Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE= 09/24/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE= IRAQ ARTS

NUMBER=5-54325

BYLINE= SCOTT BOBB

DATELINE= BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///EDS: THE FESTIVALS ARE TO BEGIN OCTOBER 15///

INTRO: It has been nearly six months since the fall of Saddam Hussein and Iraqis are still struggling to regain some sense of normalcy in their lives. Basic services, like food, water and electricity are slowly beginning to return and there is an interim Iraqi government. Efforts to revive Iraq's once vibrant cultural life are also underway. VOA Correspondent Scott Bob reports from Baghdad on preparations for the first organized cultural event in the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

TEXT: Iraq's national theater stands at the corner of a busy intersection in central Baghdad. A once-grand building of gray stone, its windows are shattered and its main entrance is blocked by bricks and sandbags. Inside, however, past the guards at the side-entrance, the low hum of human voices can be heard.

In the main theater, the rows of red velvet seats are empty, covered by a thin layer of dust. But upstairs in a bare room, a half-dozen people are rehearsing a play.

///SOUND OF REHEARSAL, ACTORS TALKING, LAUGHING///

The play's title is Sorry, Master, I didn't mean that. And it is about the quest by an Iraqi teacher after a pupil asks him the question, What is the meaning of freedom?

The teacher, frustrated that he cannot answer the question, quits his job and starts working in a market as a tea vendor.

///SOUND OF ACTORS REHEARSING, CHANTING, ACTORS TALKING///

In the world of the marketplace, the former teacher meets thieves, hooligans and other shady characters. He is dismayed to discover that outside the security of his home and classroom society is violent, dishonest and selfish.

The play's director, Haitham Abdul Razak, waves his arms as he speaks. He wants to get the audience to think about freedom, which he says is a major challenge after three and a half decades of oppression.

//ABDUL RAZAK ACT. IN ARABIC///

Mr. Abdul Razak says the environment trained us to be violent people, so, we have to free our spirits, our minds from this culture of violence.

An older woman dressed in black sits quietly on a metal chair watching the rehearsal. She is Awaatif Naim, a well-known playwright and the author of this play. She says the play is about how different personalities deal with freedom.

///NAIM ACT. IN ARABIC///

Ms. Naim says she did not write the play ahead of time. She has developed it as the actors rehearse.

During the Saddam Hussein era the only theatrical productions were mythical dramas praising Iraq's historical glories and its all-powerful leader, Saddam Hussein, or mindless comedies with no message. Ms. Naim says she could not work then because she would have had to lie.

The new play is one of six productions that are to be part of a theater festival in mid-October. They are the first uncensored productions in decades. The festival's producer, Sadeq al-Saygh (SA-dek al-SAY-egg) is a poet and film producer who returned recently to Iraq after 26 years in exile. He says the festival represents a new page in Iraq's cultural history.

///SAYGH ACT. ///

There was a very long, long period of stagnation. Nobody can (could) say what he thought, nobody, especially in theater (because) it is a very sensitive part of expression.

///END ACT.///

The play reaches a climax when the teacher's string of prayer beads breaks during a confrontation in the market. The beads scatter, in the director's words, like Iraqis are scattered. But the market people - who have befriended the man-help him collect the beads.

The teacher decides that each Iraqi will have to seek his own definition of freedom, and he returns to his classes.

Director Haitham Abdul Razak says the play is about violence, oppression and forgiveness -- themes that Iraqis are grappling with as they try to rebuild their society after decades of war and authoritarianism. He wants the audience to feel that Iraqis have made big mistakes and they must correct them.

///OPT /// People watching the rehearsal respond in different ways. One artist says freedom is the right to express oneself without fear of retribution. Another says freedom is the free flow of consumer goods that are flooding Iraq since there are no longer any taxes or government bureaucracy. Yet another suggests freedom could even be interpreted as the opportunity to steal and murder without punishment because of the collapse of law and order since the war. ///END OPT.///

Producer Sadeq al-Saygh is also organizing an art exhibit to show the works of 120 Iraqi artists, many of whom until now only painted and showed their works in secret. His budget for both projects is a modest 15-thousand dollars provided by the coalition provisional authority. But he says it is a beginning.

Mr. Saygh says people feel something new is happening in their lives. They are exploring new ways to see their future, new ways to express themselves.

///2nd SAYGH ACT.///

This is the center of the idea, to feel that a new era, a new life, new hopes are rising from the destruction.

///END ACT.///

Mr. Saygh says he also feels growing enthusiasm among the people who enjoy the arts, those who go to the theater and attend exhibits. And this, he says, gives even greater hope for the future. (signed)

Neb/sb/AWP