Studies in International Performance Published in Association with The

Studies in International Performance Published in association with the International Federation of Theatre Research General Editors: Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton Culture and performance cross borders constantly, and not just the borders that define nations. In this new series, scholars of performance produce interactions between and among nations and cultures as well as genres, identities and imaginations. Inter-national in the largest sense, the books collected in the Studies in International Performance series display a range of historical, theoretical and critical approaches to the pan- oply of performances that make up the global surround. The series embraces ‘Culture’ which is institutional as well as improvised, underground or alternate, and treats ‘Performance’ as either intercultural or transnational as well as intracultural within nations.

Titles include: Khalid Amine and Marvin Carlson THE THEATRES OF MOROCCO, ALGERIA AND TUNISIA Performance Traditions of the Maghreb Patrick Anderson and Jisha Menon (editors) VIOLENCE PERFORMED Local Roots and Global Routes of Conflict Elaine Aston and Sue-Ellen Case STAGING INTERNATIONAL FEMINISMS Matthew Isaac Cohen PERFORMING OTHERNESS Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905–1952 Susan Leigh Foster (editor) WORLDING DANCE Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic (editors) PERFORMING THE ‘NEW’ EUROPE Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo PERFORMANCE COSMOPOLITICS Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australasia Milija Gluhovic PERFORMING EUROPEAN MEMORIES Trauma, Ethics, Politics Helena Grehan PERFORMANCE, ETHICS AND SPECTATORSHIP IN A GLOBAL AGE Susan C. Haedicke CONTEMPORARY STREET ARTS IN EUROPE Aesthetics and Politics James Harding and Cindy Rosenthal (editors) THE RISE OF PERFORMANCE STUDIES Rethinking Richard Schechner’s Broad Spectrum Judith Hamera DANCING COMMUNITIES Performance, Difference and Connection in the Global City Silvija Jestrovic and Yana Meerzon (editors) PERFORMANCE, EXILE AND ‘AMERICA’ Silvija Jestrovic PERFORMANCE, SPACE, UTOPIA Ola Johansson COMMUNITY THEATRE AND AIDS Ketu Katrak CONTEMPORARY INDIAN DANCE New Creative Choreography in India and the Diaspora Sonja Arsham Kuftinec THEATRE, FACILITATION, AND NATION FORMATION IN THE BALKANS AND MIDDLE EAST Daphne P. Lei ALTERNATIVE CHINESE OPERA IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Performing Zero Peter Lichtenfels and John Rouse (editors) PERFORMANCE, POLITICS AND ACTIVISM Carol Martin (editor) THE DRAMATURGY OF THE REAL ON THE WORLD STAGE Carol Martin THEATRE OF THE REAL Christina S. McMahon RECASTING TRANSNATIONALISM THROUGH PERFORMANCE Theatre Festivals in Cape Verde, Mozambique and Brazil Yana Meerzon PERFORMING EXILE, PERFORMING SELF Drama, Theatre, Film Lara D. Nielson and Patricia Ybarra (editors) NEOLIBERALISM AND GLOBAL THEATRES Performance Permutations Alan Read THEATRE, INTIMACY AND ENGAGEMENT The Last Human Venue Ashis Sengupta (editor) MAPPING SOUTH ASIA THROUGH CONTEMPORARY THEATRE Essays on the Theatres of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka Joanne Tompkins UNSETTLING SPACE Contestations in Contemporary Australian Theatre Denise Varney, Peter Eckersall, Chris Hudson and Barbara Hatley THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC Regional Modernities in the Global Era Maurya Wickstrom PERFORMANCE IN THE BLOCKADES OF NEOLIBERALISM Thinking the Political Anew S. E. Wilmer (editor) NATIONAL THEATRES IN A CHANGING EUROPE Evan Darwin Winet INDONESIAN POSTCOLONIAL THEATRE Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces

Studies in International Performance Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–403–94456–6 (hardback) 978–1–403–94457–3 (paperback) (outside North America only)

You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difﬁculty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Political Performance in Syria From the Six-Day War to the Syrian Uprising

Edward Ziter Tisch School of the Arts, New York University © Edward Ziter 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-35897-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identiﬁ ed as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-47141-6 ISBN 978-1-137-35898-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137358981 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ziter, Edward. Political performance in Syria: from the six-day war to the Syrian uprising / Edward Ziter. pages cm. —(Studies in international performance) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-47141-6 1. Theater—Syria—History—20th century. 2. Theater—Syria—History— 21st century. 3. Theater—Political aspects—Syria—History—20th century. 4. Theater—Political aspects—Syria—History—21st century. I. Title. PN2960.S9Z58 2015 792.09569—dc23 2014030383

Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Contents

List of Figures vi Series Editors’ Preface vii Acknowledgments viii Timeline x

Introduction 1 1 Martyrdom 15 2 War 57 3 Palestinians 103 4 History and Heritage 147 5 Torture 194

Notes 240 Bibliography 243 Index 253

v List of Figures

1 Naila al-Atrash directs. Photo by Adel Samara. Courtesy Adel Samara. 8 2 Jihad Saad as Atif in Out of the Flock. Courtesy Jihad Saad. 27 3 End of the Broadcast. Courtesy Abou Naddara. 40 4 “The Interrogator.” Courtesy Masasit Mati. 49 5 Ahmed and Mohammad Malas in Najim and Abou Hamlet in the Shadow of the Revolution. Courtesy Mohammad Malas. 53 6 Set design for An Evening with Abu Khalil Qabbani. Notice that the map of old Damascus is depicted on a Brechtian half curtain. Courtesy Directorate of Theatres and Music, Ministry of Culture, Syrian Arab Republic. 163 7 Nanda Muhammad as Ghada and Najwa Alwan as Mari. Wretched Dreams. Photo by Adel Samara. Courtesy Adel Samara. 192 8 Amad Faris as the Jester dances with Badoor Khadir as the belly dancer. The Jester. Courtesy Directorate of Theatres and Music, Ministry of Culture, Syrian Arab Republic. 206 9 Waiting: Play with Beckett. Walid al-Dibs wraps himself in newspapers that serve as fashion rather than news or information. Photo by Walid Kowalti. Courtesy Walid Kowalti. 225 10 Ramez Alaswad as Mhanna and Nawar Bulbul as Abu Nidal in The Solitary. Photo by Adel Samara. Courtesy Adel Samara. 227 11 Nanda Mohammad as Noura and Jamal Choukeir as her older brother Ghassan in Could You Please Look into the Camera. Courtesy Omar Abu Saada. 236

vi Series Editors’ Preface

The “Studies in International Performance” series was initiated in 2004 on behalf of the International Federation for Theatre Research, by Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton, successive Presidents of the Federation. Their aim was, and still is, to call on performance scholars to expand their disciplinary horizons to include the comparative study of performances across national, cultural, social, and political borders. This is necessary not only in order to avoid the homogenizing tendency of national paradigms in performance scholarship, but also in order to engage in creating new performance scholarship that takes account of and embraces the complexities of transnational cultural production, the new media, and the economic and social consequences of increas- ingly international forms of artistic expression. Comparative studies (especially when conceived across more than two terms) can value both the specifically local and the broadly conceived global forms of performance practices, histories, and social formations. Comparative aesthetics can challenge the limitations of national orthodoxies of art criticism and current artistic knowledges. In formalizing the work of the Federation’s members through rigorous and innovative scholarship this series aims to make a significant contribution to an ever-changing project of knowledge creation.

Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton

International Federation for Theatre Research Fédération Internationale pour la Recherche Théâtrale

vii Acknowledgments

This book took a while to prepare, during which time I relied on the knowledge and expertise of a great many scholars and practitioners. At the top of the list are the director, acting teacher, and activist, Naila al-Atrash, and the scholar and dramaturge Marie Elias. I met these two women in the spring of 2002, which is when my research on Syrian theatre began in earnest. They devoted many hours to educating me about their national theatre. My engagement with Syrian theatre began in the 1994/1995 academic year when a Fulbright grant made it possible for me to audit classes at the High Institute of Theatre Arts in Damascus. Faculty mem- ber Akram al-Yusuf made me his pet project and personally introduced me to many of the playwrights and directors discussed in these pages. During that year I also studied at the Institut Français Des Etudes Arabes de Damas (subsequently renamed Institut Français du Proche-Orient) where Hassan Abbas not only taught me but arranged for me to direct a play by Saadallah Wannus at the French Cultural Center—which is when my fascination with that playwright began. Several theatre critics, directors, playwrights, and actors allowed me to interview them. Most generous with their time and guidance were the director Walid Kowalti and actor/director Jihad Saad. Others who sat for multiple interviews were: Riad al-Ismat, Anwar Bader, Walid Ikhlasi, Jawad al-Assadi, Muhammad al-Maghut, Ajaj Salem, Ramez Alaswad, Omar Abu Saada, Mohammed al-Attar, and al-Fares al-Thahabi. I also interviewed or corresponded with Nawar Bulbul, Ferhan Bulbul, Ossama Halal, Mai Skaff, Noura Saaed Mourad, Manuel Gigi, Fayez Kazak, Nidal Sejar, Hasan Oueity, Juwan Jan, Ramzi Choukair, Jamal Adam, the Malas twins (Ahmed and Mohammad), and representatives from the Abou Naddara collective and Masasit Mati troupe. This is an incomplete list but to thank everyone who helped me over years of meandering research would fill pages. I drafted the first two chapters while on a 2011–2012 Research Fellowship from the NYU Humanities Initiative. The feedback I received from other fellows was a great help. While teaching at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus in the spring of 2013 I received valuable feedback from the Arab Crossroads faculty, particularly Muhamad al-Khalil.

viii Acknowledgments ix

Portions of Chapters 1 and 5 first appeared in TDR 57.1 (2013): 116–136 and Theatre Research International 38.2 (2013): 137–147. Portions of Chapter 2 appeared in Doomed by Hope: Essays on Arab Theatre, ed. Eyad Houssami (London: Pluto Press, 2012), 11–27. Brian Singleton and Janelle Reinelt were everything one could hope for in series editors. They insisted that I fully develop my argument and trusted that I had an argument worth developing. Sameer Hammady transcribed taped performances, clarified idiomatic expressions, and provided general research assistance. I turned to a number of people to correct my translations, including two of my stu- dents, Farah Ahmad Mohmad and Rasha Shraim. One would think that given how long I have worked on this project and the number of people who helped, it would be free of errors or questionable interpretations. I cannot promise that. However, I can promise that I alone am respon- sible for any weakness in this book. I dedicate this book to my children, Hanan Ruth Ziter Lane and Samer Edward Ziter Lane. In happier days, I hope to introduce you to some of the people whose work and country I discuss. Timeline

Important dates May 6, 1916: Public execution of Nationalist leaders in Damascus and Beirut by order of the Ottoman Wali of Greater Syria. Subsequently commemorated in Syria and Lebanon as Martyrs’ Day. April 17, 1946: Evacuation of the last French soldiers and Syria’s full independence. Subsequently commemorated in Syria as Evacuation Day. February 1, 1958: Formation of the United Arab Republic, a union between Syria and Egypt, under President Gamal Abdel Nasser. 1959: First season of the Syrian National Theatre. September 28, 1961: Syrian officers stage a coup and declare independence from the UAR. March 8, 1963: March 8 Revolution. Baath party military officers stage a successful coup. Subsequently commemorated in Syria as Revolution Day. June 5–11, 1967: The Six Day War. Israel defeats Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. May 1–31, 1969: First Damascus International Theatre Festival. November 13, 1970: Hafez al-Assad comes to power through an intra-party coup. Subsequently commemorated in Syria as Correction Movement Day. October 6–25, 1973: Egypt and Syria lead a coalition of Arab states in war with Israel. Subsequently commemorated in Syria on October 6 as Liberation War Day. June 10, 2000: Hafez al-Assad dies and Bashar al-Assad appointed president. March 2011: Large-scale demonstrations in the southern city of Daraa prompted by the detention of children who produced anti-regime graffiti.