Syria: actors perform to highlight detainees’ pain

Syrian theater players perform a show on a subject of innocent people being kept in the prisons of the Assad Regime at a cultural center in Idlib, Syria on March 27, 2021 [Muhammed Said/Anadolu Agency]

Syrian actors in the rebel-held province of Idlib are using their talent to highlight the pain and suffering endured by the hundreds of their fellow citizens detained in the regime’s prisons, Anadolu news agency has reported. The project in question is part of a bid to help release the detainees.

Actor Zakaria Saflo told Anadolu that he and his colleagues will continue to focus on the issue of detainees until the last one is freed from the regime’s prisons.

Theatre director Ibrahim Sarmini said that plays are being performed that shed light on the detainees’ psychological state. He explained that the performances reveal some of the torture methods used by the regime’s killing machine. However, he was quick to point out, no theatrical performance can ever completely depict the pain and suffering endured by the detainees in Bashar Al-Assad’s prisons.

The actors began preparations for their performances six months ago. The first show was presented on Saturday evening.

According to Syrian opposition sources, at least 500,000 people, including women, are currently detained in the regime’s prisons and interrogation centres.

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