Raed Al-Shyoukhi in the play "Haboos": When Prison Becomes a Question of Freedom

Hebron - Afaq News - In a new experience for "Yes Theater", the play "Hobos" by writer Saleh Zaman opens a question that transcends the meaning of prison as a closed place behind bars.

The play does not only ask: Who is the prisoner? And who is the jailer? But it pushes us to a more complex question: Can a person be a prisoner even when there are no bars around them?

From here, the participation of artist "Raed Al-Shuyokhi" gains special importance, as his presence in the play "Hobos" is not just about presenting a theatrical character, but he participates in building a philosophical space where the actor and the audience together face the question of freedom. Raed does not stand outside the subject of the play to narrate it, but it seems as if he lives the internal tension created by the relationship between man, authority, fear, and choice.

Yes Theater... theater as a human act

Since its establishment, "Yes Theater" has been associated with the idea that theater is not just an artistic performance, but a means of communication, raising questions, and creating spaces for dialogue, especially with youth and communities that need to express their experiences, ideas, and fears.

In this context, "Hobos" comes as a natural extension of the spirit of theater: using the stage not to provide the audience with ready-made answers, but to place them in front of a mirror where they can see something of their own lives.

The prison in "Hobos" can be read on multiple levels. There is the physical prison, but there is also the "prison of fear, the prison of habits, the prison of the image we create of ourselves, the prison of authority, and the prison of others' perceptions of us," and sometimes a person may guard their own prison without realizing it.

The prisoner and the jailer... who holds the power?

The relationship between the prisoner and the jailer is at the heart of the philosophy of the play. On the surface, it seems that power is clear: there is one person who holds the power, and another who submits to it. However, the play shakes this binary and pushes us to think about the nature of power itself.

The jailer, despite having power over the body of the prisoner, may also be governed by a system larger than himself, with rules, instructions, fears, and responsibilities. The prisoner, despite losing his physical freedom, may possess within himself a space of rejection, thought, or dreams that the jailer cannot control.

Here the basic philosophical paradox appears: Who is truly free?

Is freedom the ability to leave a place? Or the ability to make a decision? Or the right to say 'no'? Or does freedom begin with a person's ability to see themselves and the world around them in a different way?

Raed Al-Shuyokhi... the actor within the question

In 'Hobous', Raed Al-Shuyokhi's importance lies in his ability to treat the character as a human being carrying contradictions, not just a dramatic function. The prisoner is not just a 'victim', and the jailer is not necessarily 'evil'. Both are human beings within a system larger than themselves.

This type of performance requires an actor who can leave space for silence as well as space for words, and who can make internal tension visible even when nothing is said.

A leading role here can be read as a bridge between the text and the audience. The actor does not just convey the dialogue; he carries the questions that the work wants to plant in the viewer's consciousness. The more sincere and indirect his performance is, the less inclined the audience becomes to judge the characters and the more ready they are to understand them.

This is precisely what makes theatrical performance a philosophical act: it makes us reconsider concepts we think we understand, such as freedom, power, fear, and choice.

"Haboos"... the prison we carry with us

The title of the play "Haboos" can be seen as more than a description of a state. It is an expandable concept. "Haboos" can be a place, a relationship, a memory, a fear, an idea, a social system, or even an internal image imposed by a person on himself.

Here, the play approaches an old and renewed philosophical question: Is a person truly free, or is his freedom always governed by circumstances he did not choose?

But "Haboos" does not provide a definitive answer. This is perhaps one of its most important strengths. Theater, in the experience of "Theater Yes", does not always need to resolve the question; sometimes its mission is to make us unable to ignore it.

From the stage to the audience

The value of "Haboos" lies in the fact that it begins with a relationship between two people, but ends with a question that concerns each one of us. When we watch the prisoner and the guard, we may start looking for the boundaries between them, only to discover that some of these boundaries exist within us.

Here, "Raed Al-Shuyokhi" meets the project "Theater Yes": theater as a space for thinking and communication, not just a space for performance. The artist becomes part of a broader process; a process that makes the audience re-read their own experience through the experience of the other.

In the end, perhaps the real question in "Haboos" is not: Who is inside the prison and who is outside? But rather: Who holds the key to the door? And do we even know which door we want to open?

In this sense, "Habous" transforms from a story about prison into a meditation on humanity, and Raed Al-Shyoukhi's performance shifts from portraying a character to a journey within the question of freedom. As for "Yes Theater," it continues through this work to affirm its vision of theater as a space where art can place the human being in front of themselves, then leave them the freedom to answer.