The Tragedy of Algeria: Slimane Benaïssa's Drama of Terrorism

Actor, director, and playwright Slimane Benaïssa chose exile in France in 1993 rather than return to Algeria. In an atmosphere of suppressed freedoms, censorship of all forms became increasingly common, creating a growing sense of alienation for those who stayed. Even in France, Benaïssa's physical safety was entrusted to armed bodyguards when his controversial play about a terrorist who kills a journalist in Algeria, "Les fils de l'ametrume" ("Sons of Bitterness"), was performed in Avignon in 1996 and throughout France in 1997. By raising the specter of terrorism on the French stage, the play dared to humanize and problematize the invisible face behind the mask. For Algerian dramatists, the greatest challenge is to discover how to translate and perform on the French stage the contradictory and interlocking elements that made up the so-called Second Algerian War.