Politicizing an Intimidated Audience: A Study of the Influences on Saʻdallah Wannous’s Political Theatre
Abstract
Syrian playwright Saʻdallah Wannous (1941-1997) has been regarded by many theatre critics as the Bertolt Brecht and the Wole Soyinka of the Arab theatre, while others have associated him with Augusto Boal’s theatre of the oppressed. This article investigates the influences on Wannous’s anti-regime political plays, which he wrote to raise political awareness among his audiences and thus instigate political change. The article shows how, in his political plays The Evening Party for the Fifth of June (1968), The Adventure of Mamluk Jābir’s Head (1970), The Rape (1989), and Historical Miniatures (1994), Wannous uses historiography, bitter political parodies, heritage and popular culture, and sardonic black humour to implicitly incite his audiences to resist state oppression and autocracy.