Syrian Theater ‘Active’ in Times of Peace and War

Theater measures the level of cultural and intellectual development of a country. It is a platform for freedom and it reflects the identity of each nation.

The Ministry of Culture in Syria , which has a deep-rooted civilization and history, encourages youths to work with full capabilities to develop theater in order to explain what is going on in the country .

“The Syrian theater has been a milestone in Syrian culture in particular and in Arab culture in general,” Minister of Culture Mohammad al-Ahmad told reporters following the end of the performance of a play entitled “Olive” at al-Hamra theater in Damascus.

 He asserted that there is cooperation with the Directorate of Theaters and Music to activate youth theater project in order to discover new talents, according to the Damascus-based al-Watan newspaper

On his part, director of ‘Olive’ play Maamoun al-Khatib said that it is necessary to attach great importance to theater not only in times of peace but also in times of war as it sheds light on crises and problems.

“We must talk about the pain we daily feel regardless war. We must talk about pains and problems during crisis, ” the director added.

His play ‘Olive’ depicts immigration during the current crisis the country is going through .

Since the beginning of this month, a young team called ‘Law’ started to perform a play entitled ‘Freedom ..But???” by Tarek Lababidi.

The play deals with the concept of freedom used by world organizations to achieve their interests and to disseminate western thoughts in Arab societies.

Many plays depicting crisis in Syria have been performed in several provinces over the past 5 years.

Basma Qaddour