This article explores two plays, Khamsūn (Fifty/Bodies Hostages) and Yaḥia Yaïsh (Amnesia), by Jalila Baccar and Fadhel Jaïbi, and a street performance (‘Ben Ali Fled!’) by a Tunisian citizen who was filmed celebrating the defeat of Ben Ali. The article examines Khamsūn's expression of fear of Islamic fundamentalism. Yaḥia Yaïsh not only shows the figure of a government leader who abuses his power, but also foretells the imminent fall of this leader, followed by an attempt to run away from being brought to justice, remarkably predicting the real-life events that soon materialized during the Tunisian Revolution, with slight differences between the two falls. Finally, the article considers both plays as theatrical experiences that are not enclosed within a confined space, but were re-enacting events happening in the streets of Tunisia.

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Based on rhetorics of violence and discourses of gender supported by the theoretical works of Pierre Bourdieu, A. Ballinger, and Bertolt Brecht, this article first investigates the concept of violence through the performance of Jalila Baccar and Fadhel Jaïbi’sViolence(s) (2015).In this play an examination of the new forms of violence helps us pay particular attention to violence enacted by men and women against their minoritized groups, and how, when harmed, these groups go against the grain. My purpose in this article is to demonstrate how such forms of violence appeal to the audiences’ emotions and intellect. A Brechtian reading of Violence(s)with reference to Tsunami (2013) and Fear(s) (2017), also by Baccar and Jaïbi will assist comprehension of the development of violence and the resulting frustration provoked by the Arab Spring’s ongoing political, ethnic, economic, and religious conflicts and its subsequent impact on the Arab citizen’s daily behaviours and attitudes.

Based on rhetorics of violence and discourses of gender supported by the theoretical works of Pierre Bourdieu, A. Ballinger, and Bertolt Brecht, this article first investigates the concept of violence through the performance of Jalila Baccar and Fadhel Jaïbi’sViolence(s) (2015).In this play an examination of the new forms of violence helps us pay particular attention to violence enacted by men and women against their minoritized groups, and how, when harmed, these groups go against the grain. My purpose in this article is to demonstrate how such forms of violence appeal to the audiences’ emotions and intellect. A Brechtian reading of Violence(s)with reference to Tsunami (2013) and Fear(s) (2017), also by Baccar and Jaïbi will assist comprehension of the development of violence and the resulting frustration provoked by the Arab Spring’s ongoing political, ethnic, economic, and religious conflicts and its subsequent impact on the Arab citizen’s daily behaviours and attitudes.

By comparing pre- and post-2011 Tunisian theatrical scripts and performances, this report analyzes instances of resistance to political oppression. The Tunisian theater provides space for free expression against the way in which the Tunisian government has handled its power, especially with regard to Islamic terrorism, not only before but also after the revolution. The present report also suggests that the pre-revolution plays represent resistance to the Tunisian pre-revolution regime that stifled political, religious, and cultural free expression. Despite the new political plurality that sprang up in 2011 in reaction to the revolution, however, resistance to the post-revolution political system also forms the central focus in the later plays that highlight oppression.