We are in Beirut, when it was an Arab center for books, money, and freedom, and was experiencing the height of its prosperity, in the early sixties of the last century. In that era, in the commercial center of the capital, which is known as “Nast El-Balad,” the “National Theater” arose, meters away from Martyrs’ Square. In these favorable circumstances, Lebanon gave birth to the great comedy star, Shoshu, who would become a legend. He is Hassan Alaa El-Din, who mortgaged his life to theatre, faced difficulties, made great sacrifices, and died at the peak of his life, at the age of 36, after forming a milestone in the history of Lebanese theatre.
After 50 years of that absence, Fares Joachim, the talented man who accompanied Shoshu for 10 years and wrote his most famous plays for him, appears with the book “Shoushu in Memory,” published by “Dar Al-Furat.” Joachim documents the stage, corrects incorrect information that marred some of what was written about the artist’s biography, and provides a living testimony. Hence the importance of the book.
Shushu needed an incubator environment to announce his birth, and the city needed a prominent artistic talent to support its prosperity. Thus, the National Theater continued to present its performances for a decade, thanks to its stable troupe, becoming a phenomenon the likes of which Beirut had never witnessed.
On November 11, 1965, the curtain rose for the first time at the National Theater on the play “Shushu Bey in Tyre,” prepared and directed by Nizar Mikati, adapted from “The Journey of Mr. Brechon” by the Frenchman Eugène Labiche. The book describes the show as “elegant, generous, dazzling the Beirut audience,” and lasting 21 weeks. The rosary was then filled with popular comedies, addressing the large audience in the Lebanese language, in a hall that could accommodate 450 spectators, and it worked throughout the year except for the two summer months, when the plays toured the regions. They were cheerful and funny works, but over time the theater turned into a platform for expressing public opinion and popular demands, and the audience’s attachment to it increased.
Shushu was born in Beirut in 1939. His father is Khader al-Jouni from the Chouf, and his mother is Nawar Haidar from Baalbek. As for his wife, she is Fatima, the daughter of the artist Muhammad Shamil, whose marriage to her caused a rift between him and her father, who was credited with introducing him to radio and television.
An orphan since he was seven years old, his mother raised him until he became strong. He loved acting since his childhood, and took an artistic name for himself, “Mabrouk.” He participated in comic scenes, imitated characters, sang for children, moved between amateur teams, and participated in concerts organized by scouting societies.
Muhammad Shamil saw him in one of the shows and was impressed by his performance, so he assigned him a role in a children’s program on “Lebanon and Levant TV.” This was the beginning of his steps towards professionalism. Shamil was the one who gave him the name “Shoushu,” and gave him roles in television and radio series, such as “Ya Manager,” “Ezz Street,” and “Ya Sabr Ayoub.” But Shushu's association with Shamil's daughter, without his consent, angered the latter, so he dispensed with his services, and that was a severe blow to him.
Shushu became unemployed, walking aimlessly, until he found the “Sheherazade” cinema and convinced its owner to rent it. Despite the financial difficulties, he was able, in cooperation with director Nizar Mikati, to launch the “National Theater” project, which presents daily shows.
Three years after the opening of the theater, Fares Joachim met Shoshu, who came to the theater to write a critical article, after his recent graduation from Egypt. But their relationship lasted 10 years. He followed Chouchou as a critic, lived with him, befriended him, and sat with him, and most importantly, he wrote theatrical, cinematic, and radio scripts for him. The coexistence was daily and professional, and continued until Shoshu's last performance in late June 1975.
Beirut knew the “Munir Abu Debs Band” and the “Multaqa” Band, in addition to various plays of a serious experimental nature, but a regular theatrical audience was not formed in the true sense of the word until after the opening of the Shushu Theater.
Theater has become Nizar Mikati's main occupation. He trains actors, sculpts talent, and tracks the work. He performed with Chouchou 12 plays, including “The Patient of Delusion” and “The Miser” by Molière, “Topaz” by Marcel Pagnol, and 9 vaudeville plays, adapted from works by well-known writers. After 5 years, the partnership was dissolved, and Mikati sold his share in the “National Theater” to Muhammad Al-Toukhi.
Shoshu was not confined to the stage. He appeared in 8 films, starting in 1962 with the movie “Shoshu and the Million” with Muhammad Shamil, and a year later he presented “Ya Salam Ala Al Hob.” After his star shone on stage, he participated in the movie “The Adventures of Shoshu” and others.
He wanted cinema to be his window to wide Arab fame, similar to Najib Al-Rihani, Ismail Yassin, and Fouad Al-Muhandis. For this reason, he resorted to joint Lebanese-Egyptian films. His last film was “My Beautiful Lady,” for which Fares Youakim wrote the screenplay and dialogue, starring Nelly and Mahmoud Yassin. It was shown in Egypt under the title “The Pickpocket,” and Shoshu produced it to secure some revenue and alleviate his debts. It did generate revenue, but Shoshu was gone before it started running.
The book tells in detail about the financial difficulties that Shoshu faced in order to be able to establish his theater, the difficulty of managing his expenses, and the debts that burdened him, as well as his bohemian personality, and his drive behind one goal, which is success on the stage. Joachim says that he admired Charlie Chaplin, and never tired of watching his films and observing his silent movements and facial expressions. He also used to watch the films of Najeeb Al-Rihani, whom he did not get to see.
With a thin body, a thick mustache, a weak build, and eyes that radiated intelligence, Shushu would not stop smoking and drinking coffee, and would stay up late so that he would not go to bed before dawn. A lot of listening, little talking and eating. Deep down, he was a sad man. He comes to the theater two hours before the show; For him, theater is oxygen and a cure for his financial worries and medical pain. He made others laugh, but he himself was in pain.
His slender build helped him play comedic and pantomime roles. He was talented at coloring his voice, improvising quickly, and telling jokes. That is why his success in cinema and television did not reach the peak that he reached on stage due to his exceptional skill in direct interaction with the audience. Theater director Roger Assaf said about him on the occasion of the presentation of the play “A Brother, Our Country”: “He is the owner of the only Lebanese band that has an audience. Reaching 70,000 viewers is a great achievement. He is unique in Lebanon in his career.”
Shushu was truly a multi-talented artist. In addition to cinema and television, he participated in major summer festivals, such as “Baalbek Festivals” and “Cedars Festivals.” He also established a children's theater out of a desire to increase his income and prepare a generation that has a taste for theatre.
Debts accumulated on Shushu, even though his hall was not quiet, and the audience did not tire of attending his performances. The book explains that he got into debt when establishing the theater, because he was unable to borrow from banks, and was forced to resort to moneylenders, who imposed fantastic interest on him. The debts began to grow like a snowball, until they became one of the reasons for the deterioration of his health. Mirna Al-Bustani had promised him to pay his debts through the “Industry and Labor Bank,” in which she had a significant stake, so that he would owe the bank a much lower interest rate. But the civil war broke out, and toppled Al-Waad, the theater, and Shushu.
Dr. Robert Khoury was attending the play “Oh, Our Country” when he noticed that Shoshu’s tired facial features might indicate a heart problem, so he summoned him to his clinic. After the examination, it was discovered that there was a heart defect, and he was asked to stop smoking and take a rest.
But he did not implement any of that. A year later, he suffered a severe heart attack and was rushed to Barbir Hospital. He was then released from the hospital and began preparing for the 1976 season. Since the war had begun, it was not possible to open his Beirut season. He traveled to perform two plays in Jordan, and the Jordanian monarch at that time, King Hussein, attended the first performance and expressed his admiration for it.
Shushu returned with the band from Amman, and was driving his car himself. The stress was great, especially since he was exhausted by the successive performances, psychological worries, and the accumulation of debts, in addition to his inability to open the doors of his theater. On November 2, 1975, his heart stopped beating.
“The hero died, the theater burned, and the city collapsed,” Joachim says in his book: “The star died along with his theater, which he loved, but he remained a legend in the history of Lebanese theater.”
The importance of the book lies in that it chronicles and documents an important era in Shoshu’s life, and attempts to cover even periods that the writer did not live or witness, whenever reliable information is available. It contains details of interest to anyone who wishes to study this artistic phenomenon, and it is provided with an index of the names of plays and cinematic works, as well as the names of journalists who wrote about Shushu. Among the anecdotes included in the book is a catalog of errors that Joachim was able to collect regarding Shoshu, in Muhammad Karim’s book “As I Knew Them.”
Fifty years after the death of the great theater artist Shoshu, the writer of his most famous play, Fares Joachim, decided to publish a book in which he recorded the facts he witnessed and knew, lived in his company, heard about him, or investigated, in recognition of his great merit, and because it opened the door to fame for him in the Lebanese theater.
During the fall, areas in Sinai and others in the Red Sea Governorate (south-eastern Egypt) witnessed waves of heavy rain that caused torrential rains and led to water being washed away in some areas, amid repeated warnings of the repercussions of severe weather fluctuations. These developments raise questions about the possibility of Egypt being exposed to more severe waves of torrential rain during the winter, and the extent to which this is related to the climate changes the world is witnessing.
A week ago, the governorates of South Sinai and the Red Sea witnessed a wave of severe weather fluctuations and heavy rains that caused torrential torrential rains, amid an extension of the influence of the seasonal Red Sea depression.
Sudden flows of water in Wadi Watir, affiliated with the city of Nuweiba in South Sinai, caused a “cement mixer” car with three people on board to be swept away, resulting in the death of one of them and the injury of another, which raises questions about the possibility of its recurrence or intensification during the winter in light of climate change.
In this context, Dr. Ali Qutb, Professor of Climate at Zagazig University and former Vice President of the Meteorological Authority, said that the autumn season is usually characterized by sharp and rapid weather fluctuations, and witnesses instances of instability in the weather, especially in the governorates of southern Egypt, the Red Sea, and Sinai, where the chances of rain falling that may turn into torrents increase due to the geographical nature of these regions.
Qutb explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that “mountainous and high-altitude areas sometimes witness rainfall, the water of which collects and rushes due to gravity towards the valleys and low-lying areas, leading to the formation of torrents that may be fast and strong, even in areas that do not witness direct rainfall.” This happened during the recent waves of rain in Sinai, as torrential waters rushed toward areas in eastern Sinai, including the vicinity of the Gulf of Aqaba and Nuweiba, resulting in human losses.”
On the other hand, the nature of risks differs in coastal and flat areas, such as Alexandria, the North Coast, and Matrouh, according to Qutb, as these areas may witness heavy rains, but they do not necessarily turn into torrential torrents like those that occur in mountainous areas with rugged terrain, valleys, and slopes. The danger there is greater in the accumulation or accumulation of rainwater in the streets and low-lying areas, rather than in the rushing of large quantities of water through the valleys from high areas to low areas.
Regarding the possibility of Egypt being exposed to more severe waves of torrential rains during the winter, Qutb said that climate changes have contributed to increasing the extremes of some weather phenomena, whether in the form of severe heat waves or sharp drops in temperature, in addition to heavy rains that may cause torrential rains.
Qutb added that the country is currently witnessing a drop in temperatures, becoming lower than normal in some areas during this time of the year, coinciding with wind activity that increases the feeling of cold weather, in addition to the disruption of maritime navigation in the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Suez, and the continued chances of rain falling on the northern coasts and North Sinai.
Qutb explained that the chances of rainfall in areas of Upper Egypt, the Red Sea, and Sinai will remain during the remainder of the fall and winter, and may cause torrential rains. He pointed out that the fall season remains one of the periods that calls for greater caution, given the rapid fluctuations in weather conditions and the shifts between warm and cold waves.
Qutb linked these fluctuations to the exacerbation of climate phenomena, pointing to the “El Niño” phenomenon and its effects on global weather patterns, and the changes that may accompany it in temperature and rainfall rates in different regions of the world.
El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon that occurs as a result of higher than usual levels of water surface temperatures in parts of the tropical Pacific Ocean, and affects wind patterns, rain, and temperatures on a large scale in the world. Its effects vary from one region to another depending on the strength of the phenomenon, its timing, and its interaction with other climate systems, and it does not necessarily mean an increase in rain or the occurrence of floods in all regions.
These warnings coincide with the launch of the activities of the United Nations Climate Change Conference “COP31”, in the Turkish city of Antalya, during the period from 9 to 20 November, with the participation of representatives of countries, international organizations and experts concerned with climate issues.
According to the professor of climate at Zagazig University, “A number of countries in the world, including the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, are facing violent weather phenomena, including hurricanes and storms, in various regions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which reflects the expanding scope of climate impacts.”
Qutb stressed that Egypt is not immune to these changes, as it is in turn affected by the transformations taking place in the global climate system, and its repercussions appear in the form of sharp fluctuations in temperature, between rise and fall.
The call of the head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate to boycott “defamation and violating meetings” carried out by some individuals was welcomed in the artistic and journalistic circles, and a number of journalists adopted the boycott decisions, and the artist Elham Shaheen praised them.
The head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Khaled El Balshy, called on Friday to boycott conferences and meetings that include defamation of individuals and delving into their private lives, touching on the responsibility of websites for circulating abuse, and the limits of press coverage of personal conflicts.
Al-Balshi called on journalists and editorial departments to refrain from covering these meetings, and not to grant the propagators of defamatory speeches media spaces that would contribute to expanding their spread. He expressed his concern about the tendency of some websites to cover conferences and meetings, especially for parties in judicial and societal disputes, dealing with cases pending before the judiciary and engaging in personal relationships.
He criticized the pursuit of news about people who deliberately incite disputes and side battles, because exaggerating these practices diverts attention from the basic issues of society, stressing that conveying insults and offensive phrases under the pretext of press coverage does not absolve institutions of their professional responsibility.
Al-Balshi warned against publishing turning into a means of expanding the scope of abuse and settling scores because serious criticism focuses on exposing flaws and respects the rights of individuals, calling for an end to persecuting the promoters of these speeches or giving them media platforms under the slogan of following up on trending topics.
This came against the backdrop of a press conference held by former Zamalek club president Mortada Mansour in front of his office, last Thursday, which included what was described as “transgressions” against many public figures, including male and female artists, led by Elham Shaheen, whom Mansour accused of fleeing to America for fear of what he would say about her, at a time when she was in New York City to attend a film festival at the invitation of its organizers.
For her part, artist Elham Shaheen supported Al-Balshi’s call to boycott conferences and meetings that include defamation of individuals and violations of their privacy, confirming in a post she published on her Facebook page her support for the statement’s demand to refrain from covering these meetings. She added: “I respect and support every word in the statement... Professional journalism is what builds, educates and protects innocents and raises public awareness, and is never a tool for spreading obscenities... All respect to the respectable press that preserves the image of Egypt and Egyptians.”
Elham Shaheen filed a complaint against Mortada Mansour with the Supreme Council for Media Regulation against the backdrop of the violations made against her in his statements, asking the Council to inform the Public Prosecution of the results to add them to the reports she had already submitted to the Public Prosecution, while demanding that his verified Facebook page be blocked. This is the complaint that was referred to the Complaints Committee to take the necessary measures, according to the Council’s statement on Saturday.
Art critic Muhammad Abdel Rahman told Asharq Al-Awsat that the welcome given to the call of the Head of the Journalists Syndicate was a natural reflection of the fact that a large number of media outlets originally prevented the broadcast of this content through them, whether via live broadcast or writing its content, which is often attractive to social media users, considering that the head of the Syndicate’s move is a serious step towards stopping such statements, and a foundation that can be built upon well in the future.
He added: “There are some people who are accustomed to appearing on social media sites by causing disagreements and making insulting and slanderous statements towards artists, while not clearly stating who they are referring to in order to avoid judicial prosecutions,” stressing the importance of the media not allowing this matter to be exploited under any name.
Moataz Nadi, an expert in digital media and “social media,” agrees with Al-Balshi’s call, “in light of the importance of understanding the mechanisms that grant this opportunity.”
