- Lutfi Achour’s (?, Tunisia) play Macbeth: Leïla & Ben – A Bloody History (2012). Using Tunisian Arabic, French, and Italian, the play narrates the 2011 Tunisian uprisings by depicting former President Zine al-Abadine Ben Ali (named Maczine in the play) and his wife Leïla as the North African equivalents of Shakespeare’s infamous King and Queen in Macbeth. The king and Queen’s determination to keep hold of power shows that Macbeth’s story of brutality, backstabbing and blind ambition remains. The play contains different elements such as tv-interviews with the President, and songs in French and Arabic (reference) (also in 2010 – 2020: 2011 Arab Uprisings: Tunisia).
- Wajdī al-Ahdal (1973-, Yemen), Samir ʿAbd al-Fattaḥ (1971-, Yemen), and ʿAbdallahʿAbbās (?, Yemen) made a Yemeni adaption of Shakespear’s The Merchant of Venice. The play is set in the eastern Yemeni region of the Hadhramawt and the characters have traditional Hadhrami dress and names. Furthermore, the Merchant is not Jewish, but a Muslim like the other characters. Rather than a play about sectarian conflicts, its focus is diverted to gender power and calls into question the patriarchal assumptions that underpin a significant subset of male-female interactions in Yemen (reference) (S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Gender Issues).
- Aḥmad al-Azkī’s (?, Oman) play al-Laylah al-Ḥālikah (‘The dark night’, 2010) brings Shakespeare’s Orthello in dialogue with pre-Islamic literature of ʿAntar, and through this “argues for inclusivity and cooperation in the case of deep-seated racism and rising sectarianism” in Omani society (reference).
- Alfrīd Faraj (1929 – 2005, Egypt) play Sulaymān al-Ḥalabī (‘Sulayman from Aleppo’, 1965) is a drama about a young Syrian student who murders the French General Kléber in Cairo during the brief French occupation of the country at the end of the eighteenth century (reference). The play uses this historical event as a peg on which to hang questions about freedom and justice (reference). Parallels have been drawn between the hero of the play, the student Sulaymān al-Ḥalabī, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet when it comes to their existentialist dilemma’s as well as their personalities (reference) (also in 1800 – 1920: Ottoman Period).
- Muḥammad al-Duqmi’s (?, Yemen) play Jizaʾ al-Khayanah (‘Punishment of Treachery’, 1948) is an adaption of Shakespear’s Orthello in which the end is changed: instead of Othello and Desdemona dying while Iago, the criminal, lives, Orthello and Desdemonda are reunited, and Iago sentenced to death (reference).
- Haytham Ḥusayn (1978-, Syria) – Qad Lā Yabqā Aḥad: Aghāthā Krīstī… Tʿālī Aqulluki Kayfa ʿAīsh (2018, English trans. No One may Remain: Agatha Christie… Come, I’ll tell you How I Live, 2018). Based on several interviews with refugees and his own experiences, the author of this novel depicts many everyday details of refugee life in the United Kingdom: how they live between their current situation and memories, and their attempts to integrate (reference). The author documents his own journey with his family through writing ‘letters’ to the English novelist Agatha Christie, who herself lived in the author’s hometown Amoudah, and at that time wrote a chapter in het diary titled: ‘Come, tell me how you live’ (also in (E): migration, Refugees and Return: (E) Migration: Migration (Refugee) literature to Europe).
- Muḥammad al-Marghūṭ’s (1953 – 2006, Syria) play Khārij al-Sirb (‘Outside the herd’, 1999). This work is a play within a play. Its hero is writing an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, but outsiders keep interfering. First, the theatre’s cleaner demands that Romeo’s character is modified so he can act the role. But soon also the minister of culture, the government, and foreign institutions such as UNESCO demand changes in the play so that their ideas are represented (reference). Khārij al-Sirb criticizes external interference, even in a classical work such as Romeo and Juliette, to propagate biased ideas (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Writing).
- The Resuscitation Theatre in Abu Dhabi has been producing reworkings of plays by Shakespeare. Among others they did an adaption of Cymbeline titled Al-Malik, which was performed in the Emirates Writers’ Union Hall in 2013. The play moved Cymbeline’s locations to inside the UAE, translated and adapted the script, changed the clothing etc. eventually leading to an interesting hybrid (reference).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Eiman Tunsi. 2015. “A Dramatic Anticipation of the Arab Spring and a Dramatic Reflection Upon It.” Arab Stages 1(2) Retrieved through https://arabstages.org/2015/04/a-dramatic-anticipation-of-the-arab-spring-and-a-dramatic-reflection-upon-it/ (last accessed 2 November 2023)
- Katherine Hennessey. 2014.“Now I will believe that there are unicorns: The Improbable History of Shakespeare in Yemen.” Arab Stages 1(1),
- Katherine Hennessey. 2018. “Shakespeare on the Arabian Peninsula.” Palgrave Macmillan: London, p. 210-1
- Roger Allen. 2000. An Introduction to Arabic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 206
- EAL, p. 219
- ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Shimrī. 2006. “Lisān Ḥāl al-Muwāṭin al-ʿArabī al-Mazūm.” www.al-qabs.com, 5 April 2006, https://alqabas.com/article/177513-%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%87%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%85 (last accessed 26 October 2021)