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Despite "interesting" driving conditions, I made it to and from Stratford safely, where I saw Richard III in Arabic.
This was the RSC's first ever production in Arabic, adapted by a Kuwaiti, Sulayman Al-Bassam, with a cast of Middle-Eastern actors. Given the political nature of Richard III, and the current situation in the Middle East, it was in some sense an obvious place to start. The setting is a contemporary unnamed Arab Emirate, and the director is clearly using Shakespeare's material as a history more than a tragedy, to cast a sometimes highly satirical light on current affairs. There are video-projected confessions and "executions", people denounced as kaffir, leaflets scatted from the air, terrorist acts fabricated to control the populace, and a very self-righteous American Richmond who hypocritically brandishes the Qu'ran when trying to drum up popular support. It didn't take itself too seriously, though - the surtitles were sometimes making such obvious political points that they raised a laugh.
Some of the acting was superb, too, which was more impressive given that it's much harder to communicate with an audience who can't understand what you are saying! Margaret and Richard/Gloucester stood out for me. We were sat right by the stage, too, which made the action much more immediate.
Being critical, the surtitles left a lot to be desired - sometimes bits were just missed out, or a screen would fly past in a second without a chance to read it. That made it harder to get into the production; when watching subtitled films, often my brain can read the text without me noticing, and I couldn't do that, which was a big distraction. In some places the adaptation didn't quite work, either. Perhaps inevitably I wasn't as emotionally affected by this adaptation as some versions of the play I've seen, but I think it's other merits more than compensate for that
I'm slightly saddened to see they felt it necessary to put a small disclaimer in the program about the use of quotations from the Qu'ran. The characters mis-use it during the play in a way that mirrors some of the abuses of that holy book in the contemporary world. "In dramatising this reality we offer a pious critique of our world that, one trusts, will not be misunderstood". Their courage in doing so makes the play that bit more authentically Arab, and so much more effective.
It's on until the 17th of February - if you can get to Stratford, do go and see this play.
This was the RSC's first ever production in Arabic, adapted by a Kuwaiti, Sulayman Al-Bassam, with a cast of Middle-Eastern actors. Given the political nature of Richard III, and the current situation in the Middle East, it was in some sense an obvious place to start. The setting is a contemporary unnamed Arab Emirate, and the director is clearly using Shakespeare's material as a history more than a tragedy, to cast a sometimes highly satirical light on current affairs. There are video-projected confessions and "executions", people denounced as kaffir, leaflets scatted from the air, terrorist acts fabricated to control the populace, and a very self-righteous American Richmond who hypocritically brandishes the Qu'ran when trying to drum up popular support. It didn't take itself too seriously, though - the surtitles were sometimes making such obvious political points that they raised a laugh.
Some of the acting was superb, too, which was more impressive given that it's much harder to communicate with an audience who can't understand what you are saying! Margaret and Richard/Gloucester stood out for me. We were sat right by the stage, too, which made the action much more immediate.
Being critical, the surtitles left a lot to be desired - sometimes bits were just missed out, or a screen would fly past in a second without a chance to read it. That made it harder to get into the production; when watching subtitled films, often my brain can read the text without me noticing, and I couldn't do that, which was a big distraction. In some places the adaptation didn't quite work, either. Perhaps inevitably I wasn't as emotionally affected by this adaptation as some versions of the play I've seen, but I think it's other merits more than compensate for that
I'm slightly saddened to see they felt it necessary to put a small disclaimer in the program about the use of quotations from the Qu'ran. The characters mis-use it during the play in a way that mirrors some of the abuses of that holy book in the contemporary world. "In dramatising this reality we offer a pious critique of our world that, one trusts, will not be misunderstood". Their courage in doing so makes the play that bit more authentically Arab, and so much more effective.
It's on until the 17th of February - if you can get to Stratford, do go and see this play.
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