Syrian Theatre institutions and Enmity

Ziad Adwan is a theatre maker, trainer, and academic with a PhD in theatre studies from Royal Holloway, University of London. His thesis is titled “Mistakes and Making Mistakes in Cultural Performances.” Ziad’s work comprises playwriting, directing, teaching, and writing for academic journals. He is currently based in Germany and was affiliated with the German Research Foundation-funded project “Global theatre histories” and the European Research Council-funded project “Developing theatre” at the University of Munich. Ziad co-founded the Tanween Theatre Company and has produced theatre and other performance projects. He is also a consultant at Mamdouh Adwan Publishing House.

This lecture presents an analysis of why Syrian theatre makers and theatre institutions have adopted oppositional standpoints since theatre was institutionalized in the second half of the twentieth century. Whether among theatre makers, within the sphere of institutions, or in the interactions between theatre makers and institutions, the theatrical and the cultural scenes in Syria were characterized by a persistent sense of enmity, manifested in theory and practice. This lecture outlines some key factors that created the mentality of enmity in the cultural scene of a conservative country ruled by a socialist totalitarian regime. While theatre was forced to navigate these conditions, it enjoyed an exceptional position in alignment with both the ruling regime and the intellectual elites. This position, however, has contributed to the mapping of enmity among theatre makers and among theatre institutions. The lecture discusses the dissemination and institutionalization of theatre in Syria, the engineering of oppositional dualities within the theatre and cultural scenes, and censorship.

Keywords. Censorship, politicizing theatre, socialist bloc, Western European intellectualism.