Richard III in Kurdish northern Iraq?

Salah Qasab, one of Iraq's best-known directors Shakespeare (Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth, etc.), is talking about staging an adaptation of Richard III in Irbil, Sulaymaniye, and other venues in the Kurdish region of Iraq, if he can get enough support from Kurdistan's ministry of culture.  A few details in his interview with Al-Sabah al-Jadid newspaper (in Arabic). 
But apparently he has had this plan for a while.

Al-Bassam on Speaker's Progress in The Guardian

Sulayman Al-Bassam has a little article in The Guardian on how his current show, a very pessimistic frame story incorporating an Arab adaptation of Twelfth Night,

has changed in production because of recent events in Tunisia, Egypt, etc.

More photos from the production previews here.
The show is coming to BAM in New York next fall.

Some comic relief

Random funny cartoon, just to show that EVERYTHING is related to everything else, and Shakespeare even more so, here:

Afghan Shakespeare in Globe's series

And it's Corinne Jaber, the French actress who directed Love's Labour's Lost in Kabul in 2005 and 2006, who will be doing the Globe's Dari-language Comedy of Errors.  For more on Corinne's Afghan ventures and her recent residency at BU: http://www.bu.edu/today/node/12412.

Revolutionary Egypt: a "To Be Or Not To Be" moment

A couple of samples from online articles that quote Hamlet to underscore the urgency of events in Egypt.

From an alarmist FoxNews (of course) interview with Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris, who actually supported the Tahrir protesters and even bought them tents and blankets: 

When the protests began, Sawiris, a Christian billionaire who owns everything from hotels and construction companies to cell phone and investment interests, was out of the country. He chose to return, unlike other businessmen who have already fled.
“I came back because this was not a revolution of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This was the young people of Egypt doing what we failed to do … There is not a single other businessman who has supported it because it’s very dangerous for their interests; but the country is in a position to be or not to be,” he said.

Toward the end of a long, passionate article  by Mariam Saad in something called The Peninsula: 

Generations grew up within the armed forces and were trained to obey the government and surrender to its resolutions. However, if the situation deteriorates and becomes desperate, the challenge poses itself to the individual; to be or not to be? How will the situation resolve itself?

You can easily find many more of these in English and especially in Arabic.

To some ears, even the protesters' chants had a Shakespearean ring to them! Al-Hayat column by Abdel Ghani Talis, in Arabic, here.

Update on Arabic Tempest

Update - It's Sulayman Al-Bassam directing the Arabic-language Tempest at the Globe Theatre next year.
A certain lack of imagination on their part, I daresay -- but at least they can be confident it will be well done.

Latest update (May 8, 2011): I talked to Sulayman and he is no longer involved in this project.  Decided there was not so much that he could interestingly do with The Tempest right now.  Stay tuned for more on the whole Olympiad-related extravaganza, and let me know if you have more details.

The Globe goes global

After the RSC's Complete Works season, how could this not be next?  Shakespeare's 38 plays to be performed in 38 different languages. The Guardian writes:

Anyone who struggles with Shakespeare in English will next year be able to see if it is any easier in Lithuanian. Or Portuguese, Italian or Spanish, perhaps. And if all that fails – Troilus and Cressida in Maori?


In fact, there will be 38 different ways to experience it, as Shakespeare's Globe presents all of the Bard's plays, each in a different language, as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Apparently Arabic has been selected for The Tempest (stay tuned for director and cast info) -- but I bet that won't be nearly as interesting as the Urdu Taming of the Shrew!