi in the original

play .of Vallejo. Manurun rejects what is happening and believes in

coexistence, as does al-Farica. He is Jewish not Zionist, and does not approve

of the violence concealed in the heart of the Israeli state. He is the

contemporary prophet Jeremiah of Israel, who predicted the destruction of

Jerusalem during the days of King Zedekiah (B.C. 598-588). Abraham's fate

is similar to that of the prophet Jeremiah; he is admitted to a psychiatric clinic

and declared insane. The people, who put him there, are the ones who are

against this dream-state, the Sabra children.240 Jad'iin asserts that after raping

RatUI, "I have no friends, strength is my only friend. I am from the Sabra

generation, one of those who has learned that real man does not need friends

and should trust no one. "241 The play ends with Maier killing Isi)aq for

refusing to carry out his orders to commit rape and torture; he blames the

terrorists for his death.

Unlike Fa~d ai-Dam, the earlier work about the Palestinian issue, al-

/ghti§Qb reflects Wannus's maturity and more balanced approach to the

Palestinian issues. He attempts in the play to give a general and penetrating

impresSion of the historical and deep-rooted hatred between the two sides in

the conflict and blames the Zionists for exacerbating such hatred and passing

it down through successive generations, as explained by Doctor Maniihin

when talking to Isl.laq "in our upbringing, they always teach us hatred, but

240 The Israelis who have been born in Israel.

241 Ibid, p.70

243
they are not concerned with the extremes that our human frame can bear.. .it

is absolute hatred. "242 Such hatred is emphasized by Jadciin, who after raping

RaQil says: "we are dealing with creatures who ought to have been

exterminated, were it not for international considerations. The security of

Israel is inviolable, therefore we have to break their bones, so that they lose all

the malicious intentions and evilness that they have in them. "243 Behind these

generations stand people like Mattr and the mother of Isl;\aq, Sarah, who keep

feeding these ideas to the next generation. Wannus, at the end of the play and

through the imaginative dialogue between him and the Doctor Abraham

Maniil)In, condemns such hatred and criticizes the stances of people like

Maier, Jad'"iin and Moshe, as well as condemning submissive Arabs who, in

his opinion, promote the spread of Zionism in the Arab body politic.244

Although a gloomy and pessimistic mood prevails in the play, that

dialogue represents a tiny glimpse of hope that in the future Jews like Doctor

Manli1)in may alter that hatred and make the dream-state possible. Unless

that happens, wars are inevitable. To that end, as Wanniis explains, the play:

is an open-ended story, which means that it is open

to alteration and addition which historical
development may dictate. The statement on the
Palestinian issue is not closed, but is left open,
therefore any future addition and alteration that
make the performance viable in future
circumstances are possible. Even the Israeli story,

242 Ibid, p.54

243 Ibid, p. 71 - 2

244 Ibid, p. 107

244
 to a lesser degree, is an uncompleted text and
argument regarding its future development is
possible. 245

Wannus's treatment of this important issue and the way he presented

it provoked some harsh criticism from Marxist oriented critics, such as the

Syrian critic Ham al-Rahib, who has criticized the play arguing that it "depicts

such an important historical problem, with a vision that lacks any logical

perspective. History is absent from the play, and one is amazed, when a

Marxist writer like Wannus resorts to Freud and discards history in all its

forms. "246 This criticism seems unfair because the play is based entirely on

history. In fact the message in the play reflects the difficulty or impossibility

of changing the deep-rooted hatred between both parties, especially from the

Israeli side. The play also addresses the audience with a political message,

conveying the idea that in life "those who are spectators to a crime or injustice,

without doing anything about it or even acknowledging that it was committed,

are as guilty as the real criminal." Perhaps Wannus is trying to draw a

message from what happened to the Jews in the holocaust during World War

Two.

Wannus in his post 1967 works, as we have seen, was influenced mainly

by Peter Weiss and Bertolt Brecht, especially by the ideas and techniques of

the epic theatre. This influence was reflected in almost all of these plays, in

245 Wannus in the epilogue to the play.

246al-Rahib, H., "I c. adat Ighti$ab al-Qa(~Uya", Sawt al-

Kuwayt, Monday 17 December 1990, p.11

245
their form, techniques and message. In accordance with Wanniis's Marxist

tendencies, they make a political statement regarding the issue of government

and the political function of the theatre "to form the 'ideological

superstructure' for a solid, practical rearrangement of our age's way of

life."247 The plays also reflect Wannus's own theories of politicization, which

regard the audience (jumhur) as the most essential part of the theatrical

performance. Since 1967 WannUs has been engaged in this process of

politicization, that is to make the people aware of their political role in the

process of social and political change. For him it is a continuous process and

the only way that the theatre of politidzation is going to achieve its aims is

through experimentation, through which an original and authentic Arab

theatre might emerge.

247 Brecht, On Theatre, p.23

246
 Chapter 5

Wanniis and His Theatre of Politicization (MasraJ;a al-Tasyis)

The arts are political, whether they like it or not.

If they stay in their own realm, preoccupied with
their proper problems, the arts support the status
quo, which in itself is highly political. Or they
scream and kick and participate in our own
country's struggle for liberation in whatever
haphazard way they can, probably at the expense
of some of their sensitive craftsmanship, but
definitely for their own soul's sake. 1

This view of Peter Schumann, the artistic director of the Bread and

Puppet Theatre in Vermont, USA, was adopted by Wannus in his plays and

style of writing in the aftermath of the 1967 War and the student riots in

France and Europe in 1968. Wannus,influenced by these events, stressed that

his works were part of what he called the "Theatre of Politicization".

The events of 1968, in France spurred a re-examination of the

relationship between art and politics, of the function of the artist and the role

of theatre? Schumann, as well as Wannus, stresses the fact that theatre, as all

1 Peter Schumann quoted by Van Erven in the introduction to

his book , Radical People's Theatre, Indiana University
Press, Indiana, 1988, p.3
2Kourilsky,F. ,and L.Champagne, "Political Theatre in France
since 1968," The Drama Review, vol.19 (no.2), June 1975,p.43

247
arts, is political, even if it does not deal directly with politics. However, this

notion is not shared by a literary critic, Michael Kerby, who pointed out that

this view is based upon a misunderstanding of the word "political. "3 He

explains that the definition of the word "political," in the Oxford Dictionary

and the American Webster, is:

I-Of or concerned with government, the state,

politics, or of public affairs in general.

2-Engaged in or taking sides in politics.

3-0f or characteristic of political parties or

politicians.

According to Kerby, these definitions would imply that the theatre is

political if it is concerned with the state or government, or public affairs or

takes sides in politics. This allows one to define "Political Theatre" in a way

that distinguishes it from other types of theatre; it is a performance that is

intentionally concerned with the nature of government, that is intentionally

engaged in or consciously taking sides in politics."

The definition and role of political theatre since 1968 became to promote

a certain political ideology through its treatment of social, economic, ethical

and other issues. This may differ from one country to another, but the central

focus of such theatre was to oppose bourgeois hegemony. The troupes

3 Kerby, M., "On Political Theatre", The Drama Review,

vol.19 (no.2), 1975, p.129

" Ibid, p. 129

248
advocating such a theatre often operated through collective work, in other

words their activities became dependent more on group work when staging

a play, in tenns of playwrighting, acting, means of production and even wage

distribution. As part of this process of liberating their artistic activity they

resorted to improvisation to stimulate the audience to participate in the show.

The director of the Theatre du SoieH in France, Ariane Mnouchkine, has

asserted, that after the events of 1968, which resulted in more intensive

collectivization in the theatre, "we slowly became conscious of what politics is:

politics is life. If a group of human beings starts to change its way of working

and living together, this becomes politics."';

Political theatre is also by intent intellectual. It deals with political ideas

and concepts, usually in an attempt to attack or support a particular political

position. At the same time, this theatre is of course literary, because it creates

a "critical reference" for the audience to make them accept certain value

judgments about certain issue.6 This view of Kerby of political theatre is more

feasible and acceptable. He does not take such an extreme stand, as Schumann

who seems to be implying "you either agree with me or you don't." He seems

to reflect a more logical understanding of the theatre in its political form, and

argues that the interpretation of a theatrical performance is dependent on the

attitude of the audience, thus "some people are able to relate any performance

5 Kourilsky and Champagne, p.50

6 Kerby,M., "On Literary Theatre," The Drama Review, vol.18

( no • 2), 1 974, p. 1 08

249
to the government or the state in their own minds. They interpret theatre

This attitude and judgment of relating art to reality, of which politics

is a part, varies between societies in the world, and this variation is reflected

in art, of which theatre is a part. No one can predict how literature will

change people's way of thinking and how this will bring about a change in the

political system. Yet, theatre since it is a direct confrontation between people

and the artist may bring about a rapid response affecting people's attitudes

towards the social, economic and political situation.

People began to perceive the theatre as "political" when it began to

embrace certain radical ideologies such as Fascism, Nazism, communism,

nationalism, and socialism. Theatre has often been used as political

propaganda to reflect the ideology of the party or the state, as the theatres in

the fonner Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc. This type of theatre, as Ervin

argued, has been called "popular theatre" or sometimes "radical theatre," that

is theatre that is politically motivated. Van Erven describes the difference

between two concepts of theatre that emerged in the twentieth century:

the first conceives of the theatre as a place of

communion where all sodal groups meet to receive
their regular dose of the national cultural heritage
through the designated classics. As such, it is a
theatre of integration and unification. The second
type of popular theatre is more Marxist orientated,
it sees the theatre as a place where the oppressed
classes in society are made conscious of the
injustice of their predicament As such, it could be

7 Idem, "On Political Theatre," p.130

250
 seen as a theatre of class struggle that uses cultural
means to prepare the upset of the bourgeois
hegemony.s

After the Russian revolution there emerged militant Marxist factions

who refused "to accept the bourgeois interpretation of the neutrality of arts.

They felt that as the theatre is an important instrument in the working class

struggle for freedom, the stage must reflect the purpose and the life of the

proletariat fighting for a new order in the world. "9 Since the start of the

Russian revolution, its leaders stressed the importance of counter-attacking the

powerful bourgeois ideological apparatus in order to create a solid basis for

the continuation of the revolution. Lenin stressed that the revolution:

must overcome resistance from capitalists in all its

forms, not only in military and political spheres,
but also ideological resistance which is the most
deep-seated and the strongest. It is the duty of our
educational workers to accomplish the re-education
of the masses. to

Antonio Gramsci followed the same line, in his article, "Socialism and

Culture" (1920); he emphasized the indispensability of a cultural revolution

before a successful political revolution could take place. l1 Wilhelm Reich

8 Van Ervin, pp.13-14

9 Davies,C., Theatre for the People, Austin University of
Texas Press, Texas, 1977, p.105
10Lenin, V., On Culture and Cultural Revolution, Progressive
Publishers, London, 1966, pp.166-167
11 Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) Italian political leader and
theoretician, born in Sardinia.

251
held that the development of the political consciousness of the working class

was essential before there could be an effective class struggle. l2 Before the

fight for social and political hegemony could take place, the oppressed groups

had to become aware of their potential as a collective force. l3

According to Brecht, Piscator, Dort, Romain, and oilier Marxist critics,

as well as Wannus, ilie political ilieatre has a didactic function, that is to

educate or "politicize" its audience in order to enable them to think politically.

In the 1920s Rolland Romainl4 described the educational function of the

people's theatre by saying that "it should flood with light the terrible brain of

man, which is filled with shadows and monsters, and is exceedingly narrow

and cramped ... he must be taught, to see things clearly as well as himself, and

to judge. Nl5

In Britain, the period between 1928-1936, The Worker's Theatre

Movement, which was closely connected to ilie Communist party, produced

a kind of popular theatre concerned with agitation rather than with

entertainment. This theatre

addressed itself to specific issues rather than the

"social question" generally. Theatrically, it turned

12 Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) Austrian psychoanalyst. He

attempted a synthesis of psychoanalysis with Marxism.
13 Reich, W., cited in Van Erven, Radical People's Theatre,
p.19
14 Rolland Romain (1866-1944), French novelist, playwright,
and essayist, born in Burgundy.
1S Romain,R., Theatre du people: essai esthethigue d'un
theatre nouveau, Michel, Paris, 1926, pp.115-116

252
 increasingly from naturalistic drama to agit-prop,
in the form of sketches, cabaret and revue, and
attempted to exchange indoor performances for a
theatre of the street. 16

In Germany, the theatre of Erwin Piscator17 (1893-1966) distinguished

itself by subordinating its art to progressive political purposes. Its intentions

were -to produce plays that would seize on contemporary events and act

politically. "18 This call for the politicization of art, especially theatre, found

a wide response amongst the younger generations in Europe as well as

elsewhere. The wave of Nationalist, Marxist and Socialist movements created

a climate which encouraged people to be active politically as well as socially.

However, the wave of radical popular theatre current received its vital

impulse "following the pseudorevolutionary events of 1967 and 1968, amidst

BeatIe tunes, anti-authoritarianism, love-ins, sleep-ins, teach-ins, sit-ins,

communes, sexual liberation, emerging feminism, pacifism, and cries for Third

These forms of anti-authoritarianism were chaotically thrown together

helping to create a confused picture. The radical movement of the 1960s has

16 Samuel, R., Worker's Theatre 1928-1936 eds. D. Bradby, L.

James and B.Sharratt, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1980, p.216
17 Erwin Piscator (1893-1966) was a German director, who
played a key role in the development of epic theatre with
Brecht, believing in the theatre as a tool for propaganda
and social reform.

18 Davies, p. 103

19 Erven, p. 2

253
been seen as one of the most interesting ()ocial phenomena of this century.20

The events of 1%7-1968 politicized many previously apathetic people,

including artists; Wanniis was one of those, "who started to question the

previously uncontested structure of their society."21 In 1968, radical theatre

groups in France, Britain, West Germany and elsewhere in Europe and the

USA came to see their fundamental task as presenting an alternative culture

in opposition to the dominant one, which in their eyes was nothing but a

framework for bourgeois ideological manipulation. 22 Therefore, these

playwrights, directors and actors resolved to use their creative talents to raise

the political consciousness of agricultural and industrial workers. As a result

of the events of 1968, a desire to become directly involved with life, to place

the accent on the process of creation rather than on the final product, to

establish a new form of relationship with the spectators, who were considered

as "potential creators," to insist on the actor's creativity, to rethink the role of

the director as well as the role of the playwright resulted in new forms of

political-popular theatre in France and elsewhereP

In France, along with the radical intellectuals, young artists became

aware, in the light of the radical developments in the streets in 1968, that

20 Ibid, p.15

21 Ibid, p.16
22 Ibid, p.18
23 Kourilsky, F.and L. Champagne, p.44

254
politics and art could no longer be kept in separate compartments?' The

student demonstrations, which took place all over Europe and USA, enabled

the young students to voice their strong feeling of solidarity with the struggle

of the people in developing and colonized regions of the world, who they

considered were oppressed and "exploited to provide the Western centres of

industrialization with cheap raw materials, labour, and lucrative consumer

markets."25 Such feelings of solidarity struck a cord in the minds of young

Arab artists, such as Wannus, who was witnessing and living all these events

in Paris, and helped to strengthen nationalist feelings amongst them as well

as strengthening their anti-Western sentiments.

Michael Kerby has described the major problem facing the political

theatre: how to find or attract the audience that could be converted. In order

to convince other people, who do not share the artist's ideas and to attract

them to become part of his movement, or to make them adopt his point of

view, the artist had to go to them in their own home or place of work.

Therefore, the political theatre went to the streets, to the rural areas, to the

factories, where the farm workers and industrial labourers lived, addressing

them and delivering a political message to them. Kerby called this process

"guerrilla theatre," which takes its performances to an audience that never

planned to see the particular play but find it thrust upon them in one way or

24 Van Erven, p. 65

25 Ibid, p.17

255
another.26 This led to the emergence of theatre workshops throughout

Europe and elsewhere, accompanied by the call for experimentation. This idea

had its roots in the socialist Soviet Union and Britain during the 193Os;

Raphael Samuel has described the "workerist" turn in socialist politics as

"interestingly and paradoxically, something that led to or at least was

accompanied by a remarkable openness to experimentalism. "Xl

The political or "radical" theatre, in general, wanted to narrow the gap,

as Van Erven argues, between stage and audience by means of eliminating

naturalistic theatrical illusions.28 This notion of narrowing the gap between

stage and audience was the main feature of Piscator and Brecht's epic theatre

since the 1920s, however with then, this was done by confronting the audience

with political issues by means of alienation and shock tactics. This radical, or

political theatre is now an integral part of the contemporary cultural scene in

Europe. For a long time this theatre refused to have any dealings with what

it considered the commercial apparatus of bourgeois mass culture. Because it

was not regarded as "high" culture, the radical or political theatre did not

receive the general critical attention that it undoubtedly deserved.29

26 Kerby, p. 134

27 Samuel, R., Theatres of the Left 1880-1935, Routledge and

Kegan Paul, London, 1985, pp.xix-xx
28 Erven, p. 94
29 Ibid, p. 2

256
POLITICAL THEATRE IN THE ARAB WORLD:

Many Arab theatre critics argue that political theatre has its roots in the

works of early Arab playwrights, such as the well-known Egyptian playwright

YaCqub ~anuC., who claimed that in some of his plays he called for the

establishment of a parliamentary system of government, and attacked the

tyrannical rule of the Khedives. His plays are said to have been considered

by the authorities as subversive and therefore, they closed his theatre.30

Though ~anitasserted that he wrote controversial political plays that upset the

authorities, only the texts of his relatively mild, satirical, domestic comedies

have survived. The only other writer of political theatre they refer to, was'Ali

A1;unad Bakathlr,31 who wrote several plays addressing the issue of Jewish

settlement in Palestine, which may be considered political, plays like fliih

Isra'il (God of Israel, 1957?), Sha'b Alliih al-Mukhtiir (God's Chosen People,?);

both are anti-Zionist plays, but in the first play he condemns all Jews. In IlQh

Isra'il, he tried to depict Jews as evil, worshipping Iblis (Satan) from their early

days. In Shat:b Alliih al-Mulchtar, he predicts the rise and, naively, fall of the

state of Israel, depicting Israeli citizens as racist, money-grabbing, rapacious

and miserly, immoral in their dealings and abusive to outsiders. 32 In Musmar

30 AlSlshari, al-Masrahiyya al-Siyasiyya, p.58

31 CAli Al;unad Bakathir (1910-1969). Born in Indonesia he
moved to Egypt from the Hadramut in 1934. He was a well-
known "committed" novelist and playwright.
32 Badawi, M., Modern Arabic Drama, p.127

257
Jub6 Uu}.la's Nail 1951) and ImhiriiJiiriyya Ji'l-Mazad (An Empire for Sale, 1953?),
he attacked the British involvement in Egypt.33 The former is based on the

folk tale of the witty trickster Juba, the traditional Arab equivalent of Till

Eulenspiegel, who here sells his house, but in the sale contract he retained the

right to visit an old nail hammered into a wall inside the house. The play is

an allegory of the behaviour of the British in Egypt, who claimed to have

ended their occupation of Egypt but kept their forces in the Suez Canal base,

as an excuse for maintaining their hold over the country. The second play,

ImhiriiJilriyya Ji'l-Mazlid, is a satirical political fantasy set in England on the eve

of a general election, which results in a Conservative victory. However, the

conservatives manage affairs so badly that the country goes bankrupt, a

revolution breaks out, resulting in the arrest of the cabinet, and the empire is

put up for auction. 34

These early works reflects the atmosphere and the psychological state

of the Arab countries and Arab people after the First World War. The borders

on the map of the Levant, drawn by the British and the French in the famous

Sykes-Picot agreement (1916) during the First World War, were to have a great

impact on the politics of the region. This agreement and the consequent

mandatory rule created and is still creating many regional political problems

between neighbouring Arab countries, such as the problems between Syria,

Jordan and Lebanon. This arbitrary delineation of Arab frontiers has created

33 Ibid, p.61

H Ibid, pp.127-128

258
a sense of resentment towards the West; a matter that has led to the expansion

of Arab nationalism, especially at the time of the famous Egyptian president

Jamal Abd al-N~ir in the late 1950s and 1960s.

After World War Two, Arab countries were either under Western

colonization or control, British or French, or had just attained independence

and were still recovering from their foreign occupation. Syria and Lebanon

were still under French Mandatory rule and the struggle to gain independence

in Egypt ending in the withdrawal of the British forces from Egypt and the

curtailment of British influence. One of the by-products of this process was

the overthrow of the Monarchy.

Added to colonization, the situation was aggravated by mass Jewish

immigration to Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel

accompanied by the defeat (nakba) by Israeli forces of the Arab armies in 1948,

the setback that they had tried to prevent taking place. Arab intellectuals and

writers have interacted with all these events and they have had an intense

argument over the issue of commitment, as summarized by Ra'if al-Khfui: "the

Arab writer is committed, particularly in this period of Arab national revival,

to producing works with a conscious and deliberate political meaning. "15

In the aftermath of this 1948 defeat, a special kind of literature emerged,

called adab al-nakba (the literature of the setback) which was exemplified in

poetry, the novel and short stories. Unlike other genres of literature, Arab

3S al-JayyilsI,S., Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic

Poetry, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1977, p.575

259
theatre did not reflect this new political art form, simply because the theatre

was seen by many at that time as a luxury beyond the range or understanding

of the ordinary person and the exclusive preserve of the upper classes.

After the Egyptian revolution in 1952, which removed the monarchy,

and the emergence of ~bd al-N~ir as a political leader, and the adoption in

1961 of socialism as its philosophy and method of government, a new era in

the Arab world began. At that time a theatre with social and political

dimensions emerged in Egypt in the hands of Tawfiq al-I:Iakim, Nueman

~AshUr, Lutfi al-Khtlli, Sa'd aI-Din Wahba, YOsuf Idris, Rashad Rushdi and

others. This began in 1954 when al-Hakim published al-Aydi al-Nat.ima (Soft

Hands), which represented his first response through drama to the Egyptian

army-led Revolution of 1952. The play deals with two main themes:

reconciliation and restoration of harmony between the various social classes

and the value of work.36 Though the idea of the play is treated in a

fundamentally light-hearted manner, it contains "a strong element of social

criticism in the repeated emphasis on work rather than wealth as the basis for

social order."37 The play was regarded as carrying a political message trying

to imbue the audience with the correct revolutionary political awareness of the

age.38

36 Badawi, po 61
37 Starkey, Po, From the Ivory Tower: A Critical study of
Tawfig al-Hak!m, Ithaca Press, London, 1987, po33
38 Mandur, Masrab TawfIg al-Hakim, po123

260
 Apart from al-J:Iakim, this wave of new dramatists, who emerged after

the 1952 revolution, were less inhibited about using Egyptian colloquial in

their plays, especially as the new regime too was soon employing populist

socialist slogans intended to communicate with the masses. The spoken

language, the language of the people, became the dominant medium, with the

result that dramatists and audiences alike achieved a greater degree of

communication.39 This use of colloquial language in Arab theatre had in the

minds of many been unthinkable before, because it was considered by main

stream critics and writers as degrading the fine art of the theatre.

This increasingly overt political theatre in Egypt, which appeared after

the 1952 revolution, assumed a greater role when the authorities banned

political parties in 1954. The consequent absence of one forum for a free

exchange of opinion is partly responsible for the growth of the theatre as an

ersatz parliament, where authors expressed their political position, often

obliquely, to thwart increasingly active censorship.40

The Egyptian revolutionary government realized the importance of the

theatre and cultural propaganda in mobilizing the people, therefore they made

use of the theatre to promote the ideology of the revolution. In a move to

bring the theatre to the people, they used cinemas for dramatic productions

39 Badawi, p.140

40 Allen, R. , "Egyptian Drama after the Revolution" ,

Edebiyyat, 4/1, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
1979, p.129

261
and got troupes to tour in the provinces, where eventually the theatre

flourished and many of the experimental plays were first staged.41

The political theatre, in its new explicit form, in the Arab world, came

into existence very late, because such a genre requires political maturity and

the courage to raise the most important and potentially provocative issues

concerning the state and politics. Moreover, it requires a greater freedom,

individual as well as collective, which the Arab world only began to

experience recently and only in certain countries. In Syria, although there

were active political parties during that period, political freedom was always

suppressed by the ruling regime, and whencAbd al-N~ir banned all political

parties in both countries during the life of U.A.R, this freedom was completely

removed from Syrian society. Large parts of the Arab world are still living

under severe political oppression and rigid state censorship. This censorship

has led the playwright to find sanctuary in symbolism and history as a means

of expressing his political views, criticising and drawing an analogy with

contemporary issues.

The political play in .the Arab world has in the main dealt with three

main issues: firstly, the rebellion against foreign colonization in its various

shapes and forms, including the Israeli occupation of Palestine, secondly, the

rebellion against internal corruption and oppression, and finally, with internal

41 Ibid, p.142

262
politics from a revolutionary perspective, a notion which was influenced by

the concept of the universality of revolutions. 42

During the 1950s and the 1960s, many plays were produced in Egypt,

which may be classified as socio-political theatre, amongst which are the plays

of Nucmrm ~shUr fl-Nas iIli Tabt (People at the Bottom,(1956)), n-Nas illi Filq

(People at the Top, (1957)). These two plays are concerned with the class

struggle, the former deals with the lower classes, whereas the latter

concentrates on what happened to the upper classes after the revolution.

Yiisuf Idris, wrote many plays of a political nature, including Malik al-Quln

(The Cotton King (1954)) denouncing the exploitation of the poor peasant and

describing his attachment is to the land. al-Lab?-a al-l;larija (The Critical Moment

(1957)) is about the 1956 Suez War, and al-Mukhal/iJin (1969) (The Striped

Ones) or more accurately (The Planned) or (The Programmed), an obvious,

deliberate double entendre. It is an "absurdist" political allegory, which lashes

out savagely at the totalitarian one-party state.43 Under the influence of

social realism Lutfi al-KhUli wrote Qahwat al-MulUk (The Cafe of Kings (1958)),

al-Qatjiya (The Case (1961)), and al-Aranib (The Rabbits (1964)). Sa'd ai-Din

Wahba, wrote al-Mabriisa (the name of an estate owned by the king in 1961),

in which he portrayed the "flagrant miscarriage of justice under the corrupt

42 Dawara, F., "al-Thawra fi' l-Masraif al- cArabi" , al-Adab,

vol.18 (no.5) ,May 1970, p.55

43 Badawi, p.161

263
administration of the ancien regime,"44 Bir al-Sillim (The Stair Well (1966)), al-

Masamir (The Nails (1967)) and Yil Salam Sallim, al-Heyta Bititkallim (Heaven

Preserve Us, the Wall is Talking (1970)) dealing with the 1967 Arab-Israeli War

and the defeat of the Arabs, especially Egypt.

In the Lebanon, political theatre was a late occurrence. cAbd al-Lapf

Sharara has argued, that the theatre in the Lebanon "did not exist as an art

(fann), but as a literary text to be read. "45 He also asserts that the theatre in

the Lebanon was confined to educational institutions, and did not have a

direct influence on the life of the people. Sharara has distorted the image of

early Lebanese/Syrian theatre; there were in fact in the early days a number

of semi-commercial theatres putting on Arabic plays, as well as performances

in schools. It was not so much the lack of theatrical activity in Lebanon, but

the attraction of potential financial support for their theatre from the Egyptian

vice-regal family that attracted Lebanese actors and playwrights like Salim al-

Naqqash, Faral;l Antiin, and Jiirj Abya<;l to go to Egypt. In the view of

Ghassan Salame the birth of the true national and autonomous Lebanese

theatre, was in 1960 when a group of theatrical adventurers regrouped

themselves into two or three troupes and launched the last blow to the

previously amateur, scholastic, and moral theatre, attempting in this way to

44 Ibid, p.150

45 Sharara, A., " a l-Masrah fi Lubnan", al-Adab (no.1),

(January 1957), pp.18-20 .

264
eliminate a genre adapted from an alien culture.46 In the view of Dr. Ali al-RaC:j

, black comedy and political satire were the main features of the political

theatre in Lebanon. Political theatre in Lebanon was mainly directed towards

the intellectual and educated classes."7

The real emergence of political theatre in the Arab world was after the

1%7 Arab-Israeli War (al-naksa). Reactions to this setback by Arab writers

varied widely: from a lapse into silence for several years to an expression of

the most violent anger.48 Writers were competing with each other to find an

explanation for the unexpected defeat, and Arab dramatists too were to find

their own ways to explain what had happened. According to al~Ishari, the

views of Arab intellectuals can be conveniently, if arbitrarily, classified under

the following categories as regards their attitudes to the defeat: firstly, the

liberal secularists, who attributed the defeat to the connection between

religion, Islam and politics, and saw the total separation of these as the right

way to overcome the defeat, secondly, the proponents of Islam who attributed

the defeat to the abandonment by the Arabs of their religion and called for a

return to religious values and a society governed by Islamic laws, and finally,

the revolutionaries who attributed the defeat to corrupt governmental systems,

and called for an all-embracing revolution that would lead to radical changes

46 Salame,G., Le the8tre politigue au Liban (1968-73), Dar

al-Mashriq, Beirut, 1974, p.2
H al-Raei, A., al-Masrab, p.238
48Allen, R., The Arabic Novel: an Historical and Critical
Introduction, University of Manchester, Syracuse
University, New York, 1982, p.52

265
in the Arab world. This latter group consisted mainly of Marxist and socialist

thinkers.

The Arab defeat in June 1967 was a defeat on all levels; the Arabs were

defeated both psychologically and militarily. In addition, most of the Arab

governments that waged the war, despite expectations to the contrary,

increased their dictatorial power, especi,uly military dictatorship, after the

defeat. Adding insult to injury, Arab media had helped to deceive the people

in the war by publishing or broadcasting lies. It had become a vehicle used

to praise or attack persons or governments. Although, on the surface, Arab

summits were intended to solidify ranks in the face of such a disaster and

appeared to be reflecting Arab unity, beneath that there were deep differences

and even hatred, something that Israel has certainly benefited from.49

The gap separating the ruler and the ruled in the Arab world has grown

wider; the people expected some participation in the political decision-making

process, yet that expectation has never been fulfilled. Arab bureaucracy under

both the capitalist and socialist systems of government has created an

opportunist ruling class that adapts to the circumstances. In addressing the

issue of ruling classes or governing (I]ukm) and the relationship between the

ruler and the ruled, the political theatre, which requires an intelligent

audience, has a difficult task, because the emergence of such an audience has

49 al~Ishari, al-Masrahiyya al-Siy~siyya, p.20

266
been stultified, for Arab governments have been making sure that ignorance

persists in order to allow them to maintain their status.50

Political, social and economic problems were the issues raised by

political theatre in the Arab world after the 1%7 defeat, adopting the slogan

"action speaks louder than words." They created the right soil for the growth

and acceptance of this political theatre in the Arab world. The function of this

theatre, al!]:shari argues, is not confined to depicting everyday life in society,

but goes beyond that to guide the society and try to change it, since it has

become a tool for social revolution resorting to reality as its starting point. 51

However, such a function seems to be ambitious, since the people, in the Arab

world, do not participate in decision making through representational

government; this lack of democracy could have catastrophic consequences, as

it did in June 1967. Yet political theatre can encourage people to be organized

and involved in the conduct of their daily affairs, and in order to prevent the

abuse of power by ruling circles, conscious involvement of the masses in the

theatre, which political theatre advocates, is essential because "this involvement

must advance in parallel with the cycle of life and the struggle of history,

becoming a starting point for revolutionary work aiming to create change for

the better. "52

50 Ibid, p.25

51 al-'Isharl, p.47
52 M.al-Hallaj quoted by al-cIsharI, p.48

267
 A new phase in the Arab theatre had begun. Theatre was participating

in a dialogue of concern to the whole Arab nation as well as starting to raise

many questions, such as who are we?, and where we are going? By doing so,

theatre transcended the artificial geographical borders in the Arab world trying

to revive the ideal of Arab unity amongst the people, far from the

unconstructive rhetoric on the subject of Arab governments. The expansion

of the political theatre movement has forced Arab playwrights to discover

new means of communicating with the people without exposing their works

to suppression or themselves to retribution. To escape rigid censorship, they

resorted to the use of legends, symbolism, history and heritage.

Most of the plays, which were written or presented after 1967, were a

direct attack on the Arab persona, and an attempt to highlight the struggle of

the Palestinians. In addition, plays endeavoured to uncover the false claims

and promises of the Arab governments, which had led to the defeat. Although

the form of such attacks differed from one Arab country to another, they all

shared the same feelings of anger, bitterness, astonishment and deception, for

Arab rulers had promised the masses an easy victory in the war. The impact

of the naksa was apparent in all literary genres and not only in the theatre.

The defeat pushed literature in general and theatre in particular towards

socialist ideologies and the abandonment of the idea of art for art's sake.

During the 1970s, there was an emerging trend towards treating social issues

268
directly in literature, which led the theatre to resort to a didactic form

saturated with political and revolutionary views.53

In addition, many ideological beliefs in the region were destroyed, such

as the belief in Arab unity and a common destiny. The defeat exposed "the

disunity and the ineptness of the Arabs as well as the audacity and solidarity

of Israel."54 The theatre was the genre best able to expose what had taken

place, as well as reflecting the unwillingness of Arab regimes to establish true

democratic systems of government, to improve their appalling human rights

record, and to liberate Arab and Palestinian lands. The theatre began to use

the methods of interaction, alienation and the so-called "breaking of the fourth

wall, " resorting to epic, didactic, and documentary forms of theatre. The resort

to such forms was:

a natural and logical transformation, responding to

the new transformations in our society, especially
after the defeat, when the educated and theatre
enthusiasts began to open their eyes to reality,
searching to identify the real Arab persona and the
truth behind the existing Arab reality.55

Amongst such works are the plays of Alfred Faraj al-Nar wa'l-Zaytun

(Fire and Olives (1970)), Matunud Diyab's epic play BQb al-FutUll>6 (The

Gateway to Victory (1971)), ~bd al-RaJ;unan al-Sharqawl"s play Watani~

53 al-'IsharI, p.50

54 Armaj ani, Y ., Middle East Past and Present, Prentice-Hall,

New Jersey, 1970, p.403
55 al- clshari, p.51

56 The name of one of the gateways of old Cairo.

269
(Acre, My Homeland (1970)), Walid Ikhla~i's play Kay! Ta~C.ad Dun an Taqa C

(How To Ascend Without Falling (1974)), Sa cd Allah Wannus in his

controversial play ljaflat Samar min Ajl Khamsah ljuzayran (An Evening

Entertainment for the Fifth of June), and other experiments and performances

of Masral) al-Shawk (The Thorn Theatre), and Masra\l al-Shacb (The People's

Theatre) in Syria, Masra1;l al-Qahwa (The Cafe Theatre) in Egypt and Masral;l

al-Huwat (The Amateurs' Theatre) in Morocco.

Most of these plays have Marxist or socialist undertones, using terms

such as bourgeois, petty bourgeois, imperialism and revolution, which was the

common coinage in much of the literature of that time, especially in Syria,

Morocco, Egypt, Iraq and some other countries. Anti-Western feelings were

high, as the West was seen as pro-Israel, and Arab nationalist feelings, then at

their peak, encouraged such sentiments.

The function of the radical theatre was to politicize the regular

audience, to enable them to put pressure on their governments, to follow a

"correct" revolutionary path which might enable the people to concentrate their

efforts on obliterating the effects of the 1967 defeat, instead of involving

themselves in side issues.57 A dialogue was established, in these plays and

similar ones, between the stage and the auditorium, between the audience and

the playwright, the director, the actors, and the settings. That dialogue was

57 Ibid, p.52

270
perhaps an attempt to put on trial the governments or the Arab decision-

makers who were considered responsible for the defeat.58

The importance of the political theatre began to emerge, after 1967,

because before the defeat, the theatre was distracted from the Palestinian

question. As Mutlammad aI-Jazar iri has argued, this was because of various

reasons; firstly the division of the Arab countries, secondly, the differences in

leadership and styles of the government, most of which took part in

oppressing and preventing any liberal movement from expressing its views

freely and directly regarding the question of Palestine, and thirdly, the class

differences in Arab society and its old traditional values, and finally the lack

of clear vision amongst some of the Arab leaders.59

A good example of the political theatre can be found in the works of

al-Tayyib al-$iddiqi, the well known Moroccan actor, playwright and director.

Influenced by Brecht and the radical theatre in France, he was able to speak

out and revolutionize Moroccan theatre by establishing, in his works, a

political dialogue with his audience, so as to involved in the perfonnance, and

encourage them to argue, reject, approve and oppose what they saw and heard

on stage. In his work the theatre became a place where issues were debated

of concern to the wider audience in the Arab world.

About the same time, a form of socio-political theatre emerged in the

Gulf. In comparison to other Arab states, the Arab Gulf states developed the

58 Dawara, "Revolution", p.59

59 M. al-Jazalri quoted by al-crshari, pp.52-53

271
theatre at a later stage in their history. Because of the nature of the

governments in these states and their sensitivity towards the discussion of any

controversial political issue, the theatre could not explicitly discuss political

issues in public performances. Having said that, in some Gulf states, such as

Kuwait, political theatre and a critical of evaluation of the political theatre and

a critical evaluation of political issues became more acceptable, as a result of

the existence of an active elected parliament. However, the political theatre

in these Gulf states, reflecting the fact that ideological groups were not active

in mainstream politicalUfe, was not motivated by ideological motives as much

as it was by the desire for social and economic reforms.60

Unlike Egypt, the political theatre in Syria in the aftermath of 1967 was

bolder and more explicit in tackling the issue of the defeat. In Egypt, many

playwrights had tried to justify the defeat by blaming other Arab countries or

attributing it to conspiracies and the corruption of certain leading figures,

excluding President ~bd al-N~ir, because nobody in Egypt or in other parts

of the Arab world was ready to believe that it was the fault of the widely

adored Arab nationalist Na~ir. They also persisted in replaying the old tunes

extolling past Arab glory in a step to defuse the impact of the defeat. They

called the defeat naksa (setback), implying that the disaster of the defeat was

merely a passing minor event not requiring much attention.

60 al-cIshari,A., "al-Masra1;l al-Siyasi fi Duwal al-Khalij al-

cArabi" , Majallat al-Kuwayt (no.48), August, 1986, pp.67-71

272
 In Syria, the political theatre, better reflected the real aspirations of the

Arab people. Dr. Nadim M~ammad has argued that:

the political theatre, which thrust itself forward

onto the stage after the 5th June, found a profound
response and endorsement amongst the Syrian
masses, who had been deprived of their right to
protest, under a non-democratic authoritarian rule
and where politics was symbolized to them by
their daily bread and butter.61

Syrian playwrights attacked all Arab regimes accusing them of being "slaves"

to their imperialist masters as well as preventing the people from participating

in decision making.

~liirsan, a Syrian playwright and director of the National Theatre in

Syria, in his play al-Sajin 95 (Prisoner No.95 (1972)) criticized Arab regimes for

keeping the masses trapped in poverty. This play concluded perceptively with

the message that the "victor" in any political struggle, whoever he may be, will

be the new jailer and will buy more efficient locks. 62 In his play Ri(la al-

Qay~r (Caesar's Pleasure (197S)),c1rsan examined the relationship between the

state and the writer. As many playwrights did, in order to avoid direct

criticism and confrontation, he sets the events of the play in Roman times.

This method of setting the action in the past, whether utilising the old Arab

heritage or the Western heritage for its theme, was adopted by Wannus in his

later plays, as well as by some other Syrian playwrights, not only for artistic

reasons, but also to avoid rigid censorship. This method was also a response

61 Mul)ammad, al-Adab al-Masrahi, p.103

62 Hopwood, p.146
273
to a call for the return to Arab roots in literature, especially in dramatic forms,

as a means of asserting Arab identity and displaying anti-Western feelings.

Wanniis emphasised that, saying: "Arab dramatists should derive their topics

from the Arab cultural heritage, not only from the models provided by the

19th century, but also from the great period of classical Arabic literature. "63

For Sa'd Allah Wanniis politics, especially after the 1967 defeat and the

events of 1968 which he had witnessed in Paris, became the dominant factor

in his life. He described his feelings thus: "I realized and believed that the

main or substantial aim of any human being is to be a politician."M He

argued that the theatre was originally and still is political. Even when it

ostensibly avoids political issues, it still serves a political objective, that is to

prevent the masses from improving their condition. 65

This view reflects the idea of Peter Schumann quoted above, as well as

that of Piscator when he asserted that: "I too now had a clear opinion on how

far art was only a means to an end, a political means, a propagandistic means,

a pedagogical means."66 Wannus wanted to make the theatre a didactic tool

to arouse the masses, so that it should reflect their problems, analyze them,

and explain and enlighten the people as to the concealed truth behind the

63 Wannus, "Bayanat," pp. 17-23

64 Wannus interviewed by Dawara, p.193

65 Wannus, "Bayanat," p.27
66 Piscator,E., The Political Theatre, trans. Hugh Rorrison,
Eyre Methuin, London, 1963,p.23

274
occurrence of such problems, and consequently, encourage the masses to work

to change their life for the better.67

Wannils was trying to make his work relevant to the contemporary

political and social situation, and accessible to the masses. He described his

works as being part of a project, which he coined masralJ, al-tasyis (the theatre

of politicization).68 This term was coined by Wannils to describe his works,

which he wrote after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, with the expectation that this

theatre would compensate the masses for the oppression they had suffered

under Arab regimes. Through this theatre, Wannus hoped to be able to

politicize and enlighten the masses about various political issues affecting their

present and future. 69

Wannus in the introduction to his play I;laflat Samar min AJ7 Khamsah

lfuzayran (An Evening Entertainment for the Fifth of June (1968)), explicitly

described, his theatre's function by saying:

In this period of setback, and when the people

have only two choices, armed resistance or
surrender, the task of the theatre becomes very
difficult yet nevertheless clear. It must break with
its roots and transform the stage and the
auditorium into a conscious awakening process,
that must penetrate into the far comers of the
theatre, into the streets and houses, to the front
line, evolving as it spreads, into protest, resistance
and a clear vision of the future. The theatre, in this

67 Rama9an, Masrab S. Wannus, p.28

68 Allen, "Arabic Drama", p. 105

69 Rama9an, p. 28

275
 period, betrays the people if it hides the truth; it
misleads them if it does not know the truth ... "70

WannGs explains the reason for introducing this new concept of the "theatre

of politicization," by saying "the 1%7 War was very important for the theatre

and for its relation to politics, because the theatre, like the Arab masses, was

shocked by the defeat. "71

Far too many theatrical experiments prior to the defeat were imprisoned

in the conceptual framework of art for art's sake, and many traditional critics

considered the theatre as high art and therefore felt it should not indulge in

politics or political issues, because this would eventually lead to an assault on

the artistic nature of the theatre.72 However, the stunning defeat provoked

an intellectual awakening amongst the educated classes, leading to a general

agreement among theatre folk acknowledging the relationship between the

theatre and politics, and that theatre cannot tum its back on current political

issues in Arab society. This, as Wan nus explains, led to the next step, which

was to define and examine the progressive underlying nature of a particular

work, to show how such a work raised a political issue, as well as to explain

the political message (hamm) implied in the play, which would lead eventually

to the process of politicization of the audience. 73

70 Wannus, S.,in the introduction to Haflat Samar, Dar al-

Adab, Beirut, 1977.
71 Wannus, Bayanat, p.l06
72 Ibid,p.l06
73 Ibid, p.l07

276
 The concept of politicization for Wannus could be defined from two

integral viewpoints, the first one being intellectual, meaning that "the political

issue or problem is presented through its profound laws and intricated

(mutashiibik) relationships within the political and economic structure of the

society, and tries at the same time to find a progressive solution to these

problems. 74 Thus for Wanniis political theatre must have a progressive

political message. This view is reflected by Raphael Samuel, who described

the relationship between the theatre and politics by saying that "Theatre, as

the most public of arts, is second cousin to politics, and even when the

relationship is a forbidden one, there is a two-way traffic between them."7S

The second viewpoint in defining the concept of politicization, is an artistic

one. Wanniis wanted his theatre to be an avant-garde theatre presenting

political issues and addressing certain people in society. Those people were

the ones whose political awareness had been distorted, whose artistic taste had

been corrupted and whose popular culture had been plundered and re-

employed to produce apologetic works that propped up authoritarian regimes,

which in turn led to bad taste and backwardness?6

The classes, Wannus wanted to politicize, were the broad mass of the

populace or the working class, who he thought were subject to a constant

conspiracy by successive authorities to keep them perpetually ignorant and

74 Ibid, p. 1 08
75 Samuel, Theatres, p.xiii
76 Wannus, Bayana t, p. 1 09

277
"depoliticized." These were the classes he felt would one day lead the

revolution and bring about change. Yasin and Sulayman have described

Wannus's theatre by saying that "Wannus moves forward, step by step, in the

theatre of politicization and mass revolution, marking yet another significant

step in moving firmly, from the start, towards a clear target, that of

revolutionary change."77 Wannus's theatre of politicization is mainly

influenced by the Brechtian epic theatre; both regarded plays as social

experiments, requiring detachment, not passion, from the observant audience,

as well as the audience recognizing the stage as a stage, actors as actors, and

not the traditional make-believe of the theatre. This view was shared by ]alal

Khiiri, a Lebanese Marxist critic, who argued that theatre will not of itself

create revolution, however, there are revolutionary groups in society and

theatre should address those groups which are capable of playing an historical

role in changing society; these groups spring from the proletariat. 78 Though,

since the theatre was addressing an audience whose taste had been corrupted,

and since the existing Arab or Western theatrical heritage did not always

provide effective forms of communication, even when such a theatre carried

a progressive political message, Wanniis felt that Arab theatre had to search

for a new and innovative forms of communication with the audience.79

77 Yasin and Sulayman, al-Idyulujya, p.331

78 J. Khuri quoted by al~Ishari, al-Masrabiyya, pp.55-56
79 Wannus, Bayanat, p. 1 09

278
 Obviously, these ideas were influenced by Marxist and socialist ideas,

that swept through many Arab countries in the 196Os, encouraged by the

special relationships with the former Soviet Union, as well as the opposition

to the policies of the United States and the Western world regarding the

Palestinian issue. Such ideas had a very strong following in Syria and

Lebanon amongst the intellectuals, who saw in them the solution to the

problems of Arab society. al~isa explains the reason for adopting such ideas

saying that:

In the shadow of oppression, and poverty and in

the absence of political awareness, the masseS often
sought comfort in totalitarian ideas, whether these
were Marxist, chauvinistic, nationalist or utopian
Islamic ideas, considering them as the magic
solution to their problems.so

Wannus reflected such ideologies in his theatre of politicization, describing the

aim of his theatre by saying that "we want a theatre for the masses, for the

oppressed classes of the people. "81 Theatre had not been seen as accessible

to the masses before. Erwin Piscator felt that the ordinary man had been

excluded from the theatre when he said:"The plain man saw the theatre as a

"temple of muses", to be entered in white tie and tails and in a mood of

appropriate elation. "82 This dress code does not apply to the theatre in the

80 al-c:.rsa , H., "Akthar min Kalima", al-Watan, Kuwait, 9

March 1992, p.20

81 Wannus, "Bayana t", p. 12

~ Piscator, The Political, pp.30-31

279
Arab world, because Arab audiences do not have such a strict traditions, as in

the West, regarding correct social behaviour and deportment for those

attending a theatrical performance. This question of manners was something

that Wannus capitalised on when presenting lfaflat Samar, anticipating the

involvement and participation of the audience in a spontaneous way by

employing the technique of play within a play and placing actors as the

audience on the stage.

Wannus stresses that the audience is the most essential factor in the

theatre saying that:

There is no theatre without an audience and the

Arab theatre must depart from this point, the
audience. This is because theatre is a social event,
something that makes it different from other
cultural activities, and the two essential parts of
that event are the actor and the audience who
watch the acting or participate in it.83

In an attempt to define the audience he wanted to address, its social structure,

cultural circumstances, and its problems and sufferings, Wannus wrote a

manifesto for his theatre (Bayaniit Ii-Masrab )\rabi Jadid). He felt that "defining

the audience is a serious task and an activity through which we can discover

which is the right audience we should be addressing."84 The next step for

him was to be a discussion of what the theatre wanted to say to this audience,

83 Ibid, pp.19-20

84 Ibid, pp.22-23

280
which, as he argued, "will lead eventually to specifying the means the theatre

should use to achieve a certain effective interaction with this audience. "85

The main aim of the theatre of politicization was to change and develop

a new mentality and to strengthen the collective consciousness within an Arab

historical context.86 By doing so, the theatre will present works that would

touch upon people's lives and provoke their response, leading to a real

understanding of the necessities of the Arab reality, and the people's way of

thinking. Through such an understanding, Wannus hoped, a dialogue(biwar)

would be born, and within such a dialogue new forms (ashkal) of

communication would be born as well, this, Wannus hoped, would lead to the

beginning of a genuine popular theatre linked to the Arab people.87 This

theatre had no ready-made forms it could adopt; it had to rely upon

experimentation until the right form was found.

The theatre of politicization requires the cast to be aware of the theatre's

political role, to know that the conflict in the work is a social one, and to

realize that they all share the same political and historical fate. Meanwhile, it

makes various demands on the audience: firstly, to realize their importance in

the work because everything on stage is targeted and addressed to them,

secondly, to abandon their passivity and try to take a stand on what they see

and hear on stage, thirdly, to accept responsibility, because their stance will

85 Ibid

86 Ibid, p. 26

87 Ibid

281
have important and serious consequences for the country as well as for

themselves. The audience therefore, must change their attitude towards the

theatre, must refuse to be exploited or deceived and must intervene in the

dialogue, to stop any action that is designed to anaesthetize them. They must

scream out, and even stop the performance if they find the reality of their life

being distorted. 88

The audience's response to the theatre of politicization was related to

the issues presented to them on stage and not to certain characters in the

piece. Wannus was to dispense with characterization; in his play, l;laflat Samar,

"there are no characters in the traditional meaning of the word .. They are voices

and features of a particular work and do not possess any special dimensions.

Their features (malami!}) are shaped according to what they add in outlines or

details to the picture of the general historical situation, which in fact represent

both the form and content (ma4miin) of the play.89 There is no individual

protagonist in the plays of Wan nus, he has a collective heroism, exactly like

the characters in the works of Brecht in his epic theatre, in Piscator's political

theatre, and in the documentary theatre of Peter Weiss, where the characters

are symbols of class and intellectual positions rather than individuals. 90

Like the political theatre of Erwin Piscator, Wannus's theatre of

politicization does not depend on the dramatic development of events, but on

88 Ibid, pp.42-43

89 Wannus, Haflat Samar. pp.3-4

90 Ismaeil, al-Kalima, p.115

282
accumulative development. This led Piscator to "break the absoluteness of the

dramatic form and establish a narrative theatre. "91 Wanniis adopted this

method in his theatre of politicization by employing, in his plays Mughiimarat

Ra's al-MamlUk Jabir, and Sahra ma'a Abi Khalil al-Qabbani, the narrative form
of the 1)akawati (story-teller) in order to break the dramatic illusion and to use

such a character as a medium between stage and audience. Roger Allen felt

that Wannils's notion of the theatre of politicization "if not only Brechtian

distancing but also intimate contact between stage and audience and even

audience improvisation, may have caught the mood of the moment in the

post-l%7 period."92

Wanniis was influenced by Brecht's epic theatre and Peter Weiss'

documentary theatre when he dealt with political issues with a universal

message, not connected to a specific place or time, such as the issues of

freedom, and the nature of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. 93

Under such an influence, Wannus viewed his theatre as a tool for political and

social change. In the theatre of politicization, he, like Brecht, Weiss, and

Piscator, believed in the ability of the theatre to influence change in society.

The theatre of politicization was a rebellion against the deep-rooted

tradition of separating art from politics, especially in the Arab world where

authoritarian regimes have existed for a long period of time. These regimes

91 Zondi, Na~ariyat al-Drama, p.126

92 Allen, "Arabic Drama", p.106

93 Ismaf.il, p.125

283
by their very nature insisted on the neutrality of art, and deprecated the idea

of making everyday affairs a subject matter of art; the artist was tri vializing

his craft when he become involved in political issues, and that art should raise

itself above indulging in such trivialities. Wanniis explained that:

every political system tries to choose the elements

in a culture that would support it and popularize
it; the concepts and attitudes towards art,
mentioned previously, are without doubt a product
of a culture controlled to serve a system that sees
it in its interest to play down the role of art or
drain it of any power to bring about change and
revolt In other words, a system which does not
want to "politicize" the people, and is afraid of the
people becoming aware of their situation and
therefore, trying to change such a situation which
may lead consequently to changing the existing
political system.94

Wannus also believed that artistic, social, economic and political

concepts are shaped through history and developed their philosophical and

theoretical dimensions within the framework of bourgeois culture, which has

dominated the industrialised West since the turn of the 19th century. In

addition, technological advances in communication gave these concepts a

greater power of effectiveness, because these advances were under their

control, enabling this culture to spread its ideology, especially in the countries

that were colonized by them or within their sphere of influence. 95 So in

order to break bourgeois domination, the aim of the socialist theatre, for

94 Wanniis, Hawamish Thagafiyya, pp.154-155

95 Ibid, p.155

204
Wanniis, as it had been for Pi sca tor, was to alter the status quo and "to

supersede bourgeois theatre in terms of philosophy, dramatic theory, technique

and staging. We are fighting for a restructured theatre and this must follow

the lines of the social revolution.1I96

For Wannus the theatre of politicization does not seek to affirm (ithbat)

the political content (matfmiin) of art, but to evaluate it and judge its trends

and orientations through its political content as well as its aesthetic content. "97

Such an idea was employed in his play lfaflat Samar, which was written

during his period of study in Paris in 1968, marking the beginning of the

theatre of politicization. It was seen by many critics as probably the most

important Arabic work to deal with the 1967 defeat. The play is a trial of all

those aspects of the defeat, "a defeat of regimes, foundations, structures, ideas

and leaders. "98 In the play, Wannus is the public prosecutor, the audience, the

people, are the judge or the jury, who will proclaim their sentence on what

they see presented to them. The play is in a way a political manifesto, using

the whole theatre as its stage. Like the plays of Peter Weiss, it is a political

documentary addressing the issue of the defeat, and inviting the audience to

participate in the dialogue, and narration, and bring about an instant exchange

of opinions. All this is done through open improvisation by the actors making

extemporary comments on issues reflected in the play that have a political

96 Piscator, Political Theatre, p.335

97 Wannus, Hawamish, p.157

98CAbd al-Qadir, Izdihar wa-Sugut, p.164

285
import Such a technique aimed to provoke the audience and to make them

participate in the events and issue their judgement accordingly.

In his later works Mughiimarat Ra's al-MamlUk Jabir (1970), ai-HI Yd'Malik

ai-Zaman (1969), Sahra ma'a Abi Khalil al-Qabbani (1972), and ai-Malik Huwa '1-
Malik (1977), Wanniis adopted the Brechtian technique of parable, by

presenting the objective reality of history with its various interrelationships.

These plays represent the next step, after l:laflat Samar, in the context of

experimentation in the theatre of politicization.99 By presenting stories from

the Arab cultural heritage, its history or legends, the audience are able to

contemplate a parable they know, in more depth and clarity, as well as

identifying themselves with it. In other words, the audience will not be

overwhelmed by the events of the parable, because they know it in advance,

they therefore, have the chance to look beyond the perceived message of the

parable!OO We can see here the element of the V-effect or alienation effect

used by Brecht. Wannus is presenting something familiar to the audience and

asking them to look at it in more depth, in other words, to distance themselves

from the parable and look at it differently.

Wannus in these plays focuses on the issue of bukm (government) and

the relationship between authority, embodied in the king, the caliph, the vizier,

or the president, and the people or the masses from a Marxist and socialist

perspective. In this relationship, Wannus analyzes the class struggle and the

99 Wannus, Bayana t, p. 11 7

100 Ibid, p. 11 9

286
fight against the bourgeois class, something that concerns him and is reflected

in most of his writings. 10l In order to have the desired impact on such

political issues, Wannus seeks to create a gradual awareness of politics

amongst the populace, making the theatre a means of acquiring knowledge,

that may lead to the awakening of the audience's sense of taste and to their

criticizing the aesthetic values made popular by the prevailing art and media,

especially television and commercial theatre. 102

While it is probably true that there have always been some political

elements in the Arab theatre, from the plays of A1)mad Abu Khalil al-Qabbaru,

Yat.qub ~anu~, to the works of Mal)miid Taymiir, and other pre-1967

playwrights, the real emergence of political theatre in the Arab world was after

the 1967 defeat with the theatre of politicization of Wannus and political plays

by others. Deeply affected by this defeat, and influenced by the 1968 events

in Europe, Wannus was to embark upon the process of politicizing the people

through a series of experiments in a theatre that aimed one day to influence

ideological and social change in the Arab world. The theatre of politicization

was to be a gradual process intending to stimulate the audience to think

politically and to consider events from a political perspective.

101 Ibid, p. 1 34

102 Ibid, p.136

287
 Conclusion

Since the introduction of the art of modern theatre to the Arab world,

almost a century and a half ago, just a few Arab playwrights have left a

distinctive mark on this new genre. Any history of the development of Arabic

drama must give credit to the pioneering efforts of such figures as Maron al-
Naqq~h, YaCqiib ~aniic and Abmad Abu Khalil al-Qabb~rii in importing and

adapting Western works for performance in the Arab world. Amongst their

illustrious successors who have contributed to the development of drama in

the Arab world since the 19505, one could single out in Egypt CAli Al).mad

Bakathir, Tawfiq al-I:Iakim, Nu'man ~hUr, Sacd aI-Din Wahba, Yusuf Idris

and a few other writers who have been committed to establishing a serious

theatre carrying a certain social or political message.

Syrian drama has had to develop under very difficult political, economic

and social circumstances; the process has been described by Badr ai-Din

A riidki as one of "stumbling." However, since the mid-1960s, many theatre

C.

critics and commentators have seen the last few decades as a time when Syrian

drama has emerged in a newly invigorated form. SaC.d Allah WannQs, one of

the playwrights who has emerged in that period, revitalized the Syrian theatre

with his play lJaflat Samar. He is one of a small number of Arab writers, who

have had their own views on the theory and practice of drama. In many

articles, statements, reviews, retorts and books, he has outlined, his views and

288
theories on the theatre in the Arab world, its function and how to it should be

developed, so that it could have its own distinctive identity and put across a

serious and committed message. The extent of his commitment to the genre

has been shown in the breadth of his readings and his knowledge of the

various schools of thought. Wannas, in his early works, was influenced by

existentialist philosophy and the theatre of the absurd, especially the works of

Eugene Ionesco, and the "theatre of ideas" of al-I:Jakim. Post 1967, scientific

socialism and the theories and ideas of the epic theatre of Brecht have been the

two main ideological forces behind his plays and ideas.

Wanniis views the theatre as an important device to politically educate

and motivate the people to try to change their social, economic, and political

conditions. His aim has been to make the audience politically aware of their

role in the process of change in their society and their ability to achieve the

desired changes through such political awareness. He did not subscribe to a

certain single technique in presenting his works, but has relied on

experimentation to reach a suitable theatrical form for the Arab theatre. He

was to come to regard the epic theatre of Brecht as the most suitable form for

this theatre provided that playwrights implemented the ideas and theories of

Brecht in a way appropriate to the Arab audience (jumhur). His concept of the

"Theatre of Politicization" reflects Marxist and Brechtian influences on him.

Like Brecht, he believes that the origin of theatre lies in the unison of actor and

spectator in a kind of ritualistic or social gathering. Influenced by Brecht,

Wannlis has argued that the barrier between the auditorium and stage should

289
be removed and that the theatrical event must occur either before or within the

spectators' space of movement. He believes that Arab audiences have been

responsive in the past to attempts to move in this direction and can be made

to be so again. To achieve that, WannOs has demanded that the audience

detach themselves, ask questions and even indulge in an impromptu dialogue

with the stage. This can be particularly seen in his plays written post 1967.

Like those of Brecht, these plays were written with the "duty" and the "chance"

to capture the theatre for a "different" audience.

These plays are a response to the social situation and, without

appreciating that, it is difficult to understand both their contents and form.

They unlike his early plays, which were characterized by abstract ideas,

symbolism, long monologues, and semi-poetic language, revolve around the

individual in his inner conflicts and sufferings, reflecting the themes of the

purposelessness of life, the uselessness of any effort, and of total submission

to fate. These early plays were a product of his influence by existentialist

philosophy and the ideas behind the theatre of the absurd. His later plays are

characterized by dear positive ideas, direct and frank presentation, revolving

around the themes of government (Qukm), and the relationship between the

ruler and the ruled imparting a clear political message addressed to the

masses.

WannOs has played an important role through his experiments with

theatre dynamics, the revival of the heritage of folktale and his enthusiasm to

290
develop and adjust his ideas in the light of experience and the sometimes

bleak realities of the theatrical world within which he has to operate.

Scholars working on Wannus are more fortunate than those studying

many other Arab playwrights in that his works are available in printed

editions as well as having been translated into several languages. In the plays,

he provides his readers, and as suggested by Roger Allen, and would-be

directors, with ample statements, directions, suggestions and terms of reference

through which they can conceive how to enact his works. These works, both

in text and performance, have aroused much critical commentary and debate

in the Arab world, which have helped to draw the attention of some foreign

critics to him.

WannOs is now regarded throughout the Arab world as Syria's, and

perhaps the Arabs' most innovative playwright. Like his famous

predecessors, Maron al-Naqqash, Al)mad Abu Khalil al-Qabbruu, YaCqub ~ana~

. Tawfiq al-J:Iakim and some others, Wannus has achieved a prominent place

in Arab theatre, and has made a significant contribution to the development

of Arab theatre. His plays and the ideas behind them received much attention,

both when these plays have been perfonned in various Arab and foreign

countries and in the critical studies written about them. His works have been

an important step in the development of a committed and credible Arab

theatre.

Wannus has been able to develop and sustain high artistic standards

throughout his playwrighting career, and has moved steadily and maturely

291
from one work to the next reaching a climax in his oeuvre with his play al-

Malik huwa'l-Malik. His works and theories have had and, it is to be

anticipated, will continue to have a significant impact on the theatre in the

Arab world, thanks to his commitment to the development of this genre and

his belief in the important role that the theatre should and could play in

bringing about the development and change that is needed in the Arab world.

292
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295
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