17-minute preview video for the 2002 English-language production. Produced by Zaoum Theatre. Copyright 2002 Sulayman Al-Bassam.
Sulayman Al-Bassam’s The Al-Hamlet Summit: Introduction
By Graham Holderness | July 26, 2013Shakespeare touched the Arab world astonishingly early. In 1608, during the 3rd voyage of the East India Company, on the island of Socotra at the entry to the Gulf of Aden, the crew of the Red Dragon staged a performance of Hamlet, a play then less than a decade old, and published only 5 years previously. Read More
From Summit to Tragedy: Sulayman Al-Bassam’s Richard III and Political Theatre
By Graham Holderness | July 25, 2013Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s best-known characters, a familiarity independent of the history plays, Henry VI and Richard III, in which he appears. Read More
A crumbling Arab dictatorship (a collage of real states) convenes a government conference amid car bombs in the capital, rebellion in the south, and an international army massed on the borders. The female Arms Dealer sells to all, including Islamist Hamlet and suicide bomber Ophelia as well as Claudius, Gertrude, and Fortinbras. Read More
