Lahham, Duraid
(1934–)

The Syrian comedian Duraid (Durayd, Dureid) Lahham is one of the most popular and recognized Arab comedians of the second half of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first century. He is particularly remembered for his iconic television and film character, Ghawwar al-Tawsha, and for the not-so-veiled political jabs in his plays and films directed at the Arab world and its leaders.

PERSONAL HISTORY

Lahham was born in 1934 into a Shi'ite Muslim family in the Hayy al-Amin district of Damascus, Syria. His father was Syrian, his mother came from south Lebanon, and the family lived in modest circumstances. While in secondary school, Lahham performed in several plays, as well as when he attended Damascus University where he studied chemistry. After graduation, Lahham started out on a career as a chemistry professor at the university. Because of dance lessons he gave at the time, he became acquainted with actors and the artistic scene in Damascus. These connections helped land him his first television role in 1960. That year marked the beginning of Syrian state television under the direction of Sabah Qabbani. He brought in Lahham to act in a television miniseries called Sahrat Dimashq (Damascus evening) along with stage actor Nihad Qal'i. Thereafter Lahham quit teaching to devote himself full time to acting, even though this was considered a bad career move in a society that viewed a government job such as a university professor to be a secure and prestigious source of income.

Lahham teamed up with Qal'i in a television show called Aqd al-Lu'lu (The pearl necklace), which later was made into a film featuring the Lebanese starlet, Sabah. The comedic duo went on to make more than a dozen films in the 1960s. Surely their biggest successes at that time, however, were the hugely popular Syrian television series Maqalib Ghawwar (Ghawwar's pranks), which first aired in 1966, and Sahh al-Nawm (Good morning), which aired in 1971. Both were comedies in the style of Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy. Lahham's character, Ghawwar al-Tawsha, was a naive, clownlike figure who always wore a fez (Arabic: tarbush), shirwal (baggy peasant trousers), and wooden clogs, and who embodied many traditional Syrian stereotypes. He also played off the straight-man character in the series, Husni al-Burazan, played by Qal'i. Wildly popular, Sahh al-Nawm spawned a television sequel in 1973 and a film by the same name.

Ghawwar also was a notable character at the time because he spoke with a Syrian accent. Lahham was aware that most prominent actors in the Arab world at the time were Egyptians, and that the Egyptian dialect and accent of Arabic had become dominant in Arabic film and television. But he refused to mimic an Egyptian dialect and remained true to his origins. His massive popularity around the Arab world thus ensured that more and more Arabs became familiar with a Syrian accent that until then largely was unknown to Arab television audiences.

BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS

Name: Duraid (also Durayd, Dureid) Lahham

Birth: 1934, Damascus, Syria

Family: First wife, May al-Husayni; son, Tha'ir; daughter, Abir; second wife, Hala al-Bitar; daughter, Dina.

Education: Studied chemistry at Damascus University

PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:

• 1960: Appears in first television show Sahrat Dimashq (Damascus evening)
• 1966: Maqalib Ghawwar (Ghawwar's pranks) first airs
• 1971: Appears in Sahh al-Nawm (Good morning)
• 1974: Acts in Day'at Tishrin (October village)
• 1976: Performs in Ghurba (Exile)
• 1978: Acts in Kasak Ya Watan (Cheers to you, O homeland)
• 1981: Film Imbaraturiyyat Ghawwar (Ghawwar's empire) debuts
• 1987: Films al-Hudud (The border) and al-Taqrir (The report) debut
• 1990: Film Kafrun debuts
• 1992: Children's play al-Asfura al-Sa'ida (The happy bird) opens
• 1997: Appointed UNICEF ambassador for children's affairs in Syria
• 1998: Awdat Ghawwar (The return of Ghawwar) airs
• 1999: Appointed UNICEF ambassador for childhood in the Middle East and North Africa
• 2004: Resigns from UNICEF position
• 2006: Film al-Aba al-Sighar (The young parents) debuts in Cairo

After he began branching out into films, Lahham kept the character Ghawwar, although the character became less of a clown and more of an Arab Everyman dealing with the oppression and challenges facing the Arab world. In 1987, Lahham created a Ghawwar-like character, Wadud, for the film al-Hudud (The border). In 1990, Wadud appeared in the children's film Kafrun, as well. Lahham brought Ghawwar back onto Syrian television in 1998 in the series Awdat Ghawwar (The return of Ghawwar). After a short hiatus starting in the late 1990s, Lahham resumed making films. By 2006, he had appeared in twenty-six films, the latest being al-Aba al-Sighar (The young parents) in 2006.

INFLUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Surely Lahham's greatest contribution to popular Arab culture was his iconic character, Ghawwar al-Tawsha. Ghawwar was an easy character with whom ordinary Syrians and Arabs could identify: He was not rich, he was not attractive, and he did not live a life drastically different from their own. Similar to Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali's famous child character, Hanzala—the simple spectator in al-Ali's political cartoons—Ghawwar became an artistic vehicle for drawing ordinary persons into Lahham's artistic works and political perspectives.

Another of Lahham's contributions to Arab television and film is his political commentary. After the Arab world's disastrous defeat at the hands of Israel in the June 1967 Arab-Israel War, Lahham's work took on more of a political tone. Similar to other intellectuals and artists, Lahham searched for the reasons and meanings behind the catastrophic defeat, which contrasted so sharply with the bellicose, patriotic prewar verbiage that Arabs had been hearing from their leaders. The humility of Ghawwar was the perfect vehicle for Lahham to pillory the powerful forces that he perceived running roughshod over ordinary Arabs' lives. It has been claimed that one reason why his political sarcasm and irony was tolerated in Syria was because President hafiz al-asad was a fan.

Lahham's political works stemmed from his conviction that art could make a difference in the Arab world, where open political dissent rarely was tolerated. Sly, comedic attacks on all that was wrong could, as he later said, shock and make change. He collaborated with others in producing these works, particularly with the sharp-penned Syrian playwright Muhammad al-Maghut, who helped Lahham write political plays attacking corruption, inefficiency, and national weakness in the Arab world. The Israeli defeat of Syria and Egypt in the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War produced a new spurt of political energy in Lahham, as did Egypt's unpopular peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Among Lahham's noted political plays were three that he staged within five years after the 1973 defeat: Day'at Tishrin (October village, 1974), Ghurba (Exile, 1976), and Kasak Ya Watan (Cheers to you, O homeland, 1978). Lahham described Kasak Ya Watan as a play about the death of relations between a citizen and his country.

In addition to his plays, Lahham also made several notable films with political themes. In 1981, the Ghawwar character appeared in the film Imbaraturiyyat Ghawwar (Ghawwar's empire) where he saves his neighborhood from the rivalry between two powerful men that threatens to destroy it. However, in the process Ghawwar himself ends up creating an oppressive dictatorship even as he pledges to support freedom and justice. Two other particularly noteworthy examples of political films were collaborations with al-Maghut: al-Hudud (The Border, 1987) and al-Taqrir (The Report, 1987). In the former, the unfortunate protagonist finds himself stuck along the border between two Arab states, and is resigned to live a life in no-man's-land between the two because he somehow lost his passport. It was a biting commentary on the bankruptcy of the Arab regimes' talk of Arab unity. Al-Taqrir features an honest government employee who loses his job as a result of his honesty, and then devotes his life to collecting evidence of official corruption in order to make a public presentation of his findings. He never gets the opportunity, however, because he is trampled to death as he enters the arena in which he intends to present his report.

CONTEMPORARIES

Muhammad al-Maghut (1934–2006). Writer, poet, and playwright Muhammad al-Maghut was born in Salamiyya, Syria, in 1934. Al-Maghut was noted for his satirical, pointed look at modern Arab life and Arab leaders. In one of his plays he noted bitterly, "Policemen, Interpol men everywhere; you search for the perfect crime…. There is only one perfect crime; to be born an Arab." Al-Maghut is particularly remembered for working with Duraid Lahham in writing plays such as Kasak Ya Watan (Cheers to you, O homeland) and Ghurba (Exile). He died in Damascus in 2006.

Lahham later abandoned his hope that art could affect politics after an encounter with an important Arab leader left him politically and artistically defeated; years later, Looking back years later, he said in a brief 2003 interview for the London Review of Books, "A major leader in an Arab country said to me, 'You say what you want, and I'll do what I want.'" Lahham could ridicule the rulers all he wanted, and his audience could laugh, but at the end of the day, the rulers would still be in power. His art was toothless; its value lay only in its ability to entertain. Lahham reflected on his epiphany in a 19 August 2006 interview with the New York Times: "Yeah, I felt disappointed. We had thought that artwork could shock and make change. But no, artwork, at the end of the day, even if it is critical, is entertainment."

THE WORLD'S PERSPECTIVE

Lahham and his comedic personas were loved throughout the Arab world by ordinary people and leaders alike, the latter of whom gave Lahham many awards and decorations over the decades. Even though he helped Arabs laugh at their leaders, several of them gave him medals. In 1976, Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad awarded him the Medal of the Syrian Republic. Other Arab leaders bestowed decorations on him as well, including Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba in 1979, Libya's MU'AMMAR AL-QADDAFI in 1991, and Lebanon's EMILE LAHOUD in 2000.

The United Nations recognized Lahham, as well. In 1997, UNICEF—the United Nations Children's Fund—chose him to be its ambassador for children's affairs in Syria in recognition of the 1990 children's film Kafrun and the 1992 children's play al-Asfura al-Sa'ida (The happy bird). Two years later, he became UNICEF's ambassador for childhood for the Middle East and North Africa. Not everyone appreciated him, however. In 2004, Lahham resigned from his position with UNICEF following a diplomatic incident involving Israel. When visiting areas of southern Lebanon that formerly had been occupied by Israel from 1982 to 2000, Lahham gave a press conference near the Lebanese-Israeli border in which he sharply criticized Israeli prime minister ARIEL SHARON and U.S. president George W. Bush, comparing both to the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. After his remarks appeared in the Lebanese and Israeli press, Israel lodged a complaint with UNICEF about the political nature of Lahham's comments. After UNICEF probed the matter, Lahham resigned from his position.

LEGACY

Duraid Lahham will be remembered as a comedic giant in Arab film, television, and stage, as well as a person who masterfully articulated the hardships and frustrations of the average Arab during a critical and turbulent period in their history. He also was one of the most important figures in the early years of Syrian television and film production.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Duraid Lahham's Official Web site. Available from www.duraidlahham.com.

Glass, Charles. "Is Syria Next?" London Review of Books 25, no. 14 (24 July 2003). Available from http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n14/glas01_.html.

Hamdan, Mas'ud. Poetics, Politics, and Protest in Arab Theatre: The Bitter Cup and the Holy Rain. Brighton, U.K.: Sussex Academic Press, 2006.

Slackman, Michael. "An Arab Artist Says All the World Really Isn't a Stage." New York Times (19 August 2006). Available from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/.

                                                Michael R. Fischbach

THE ARAB RULERS LIED TO US

There is no doubt that the 1967 [Arab-Israeli] war which was dubbed al-Naksa [The Defeat] was very hard on us, as we were dreaming of achieving something. In four hours this dream evaporated, and we discovered that the Arab rulers lied to us, and that the victories they claimed were nothing but words. This defeat made us feel that art should have a say in what happens. Therefore I offered the plays "Kasak Ya Watan," "Day'at Tishrin," "Ghurba," and Sani al-Matar … [but] theater requires physical, psychological and daily efforts. My age as a grandfather has not left me any of these capabilities. But the more painstaking reason is that my theater is committed to national issues. National issues have become small in comparison to the Arab citizen's daily concerns. In the past, when we mentioned a statement about Arab unity, the hall used to be filled with enthusiasm and applause, but these days everybody is concerned about his bread, which has become more important.

  DURAID LAHHAM, 2002 INTERVIEW WITH AN NAHAR NEWSPAPER.