Region | Lebanon
Prison drama project takes off in Lebanon
Several convicted murderers, some on death row, are among group of 38 prisoners acting in Twelve Angry Lebanese.
- AP
- Published: 23:39 February 27, 2009
- Lebanese Director Zeina Daccache (right) rehearses with inmates of Roumieh Central Prison for the play Twelve Angry Lebanese in Roumieh, east of Beirut.
- Image Credit: AP
Beirut: The 200 VIPs and journalists applauded wildly, some even giving the actors a standing ovation. The men bowed before the audience and smiled proudly.
Then they returned to their prison cells.
Every Saturday in February and March, 38 inmates of Roumieh Central Prison will perform in Twelve Angry Lebanese as part of a groundbreaking drama therapy project funded by the European Union at a cost of $90,000 (Dh330,646).
It's a milestone for Lebanon, where jails are notorious for overcrowding and rioting.
"I didn't think it was possible," said the play's director, drama therapist Zeina Daccache, who fought authorities for eight months before getting the go-ahead for the project. "I kept knocking on doors. I had more coffee cups than I can remember. They called me crazy. But in the end it worked."
Daccache, who studied in the US and worked on a similar project in Italy, is directing Twelve Angry Lebanese, an adaptation of the 1954 play by American writer Reginald Rose entitled Twelve Angry Men.
The play examines the deliberations of a jury in a trial where a 19-year-old accused of killing his father faces the death penalty. The play starts with all but one member of the 12-man jury proclaiming the boy guilty. But after heated debate, they end up with a unanimous declaration of his innocence.
Daccache has slightly altered the play to allow for monologues and songs written by the inmates themselves, giving the audience a glimpse of their innermost feelings.
"The play is called Twelve Angry Lebanese, but in fact we are five to six million angry Lebanese, or maybe 350 million angry Arabs," says Yousuf Chankar, who has already served 18 years of a life sentence for murder.
Rateb Al Jibawi, a convicted rapist serving a five-year prison sentence, agonises over whether he will be accepted by society when he comes out of prison in 10 months.
Fingers pointed
"I imagine walking on the street, fingers pointed at me all the time," he tells the audience. "I wonder will people accept me... will my children accept me?"
On one side of the damp, small makeshift stage at Roumieh, painted in graffiti-style black handwriting, is the famous saying by Mahatma Gandhi: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Roumieh, Lebanon's biggest jail in a hilly eastern suburb overlooking the Lebanese capital Beirut, was built 40 years ago to hold 1,000 inmates. Today, it's home for more than 4,000.
The play's February 7 opening was attended by high-ranking officials, including cabinet ministers whose portfolios include responsibility for prisons. Members of the public wishing to see the show are required to reserve two weeks ahead of time for security reasons.
Omar Nashabe, an expert on criminal justice and adviser to the interior minister on prison and human rights affairs, said the work is a "great achievement" that creates hope. But he said basic needs of prisoners in Lebanon, including proper medical services and heating, should not continue to be ignored.
"We hope authorities will put the issue of prison reform on their agenda and that their presence [at the opening] would not actually be part of the theatre," he told The Associated Press.
Problematic conditions
Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has acknowledged Lebanon's problematic prison conditions and presented a report to the government requesting emergency measures.
Gassan Mokheiber, a lawmaker and human rights activist who has been working with the prisoners, could not resist a swipe at authorities in opening comments.
"I have never seen so many politicians come to this prison ... But let me tell you, this is a five-star room compared to any of the rooms housing prisoners," he said.
Several convicted murderers, some on death row, are among the group of 38 prisoners performing. Capital punishment exists, but is rarely applied in Lebanon. The last three were in 2004.
But for convicts like Chankar, the difference is only in how quick death comes.
"A life sentence is a slow death as opposed to the death sentence," he said.
Since the play, however, he has been telling director Daccache and others that he feels as if he has been born again. Others have reported feeling for the first time that they have a purpose in life.
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