New Hamlet-alluding Adonis collection

Adonis has a new poetry collection, just out this year, with a Hamlet-themed long poem in it. (Cover art is by Adonis as well.)

The poem is titled (slightly less decorously than the collection as a whole) "Calm down Hamlet, inhale Ophelia's smell." It was written in January 2006 (before the most recent Lebanon war, which he also writes about). On a very cursory first reading, not quite sure what it has to do with Hamlet (and it does not seem to be Adonis' best work, not that I am any kind of expert).
More soon.

Al-Bassam's Richard III staged in Kuwait

As far as I know, this is the first staging in the Arab world of one of Sulayman Al-Bassam's Arabic-language Shakespeare adaptations."Unfortunately it was staged for only three nights at the Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiya, while it played for months in different countries," Al-Bassam noted during a seminar on the play held at Kuwait University's Faculty of Arts. The Kuwait Times has a little article about it.

Yvette Khoury on Akhir Yom

Akhir Yom (The Last Day): A Localized Arabic Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

Yvette K. Khoury
theatre research international · vol. 33 no. 1 pp 52–69
International Federation for Theatre Research 2008

Abstract:

This paper is an exploration of the 2004 Arabic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , which premiered in Casino du Liban in Beirut. The Last Day was created by Oussama al-Rahbani, who also composed the musical scores. The play shows how local Shakespeares resonate with the wider global field of study, which in turn echo East–West cultural interactions. The Last Day challenges our perception of the Other in Arabic drama as it questions intraculturalism within the conflict-ravaged Middle East. It prompts us to ask how we should address local Shakespeares in a global context, and how local knowledge illuminates our understanding of Shakespeare’s reception. This paper emphasizes the fluidity of the field of Shakespearean studies and the instability of East–West cultural divides.

An earlier version was given at the VII World Shakespeare Congress in Brisbane, 2006.

Al-Bassam's RIII coming to Kennedy Center

Announcement via The Associated Press. Watch how Sulayman's play is again appropriated as the "bridge" between cultures or even "two great civilizations." Both the Kennedy Center's president and the Arab League ambassador do it. (I am trying to write an article on this phenomenon.)

Tuesday, March 11, 2008
WASHINGTON: A retelling of Shakespeare's "Richard III," set in the contemporary Arab world of desert palaces and oil-rich kingdoms, is among the highlights of a three-week Arab arts and culture festival that will mark the 2008-2009 season of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The "Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World" festival — a name inspired by a calligraphic style from ninth-century Iraq — was announced Tuesday. It will feature artists from all 22 Arab nations in February and March 2009, and will be the largest presentation of Arab arts ever in the United States, Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser said.
Themes from "Richard III," for example, take on new meanings in the Arab context and can help bridge cultural divides, he said. "In this world of tribal allegiances, family infighting and absolute power, the questions of leadership, religion and foreign intervention are at the heart of Shakespeare's play," Kaiser said.

[Sulayman's familiar quote, of course, but look at the "cultural divides" stuff -ML]

The programming slate also includes dance ensembles from Lebanon and Syria as well as traditional belly dancing, [we hasten to reassure people] while exhibits will feature Arab photography, sculpture and fashion. Theater and musical offerings include diverse religious sounds of the region, and the more provocative "Alive From Palestine: Stories Under Occupation," a play produced by the only professional theater in the Palestinian territories.

. . .

The Arab festival in 2009 follows similar international events focused most recently on Japan and China. The festival is being coordinated with the League of Arab Nations, though still a "daunting" task to bring together 22 different nations, said Alicia Adams, vice president of international programming. She said the visa and customs process alone would probably be most challenging. [You think?-ML]

Arab League Ambassador Hussein Hassouna said the festival will promote
better understanding between Americans and countries ranging from Iraq to Sudan and Somalia. [Hmm, especially Sudan. -ML] "It shows that the Arab world belongs to a great civilization that wants to be interactive with other cultures," he said.
Kennedy Center officials continue to search for more artists to join the festival, though planning for the project began four years ago after the center brought the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra to perform in Washington.

Holderness on Al-Bassam

Graham Holderness has an article on Sulayman Al-Bassam's Shakespeare adaptations in the current European Journal of English Studies (Vol 12, No. 1, April 2008 , 59 - 77). Abstract:

This article addresses the writing and performance work of Anglo-Kuwaiti director Sulayman Al-Bassam, tracing the development of his various adaptations of Shakespeare's Hamlet into English and Arabic 'cross-cultural' versions between 2001 and 2007. Al-Bassam's work presents English as a 'language in translation'. His works move from early modern to modern English, from Arabized English to Arabic, from one linguistic and geographical location to another, their forms moulded and remoulded by complex cultural pressures. The study focuses on specific examples from three adaptations to show in practice how in these works English is 'constantly crossed, challenged and contested'.

Villain Steals the Show (Claudius article)

The current Journal of Arabic Literature has my piece on versions of Claudius in post-1975 Arab appropriations of Hamlet. Basically I argue that he turns into an invincible monster, a political Leviathan and sexual Minotaur who takes up the whole space of the play, leaving no space for real politics. I'm grateful to the anon. reviewer who made me figure out what I mean by "politics"... this pushed me to realize that you can in fact have power without politics, i.e., without members of a society having an opportunity to exercise their political natures in the Aristotelian sense. But what would political theatre or political agency mean in a context like that?
Anyway, here's the link:
When the Villain Steals the Show: The Character of Claudius in Post-1975 Arab(ic) Hamlet Adaptations JAL 38:2, 196-219.

Bayer on Arab Merchant of Venice

Periodically when you're talking about Arab Shakespeare appropriation some mischievous soul will ask: "So, what do they do with The Merchant of Venice?" It's a good (if not nice) question. Now we can refer it to Mark Bayer's article in the current issue of Comparative Drama:

Mark Bayer, "The Merchant of Venice, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and the Perils of Shakespearean Appropriation," Comparative Drama Volume 41 (Winter 2007-08 ), No. 4. See Project Muse for PDF and HTML.

Haven't read it yet, but Bayer's SAA paper on the same topic (2006) was interesting.

The Arab League translation of MV (nice cover art, folks):