Abdelhalim Rais

Abdelhalim Rais (birth name Boualem Raïs) is an Algerian actor and comedian, born January 4, 1924 in the casbah of Algiers and died November 8, 1979.

Boualem Raïs, chose the pseudonym "Abdelhalim" after the name of Abdelhalim Hafid whom he adored so much, grew up alongside the mujahideen and worked as a postman, public writer and was also employed in an electricity and gas company. However, what fascinated him was song, music and comedy. From time to time, he went to the Mahieddine-Bachtarzi rehearsal room (located rue du Lézard in Algiers) where he began to meet and know the artists. At the beginning of his career, when he was only twenty years old, he began writing ditties and participating in theatrical plays. At this time in 1934 he wrote the play "El Yatime" (the orphan) and joined the troupe El Hilal El Djazairi of which he was a founding member.

In 1946, he left for Morocco where he played in two films "Chadad El Adil" alongside Djeloul Bach Djarah and Maarouf with Mohamed Touri. Back in Algiers, he joined the Algerian Radio team and began preparing programs on police theater. In 1947, Mahieddine Bachtarzi, who initiated the Arab theater season at the former Algiers Opera (currently the National Theater), presented the play "Monserrat" with Mustapha Kateb. The latter was presented for the first time to the Algerian public by the MTLD troupe (of which Raïs was a member) in November 1949 and, let us emphasize, in the presence of the French author Emmanuel Roblès. Raïs will subsequently play in the play "Chemchoum El Djazair" by Mohamed Ouadah, "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" by Molière... He then writes several plays including "Hya El Hayat" (C'est La Vie) and "Bin Narain" (Entre Deux Feux) at a time when theater had a good relationship with the National Movement. In 1950, the MTLD troupe had participated in several festivals in communist countries (Berlin in 1952, Budapest in 1953, Warsaw 1955...).