After the Arab defeat in the Six Day War, Mahfouz abruptly stopped writing poetry. He claimed that poetry “prevents us from seeing the dagger pointed at our hearts”. Once he had moved to France in 1975 he began writing prose poetry drawing on the image of Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty of Spain who was known as “The Entrant”. Mahfouz wrote as “The Leaver”, which in Arabic means "the rebel" or a "member of the Khawarij", dissidents of early Islam. Theater work Mahfouz turned his hand to playwriting as he saw it as an effective medium of communication with audiences. He completed his first play “al-Zinzalakht” (“The Chinaberry”) Theater of Lebanon in 1963, but it met with resistance from the theater industry due to its use of colloquial Arabic. In protest he wrote pantomimes. “al-Zinzalakht” wasn't performed until 1968 under the direction of Berge Vassilian. In 1967 after the Arab defeat Mahfouz wrote “al-Qatl” (“The Killing”) but the Lebanese government prohibited its opening on the first anniversary of the defeat. The play was published in the magazine Fikr in 1969 with some modification of names. It was the only play he wrote in fuṣ’ḥa as it was a documentary using real quotations, not a literary work. During this same period, he translated and adapted "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett in 1967 and saw it produced at Masrah Beirut. In the same year he translated the novel "L'Amante Anglaise" by Marguerite Duras and turned it into a radio play of seven installments which was published in the newspaper "al-Hasna" and was directed by Shakib Khoury for Lebanese radio. Later, Marguerite Duras herself turned her novel into a play. Other major plays Mahfouz wrote include “al-Diktātūr” (“The Dictator”) 1969,“Carte Blanche” 1970, “Limāthā” (“Why?”) 1971, and “al-Ta’arīyah”(“Nakedness”) 2003, in addition to short plays. In keeping with his belief that art must be political, his plays are noted for their mordant social commentary, humanist perspective, and occasional surrealism. His plays won several awards, including at the Damascus Festival for Arabic Theater Arts in 1970 and Said Akl Award in 1968 for “al-Zinzalakht”. He served on the jury of a number of festivals, including al-Hamamet in Tunis in 1973. In 1974 he wrote a thirteen segment documentary series for Channel 7 in Lebanon about Lebanese theater from 1850 to 1950. His renown was such that in his article on Mahfouz,