Please
click on the picture to view images from the play Work on Hamlet began in January 2001, as Zaoum prepared to present a piece in Kuwait, the '2001 Cultural Capital of the Arab World' and homeland of director Sulayman Al-Bassam.
A series of powerful resonances between text, society and contemporary history in Kuwait encouraged Al-Bassam to present Hamlet:
2001 marked the 10th anniversary of Kuwait's liberation from the Iraqi invasion.
This is a big occasion for Kuwaitis and, if read imaginatively, Hamlet contains many resonances that pertain to current situations in Kuwait.
In the figure of the young Prince, a man of leisure, struggling to define his role in a hostile environment, there is a metaphor for Kuwaiti youth- in turns disillusioned, resourceful, misunderstood, and yet faced with the historical imperative to find their own voice and act decisively to determine the future of this small nation.
Equally, in the figure of the ghost we found an echo of the Gulf War- whose deep psychological scars still inform the politics and society of Kuwait.
More generally, we find in Denmark a society deeply divided along generational lines- a social phenomenon that seems to completely preoccupy daily newspapers, chat shows and social anthropologists in Kuwait and the Gulf region as a whole.
These and other resonances between text and society encouraged Zaoum to make its daring adaptation of the piece, in April 2001, as part of the 8th Kuwaiti Festival of Theatre. Zaoum presented Hamlet in Kuwait.
Hamlet In Kuwait The production performed 20 times to capacity audiences in Kuwait playing to a mixed audience of Arabic and English-speakers alike.
Zaoum undertook a schools programme consisting of workshops and seminars at Kuwait University.
The production attracted worldwide CNN coverage and formed the subject of a documentary film for television of the same title. (link to documentary promo on video clips)
The tour climaxed in an unprecedented act of theatre: a 'Martyr's Gala' performed in the open air, with tanks and military hardware forming the backdrop to the play that was presented to 500 American troops, 20 kilometres south of Kuwait's border with Iraq.
Hamlet in Kuwait led on to The Arab League Hamlet (link to The Arab League Hamlet )