A modern play at Menier Chocolate Factory considers the surreal spectacle of the Iraqi dictator dropping in for tea. But we had to cope with him arriving at all hoursAnthony Horowitz’s modern play imagines as farce what would happen whether Saddam Hussein came to dinner. But anyone who criticises Dinner with Saddam as inappropriate in the fun it has with Iraqis’ fear of the dictator,bite your tongue. It’s in line with Iraqi culture to compose fun of our own misery, although never approximately Saddam while he was still ruling.
Fear of Saddam took over every Iraqi heart and mind. He was everywhere and anywhere, and any stray negative thought approximately him made us watch our backs. As a child,I grew up watching hours and hours of TV coverage of him surprising families in the middle of the afternoon by entering their kitchens and opening their refrigerators. I guess this was a dictator’s version of a reality demonstrate; the entire country could peer into people’s cupboards and see what they were having for lunch. I didn’t understand why he revealed the intimate lives of people on national TV until the night my family and I had dinner with Saddam.
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Source: theguardian.com