- Yūsuf al-Fāḍil (1949-, Morocco) – Qiṭṭ Abyaḍ Jamīl Yusīr Maʿī (2011, English trans. A Beautiful White Cat Walks with Me, 2016). In this novel the young Moroccan comedian and satirical writer Ḥassan is conscripted to the war between Morocco and the Western Sahara and deployed in a desert outpost (also in 1975 – 1991 War Morocco-Western Sahara). He is the son of Muhammad Binebine, the King’s court jester. The novel revolves around the same characters as Mahi Binebine’s Le Fou du Roi (see in 1972 Failed Coup Morocco and the Years of Lead) and can be read as part of a series on 1980s Morocco that includes Samakah Ḥamrāʾ Mutlāʾliʾah Tasbaḥ Maʿī (English trans. A Shimmering Red Fish Swims with Me, 2019) and Ṭāʾir Azraq Nādir Yaḥliq Maʿī (2013, English trans. A Rare Blue Bird Flies with Me, 2016).
- Raymūn Jabārah’s (1935 – 2015, Lebanon) play, written partly in the Lebanese dialect, Taḥta Riʿāyat Zakkūr (‘Under supervision of Zukkur’, 1972) is about a comedian, al-Muʾallif (‘the Writer’), who lives in an intellectual solitude as his actors abandon him by not adhering to his written scenes (reference). Jabārah places his actors on stage, as well as between the public, with al-Muʾallif addressing both other actors on stage and the actors seated in the room (reference) (also in L: Languages and Dialects: Dialect: Lebanese dialect).
- Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ (1934 – 2006, Syria) – al – Muharij (‘The clown’, 1998). In this play, which was performed first in 1960, the spirit of an Arab general, once the symbol of the empire’s glory but is now ridiculed, rises angrily to his grave. He demands to know what remains of his mighty empire. But as the answer will come to him as a shock, the clown tries with all his might to keep the situation light by joking, singing and contorting himself. The clown isn’t a joker for fun, but because laughter behind his mask is the only place he still knows freedom (reference).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Najla Nakhlé-Cerruti. 2016. “Du théâtre philosophique: les multiples voix du théâtre de Raymond Ğbrāra, ou l’affirmation du genre en dialecte.” in La Littérature Arabe Dialectale: Un Partimoine Vivant, eds. Sobhi Boustani and Marie-Aimée Germanos, Karthala: Paris, pp. 91-111, p. 98, 105, 107
- Yaghoub Sharhani. 2025. “Lachen zodat je niet hoeft te huilen.” De Groene Amsterdammer 33, 13 August 2025, https://www.groene.nl/artikel/lachen-zodat-je-niet-hoeft-te-huilen (last accessed 15 September 2025)