Book contents
- The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous
- Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre
- The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Transliteration and Translation
- Chronology of Wannous’ Life, Plays, and Selected Writings
- Introduction
- Part I Situating Wannous
- 1 Wannous and Syrian and World Drama
- 2 Wannous and Brecht: The Playwright as Political Activist
- Part II Reading Wannous
- Part III Staging Wannous
- Part IV Remembering Wannous
- List of Wannous’ Plays
- Summaries of Wannous’ Principal Plays
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Wannous and Brecht: The Playwright as Political Activist
from Part I - Situating Wannous
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2021
- The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous
- Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre
- The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Transliteration and Translation
- Chronology of Wannous’ Life, Plays, and Selected Writings
- Introduction
- Part I Situating Wannous
- 1 Wannous and Syrian and World Drama
- 2 Wannous and Brecht: The Playwright as Political Activist
- Part II Reading Wannous
- Part III Staging Wannous
- Part IV Remembering Wannous
- List of Wannous’ Plays
- Summaries of Wannous’ Principal Plays
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter investigates the nature of the well-documented influence of the German playwright, theorist and director Bertolt Brecht on the Syrian playwright Sa’dallah Wannous. In addition to examining theoretical and indirect links between the two, such as Wannous’ interviews and friendships in France with Brechtian theatre artists and scholars such as Jean-Marie Serreau, Jean-Louis Barrault, Peter Weiss and Bernard Dort, this chapter looks at Wannous’ creation of innovative hybrid works that utilized Brechtian dramaturgical techniques alongside traditional Arabic performative modes. The chapter also analyzes manifestations of these re-workings of Brechtian dramaturgical models in performance in two very different stagings, one in former East Germany and the other in the former Soviet Union, of one of Wannous’ most innovative plays, The Adventure of the Head of Mamlouk Jabir. It also highlights Wannous’ participation in the Brecht Dialogue in 1968 in East Berlin, which commemorated the playwright’s seventieth birthday, and the documents and theatrical programs from that event that were recently found in Wannous’ personal library, which is now housed at the American University of Beirut.
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- The Theatre of Sa'dallah WannousA Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual, pp. 34 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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