Power of the powerless
Last spring, the director of CASA in Cairo asked me why I wanted to come to Damascus, warning me that it was a cultural wasteland and offering me a chance to switch to CASA in Cairo. I admitted that Cairo might offer more opportunities for cultural enrichment (in terms of “high” culture, that is) than Damascus, but protested that Damascus topped Cairo in almost every other way, particularly quality of life. And to my very pleasant surprise, I’ve found that Damascus may not quite rival Cairo in its musical, theatrical, and cinematic offerings, but it’s far from a cultural wasteland since there are actually more concerts, plays, movies, and lectures here than I could ever have time to attend, particularly given the boot-camp-like nature of my program. Part of this is a result of Damascus’s selection as the Capital of Arab Culture for 2008. It’s a designation brimming with questions and contradictions, perhaps, but not nearly as much so as Capital of Arab Culture for 2009: Jerusalem.
Although I rarely attend the theater in the U.S., due mainly to the high cost, I’ve joined a group of CASA and non-CASA students here in going to the theater on many a Thursday night. So far I’ve seen أحلام شقية, or “Miserable Dreams” by the eminent Syrian playwright Sa’dallah Wanous (I think that’s a better translation than the poster’s ‘Misfortunate Dreams’), a heavy work about two women stuck in unhappy marriages who attempt to poison their husbands but instead accidentally poison one’s son. Last week, I saw a translation into Arabic of Henry Ibsen’s Enemy of the People performed at the same venue. The theater was only perhaps a quarter full, and I’m not sure whether the reasons can be traced back to the prices of the tickets (not high for me, but high for many Syrians), or the genre, or the elevated language and subject matter, or something else entirely. A friend who’s been here longer suggested that many theater tickets are given away for free as favors to those who don’t really want them, resulting in a consequent paucity of tickets for theater enthusiasts. At any rate, perhaps the relatively low attendance of the theater here explains why it was all right to put on shows containing cutting criticisms of Syrian society and politics.
In upcoming events, I’ve very excited to attend two concerts held in the coming weeks at the Citadel here, an old castle that was the seat of various foreign rules here (or so I believe). One will be given by Lina Shamamian, my favorite of the singers I’ve heard about since coming here, and another will feature the most cosmopolitan of the bands to have come out of my hometown of Portland, Oregon: Pink Martini.
