The Politicisation of Arab Theatre: Sa’d Allah Wannus

Abstract

The political theatre in the Arab world emerged from rough seas of opposition and state monitoring schemes. Some critics may claim that political tendencies in Arab theatre can be traced to the early contributors to Arab theatre. Others attribute the emergence of this theatre to the revolution of Egypt’s Nasir. However, the Syrian playwright Sa’d Allah Wannus may be viewed as the true representative of this kind of theatre in the Arab world. Shocked by the defeat of the Arabs by Israel in 1967, he began what he coined “theatre of politicization”, aiming to attack Arab governments and blaming them for the defeat, and at the same time, insighting his audience to revolt against existing political ideas. In this kind of theatre, the audience assumed ever-increasing importance. Wannus wrote several plays, the aim of which was to develop a mentality and strengthen a collective consciousness in an Arab historical context. This article aims to exploring the concept of theatre of politicization and the impact of that on Arab political theatre.