Local play hopes to show a different side of Syria

The conflict in Syria has dominated the media with conversations pertaining to war, refugees, and other horrifying situations being the norm — but this one play hopes to show a different side of Syria. 

The Syrian Heritage Association of Canada (SHAC) is hosting Rehearsal, a Syrian comedic play featuring amateur actors and actresses, from January 29 – 31 at the Westbury Theatre, ATB Financial Arts Barn. 

Written and directed by Aksam Alyousef, a local playwright and a current U of A Masters of Drama student, Rehearsal is essentially about Syrian habits and Syrian life in Canada. It was originally written to give first-time performers the opportunity to be on stage and practice the skills they have learnt in workshops.

SHAC has learning centers in the West end of Edmonton, where they teach cultural and social components, such as Arabic singing and instruments, Arabic and French language, calligraphy, and art in general. Rehearsal is a project started by the Syrian Heritage Association of Canada, a community-based organization that has been active for the past three years, because of the many Syrian people who reached out about wanting Drama classes. 

Mazen Kasim, President of the Syrian Heritage Association of Canada, wants to abide by the community’s needs and wants. For now, Kasim decided to have workshops, instead of full courses, on playwriting and acting. Long term, however, Kasim hopes to implement more structured Drama courses.

“This is not the end,” Kasim said.”By all means, we hope to continue this cycle of teaching, educating, and developing. Then, at the end of the day, [we want] to present the skills and learning to society at large.”

There will be two shows in Arabic (January 29 and 31) and one show in English (January 30).

Dating back to the 19th century when theatre was first introduced in Syria, theatre has been a major part of Syrian culture and life. Alyousef believes that Syria is currently leading the Arab world in theatre, particularly drama and comedy. 

“We have very good actors and comedians,” Alyousef said. “Now, we have a very good, very interesting generation in comedy.”

According to Alyousef, the reason for having a show in Arabic is that there is an Arab audience that would normally go to the theatre, but are now unable to go see shows because of the language barrier. 

“I know a lot of them don’t go to the theatre because of the language, [because] they don’t have any Arabic shows. Some of them go, but they don’t understand what’s going on, on the stage. I want to give them something that they can understand and can enjoy,” Alyousef said.

At the same time, Alyousef wants Canadian audiences who don’t know much about Syrian or Arab culture to come and learn.  

“We are living here in Edmonton and I want Canadian audiences to come to the theatre to know a little bit about our culture,” Alyousef said. “We are living here, so we need to communicate and interact with Canadians.” 

According to Kasim, SHAC has two main goals. The first being the preservation of student culture and developing resources around it in Edmonton or Alberta or Canada broadly. The second goal is sharing this knowledge and sharing this culture for everybody who wants to know more about the Syrians. 

“We are making sure we are giving [people] the true picture about us, not necessarily what [they] continue to hear from the media, which sometimes can be biased,” Kasim said. “When we’re talking about Syria, we’re talking about the hundred, thousand years before the crisis. What [people] see through the media [about Syria] could be related to ongoing conflict, refugees, those type of things. With that, people don’t know us in-depth, that’s what we’re trying to bring to the surface.”

“This time is very difficult for [Syria]. [But], it does not express our culture, it does not express the civilization of the Syrian people,” Alyousef said. “It’s not our culture, what people hear in the news. We have a very different image.”