Syria's cultural thaw

Irreverent comedy has played to packed houses

When Bashar al-Assad came to power in Syria just over a year ago, replacing his father Hafez, he promised to tolerate the opinion of others. That pledge is now accelerating a tentative cultural thaw in the country. Caroline Hawley reports from Damascus.

"Not since Almighty God created the Arabs have we seen Arab regimes more base than those we have today," says Syrian actor/director Homam el-Hout at the end of his hit play about the Arab-Israeli conflict, "Welcome to Death, oh Arabs."

The irreverent comedy has been playing to a packed house night after night at the state-owned Military Theatre in downtown Damascus where Syrians have queued to watch Arab leaders mercilessly mocked for being incompetent and divided.

Bashar al-Assad promised to tolerate the opinion of others

One is presented as a womaniser, another as a traitor, while an Arab summit degenerates into chair-throwing.

"The criticism is directed at all Arab rulers without exception, including Syria," says el-Hout.

In fact, Syria itself comes off relatively lightly, in part because its firm stand against Israel is popular among Syrians and other Arabs.

But in a country accustomed to authoritarianism, some still see its direct and critical style as a new and daring departure.

"It's daring because it talks frankly just as people talk in coffee-shops," says Riad Ismat, the director of Syria's state-run theatre academy.

"The play has taken people's whispers and put them in public, on stage."

Ismat sees it as part of a "trend towards greater openness."

Self-expression

Syria has a lively cultural scene which, in a conservative region, has always been seen as socially avant garde. But Syrian writers, actors and directors have had to tread carefully over political issues.

Writers, actors and directors have had to tread carefully over political issues

Now, as Syrian cultural life emerges slowly from the shadow of state control, some see new possibilities for self-expression.

Actor/director Bassem Yakhour says: "I think I now have more space to express myself as an actor and to talk about problems that I couldn't talk about freely before.

"But there are still limits that we have to work around. And I think it will take a few years before things really improve."

The Al-Domari satirical newspaper, which earlier this year became the first independent publication allowed in Syria for almost four decades, recently came up against the still-undefined limits.

In June it had two of its pages banned when it directly criticised the prime minister and the pace of reform in the country.

"We've had many difficulties because the government and ministers and parliament aren't used to our kind of criticism," says Ali Farzat, the cartoonist behind the paper who replaced one of the censored pages with a cartoon indicating that he'd been silenced.

Cartoonist Ali Farzat says the government isn't used to criticism

Since Bashar al-Assad came to power, only one other independent paper, specialising in economics, has so far been allowed.

But Cabinet Minister Hassan Risheh defends the government's cautious approach to freedom of expression.

"You cannot make change all at once," he says. "We have a lot of positive things, and still we have to improve other things. And I think that within a year from now, I'm sure that you'd find more than two newspapers."

He adds: "I think these are the first steps."