Sneha Girap (Editor)

Saadallah Wannous

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Occupation
  
Education
  
Cairo University

Died
  
May 15, 1997


Role
  
Editor

Name
  
Saadallah Wannous

Children
  
Dima Wannous

Saadallah Wannous Thanassis Cambanis Archive A revolutionary playwright

DRAMATIZING RESISTANCE: Saadallah Wannous and the State of Contemporary Arab Theatre


Saadallah Wannous (Arabic: سعد الله ونوس‎‎) (1997-1941) was a Syrian playwright. He was born in the village of Hussein al-Bahr, near Tartous from the Alawites sect, where he received his early education. He studied journalism in Cairo, Egypt and later served as editor of the art and cultural sections of the Syrian paper Al-Baath and the Lebanese As-Safir. He also held for many years the directorship in the Music and Theater Administration of Syria. In the late Sixties, he traveled to Paris where he studied theater and encountered various currents, trends, and schools of European stage. His career as a playwright had begun in the early Sixties with several short (one-act) plays which were characterized by a display of his fundamental theme: the relationship between the individual and society and its authorities.

Contents

Saadallah Wannous Rituel pour une mtamorphose Thtre Entretien

In the late Sixties, triggered by the Arab defeat of the 1967 war with Israel, political Arabic theater was born. The defeat had resulted in the creation of a new level of awareness among artists and intellectuals, particularly toward the government-controlled press and its infiltration of popular culture. In 1969, joined by a group of playwrights, Wannous called for an Arab Festival for Theater Arts to be hosted in Damascus, later realized and attended by dramatists from all over the Arab world. In this festival, he introduced his new project: "theater of politicization," to replace the traditional "political theater." He intended theater to play a more positive role in the process of social and political change. His other powerful plays include Elephant, the King of All Times (1969), The King is the King (1977) and Hanthala's Journey from Slumber to Consciousness (1978).

Saadallah Wannous Le Livre de Damas et des prophties de Saadallah

In the late Seventies, Wannous helped establish and later taught at The High Institute for Theater Arts in Damascus. He also started Theater Life magazine, of which he was editor-in-chief for years. In 1982, and in the aftermath of the Israeli siege and invasion of Beirut, he lived through a period of shock, ceasing to write for a decade. Back to writing in early nineties, Wannous delivered to Arabic theater a series of plays no less political than their predecessors, starting with The Rape (1990), a play about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since then, he has written Fragments from History (1994), Rituals of Signs and Transformations (1994), Miserable Dreams (1995), A Day of Our Time (1995), and finally Mirage Epic (1996).

Saadallah Wannous Secouer l39quilibre de la cit Ahram Hebdo

In 1996, he was Selected by UNESCO and the International Institute of Theater, to present that year's address to the world theater community during its celebration of International Theater Day on March 27. This was the first selection of an Arab writer since the organization started this tradition in 1963. On May 15, 1997, he died of cancer, a disease he had resisted for 5 years.

Saadallah Wannous Le viol de Saadallah Wannous une bombe mal dgoupille

His daughter Dima Wannous is a journalist, writer and novelist.

Saadallah Wannous arablitfileswordpresscom201303wannousjpg

Jeudis de l'IMA - Lectures de textes de Saadallah Wannous


Selected works

Saadallah Wannous About Playwright Saadallah Wannous Live Theatre Silk

  • The Elephant, Oh King of the Time, (1969).
  • The King is the King, (1977).
  • Hanthala's Journey from Slumber to Consciousness, (1978).
  • The Rape, (1989).
  • Fragments from History, (1994).
  • Rituals of Signs and Transformations, (1994).
  • Miserable Dreams, (1995).
  • A Day of Our Time, (1995).
  • Mirage Epic, (1996).

  • Saadallah Wannous Thanassis Cambanis Archive A revolutionary playwright

    References

    Saadallah Wannous Wikipedia


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