Syrian actor Duraid Lahham on politics and the revolution

Yet his first encounter with an Arab leader was with the young King of Jordan, Hussein Bin Talal, who in 1955 invited Duraid and a group of amateur student actors from Damascus University to perform at his wedding to his first wife, Queen Dina. King Hussein decorated them with the Order of the Star of Jordan (al-Kawkab). 

Five years later, Duraid became a professional actor, and would return to Amman to shoot his film Milh wa Sukkar in 1973, then again for the premier of Ghorba, attended by King Hussein and filmed in Jordan.  

The early Baathists 

During the short-lived Syrian-Egyptian Union, Syrian TV was established, with the newly-graduated Duraid Lahham as one of its founders. He was working as a chemistry instructor when Syrian TV 'borrowed' him from Education Minister Amjad Tarabulsi, originally for a one-year contract. 

Despite having come from an impoverished background, he had little affection for the socialist policies of then-president Gamal Abdul Nasser, whose charisma won the hearts and minds of many Syrians. 

Despite his feelings, however, Duraid did not voice his opposition to Nasser, fearful of Syria's dreaded intelligence officers. In 1960, he was invited to Cairo to perform in Nasser's presence. A year later, a coup was staged in Damascus, which brought down the union republic on 28 September 1961. 

Duraid's embrace of that coup would create problems for him with the Baathists, who came to power in 1963 on a pledge to restore the union and punish those who opposed it. This might explain Duraid's absence from a delegation of actors invited to the presidential palace to meet then-president Amin al-Hafez in 1964. 

Duraid was already a household name by then and the Baathists decided to invest in his popularity, especially in light of his two highly successful TV comedies: Maqaleb Ghawwar (1966) and Hamam al-Hana (1968). 

The 'truce' between him and the Baathist regime was shaky, however, and it almost snapped when—along with his lifelong partner, Nihad Qali—he staged a political satire called Masrah al-Shawk in the aftermath of the Six Day War with Israel.

Duraid and Nihad mocked the Arab political landscape that had led to such a stunning defeat, with Israel now occupying the Syrian Golan, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Then-president Nur al-Din al-Atasi attended the show.

Duraid and Assad

The director of national security Abdul Karim al-Jundi hated the show, calling it an insult to the Baathist regime. He wanted to cancel it and arrest the actors but was stopped by then-defense minister, Hafez al-Assad, who on 16 November 1970, staged a coup and arrested President al-Atasi along with Syria's military strongman, Salah Jadid. 

Like his Baathist predecessors, Assad initially invested in Duraid's pan-Arab popularity, attending his play Day'at Tishreen in 1974, and the opening of Ghorba in April 1976, but in 1979 he absented himself from the Syrian premier of Duraid's third play, Kasak Ya Watan, first staged in Tunisia, and skipped all of Duraid's future plays, including Shakaik al-Nu'man (1987) and Sane'e al-Matar (1992). 

By the late 1970s, Duraid's popularity had begun to annoy Assad, who tolerated no rivalry or competition. Duraid's fame suddenly became a liability. With Assad fighting the Muslim Brotherhood and his brother Rifaat in the early 1980s, he wanted to be seen as the most popular Syrian alive. Duraid walked a thin line during this time. 

In 1982 he released the film Imbaratoriyat Ghawwar. Written by regime critic Zakariya Tamer, it is set in al old Damascene neighbourhood plagued by two brutes competing for power through intimidation and thuggery, terrorising society in the pursuit of political ambition. Some saw it as a thinly veiled reference to Hafez and Rifaat al-Assad. 

Then came his film Al-Takrir in 1986, where Duraid plays an honest government official trampled to death at a football stadium while trying to present his boss with a report on regime corruption and embezzlement. It was written by another Assad critic, Mohammad al-Maghout, who authored all of Duraid's political plays since 1974.  

Run-ins with thugs

To avoid censorship, Duraid, Nihad, and Maghout never mentioned Syria by name in their works, using imaginary places instead like Halloum Village or Ghorba Village. Assad knew what they were doing but took no action against them, even though Rifaat said "we need to cut their tongues out" after watching Da'yet Tishreen in 1974. 

Two years later, one of Rifaat's drunken officers attacked Nihad at a restaurant and beat him heavily, leaving him paralysed. Nihad died in 1993. To-date, the Baathist officer responsible has never been arrested or punished.

Speaking to Al Majalla, Duraid recalled how, in 1984, he was woken by the sound of security officials entering his building in the upscale Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood of Damascus, looking for a money exchanger who dealt in American dollars—a crime in Assad's Syria. 

Finding Duraid's eldest son at the entrance, they struck him. When Duraid emerged in fury, one of the security thugs put a gun to his head. Duraid challenged him to shoot, knowing that he would never dare kill 'Ghawwar al-Tosheh'. In protest, Duraid later resigned from his role as dean of the syndicate of artists, prompting Prime Minister Abdel Raouf al-Kassem to call him and ask him to reconsider (he did not). 

Assad never apologised for his officers' behaviour and years later both Duraid and his daughter were summoned for interrogation. Questioned in 1994, Duraid was accused of being derogatory about the Assad regime during a US tour of his play Sane' al-Matar.  

Being censored

In 1982, Duraid Lahham and Mohammad al-Maghout produced a brilliant TV drama called Wadi al-Misk, set in a calm and peaceful fictional neighbourhood that is destroyed morally by a corrupt outsider who props up an illiterate café owner as prime minister, and through him, manages a major corruption network. 

It has never been shown again on Syrian television, owing to its hidden criticism of the Assad regime. Indeed, Wadi al-Misk was Duraid's first run-in with the censors, who intervened again to cut out whole chunks of his 1998 TV drama Awdet Ghawwar, about democratic elections. 

During the Syrian civil war, which began 2011, the censors intervened for a third time, removing a conversation about fraudulent elections that Duraid has with his co-star, Yusuf Hanna, in the play Shakaik al-Nu'man, despite it having already been both staged and filmed in Damascus. They also removed the play's musical score, because it was performed by celebrated Syrian singer Asala, who was an Assad critic. 

They were at it again in 2014, cutting entire scenes of Duraid with his co-star Fares al-Helou in the TV series Ahlam Abu al-Hana, before cutting all the scenes between him and actor Jamal Suleiman in the TV drama Al-Doghri. Both Suleiman and Helou were critics of Assad.

Forced to support

On the question of his support for the Assad regime, Duraid has said he advocated nizam (order), which also means 'regime' in Arabic (as opposed to chaos). 

Duraid never claimed that he was an opponent of the Syrian regime and would take part in celebratory events held by Hafez al-Assad every year on the anniversary of his coup, until his death in 2000. Had he not done, he would have faced Assad's wrath.

When the Syrian Revolution broke out on 15 March 2011, Duraid was invited for an audience with Bashar al-Assad. But he also signed one of the many declarations calling for the lifting of the siege imposed by the regime on the southern city of Daraa, before getting an anonymous death threat if he did not issue a retraction, which he did. 

In later years, he had four options: leave Syria and criticise the regime from abroad, stay in Syria and defy Assad, support Assad, or remain silent. In reality, silence was not an option, since the regime demanded a political stance from well-known public figures. 

Leaving Syria at his advanced age was unpalatable, despite being offered residency in the Sultanate of Oman, and open defiance would almost certainly have led to his arrest and detention. That, he says, is why he supported Assad. 

"Had I refused, you would have recovered by bones from Sednaya Prison," he said recently. It is highly likely that he is right. And that is not the right ending for one of the pillars of Arabic TV and theatre in the 20th century.