Dictator as playwright

Does Saddam Hussein have an artsy streak? Iraq's National Theater recently opened a new play called Zabibah and the King, which is based on a novel that many believe was written by the dictator. The love story features a beloved king and a married peasant woman, whose love turns the monarch into a great patriot. This makes other rulers jealous, so they plan a conspiracy against the couple. The title character Zabibah—supposedly a symbol of the Iraqi people—is raped and killed on Jan. 17, the anniversary of the start of the Gulf War. Iraqi culture minister Hammed Youssef Hammadi gushed over the melodrama, calling it "a glittering event in the record of Arab theater," and top figures from the ruling Baath party attended the play's opening. Many Iraqis suspect Saddam wrote the original novel because it contains pointed political references that might not have otherwise survived censorship. Meanwhile, American intelligence officials have reportedly examined the novel with interest.

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