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SULAYMAN AL-BASSAM |
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Nationality: Kuwaiti Email: Click here to contact Website: Click here to visit |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
Writes and directs his own work in English and Arabic, based in Kuwait since 2002, his work has been translated into 5 languages and is presented internationally. Awarded: Kuwait State Arts Encouragement Award (2004); Edinburgh Fringe First Award (2002). Director of Sulayman Al-Bassam Theatre, an international group of theatre practitioners, musicians and visual artists, dedicated to the production of challenging and innovative theatre.
Plays by Sulayman Al-Bassam
Al-Hamlet Summit, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2002 | |||||
Company: | Zaoum Theatre, Uk; The Sulayman Al-Bassam Theatre Company, Kuwait | |||||
| 1st Published: | published as Sulayman Al-Bassam, The Al-Hamlet Summit, in English and Arabic, Introduction by Graham Holderness, Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2006 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #318 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Political Theatre Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | http://perseus.herts.ac.uk/uhinfo/index.cfm?F45EF0F3-BC89-7733-C43D-750B05B068EC. Published: Theatre Forum, USA, January, 2000 | |||||
Synopsis: | The Al-Hamlet Summit is a loose adaptation of Shakespeares Hamlet and a remarkable piece of twenty-first century theatre set in the cauldron of Middle-Eastern discontent. Having gained control of a modern Arab state, a ruthless dictator attempts a westernised experiment in thrall to arms dealers and propped up by U.S. dollars. Yet a catastrophic war is brewing, he is besieged by enemy neighbours from without and a growing Islamic extremism from within, whilst his predecessors son, Hamlet, is plotting revenge. Al-Bassam's Summit is Hamlet boldly re-imagined as pure, deadly politics. This edition includes an introduction by Professor Graham Holderness and is illustrated throughout with performance stills from Al-Bassam's internationally award-winning 2004 production of the play. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Game Show, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre En Mai, Theatre Nationale de Dijon Bourgogne, France | 1997 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #52172 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Satire | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | doubling | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Formulation of the nature of death in a society of leisure: A televised game show, where the contestant wins the car he died in | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Kalila wa Dimna; or, The Mirror for Princes | ||
| 1st Produced: | Tokyo International Arts Festival, Japan | 2006 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Oberon Books, London >>>, 2006 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #52170 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Historical Epic Historical | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | extras | |||||
Notes: | UK premiere presented by Sulayman Al-Bassam Theatre as part of bite06 at The Pit Theatre, Barbican, London 0n 10 May 2006. | |||||
Synopsis: | Based on the fables Kalila wa Dimna, one of the masterpieces of Eastern culture. Intended originally as a book of Council for Kings, literally, a 'mirror' for princes, these subtle and philosophical animal fables carry immense significance to all sections of Arab and Persian society, until this day. From India, via Persia, the tales reached the Arab world through the pen of Ibn Al-Muqaffa, court scribe, wit, and radical reformer. The production locates Ibn Al-Muqaffas work in its original historical context - Iraq circa 750 AD and the dawn of the Abbasid revolution - one of the most turbulent moments in Islamic history, and an age with all too many parallels to our own. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Richard III: An Arab Tragedy | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2007 | |||||
Company: | The Culture Project (Kuwait) and Sulayman Al-Bassam Theatre | |||||
| 1st Published: | published in French - Richard III: une tragedie arabe (Paris: L'avant-scene Theatre, 2008), | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #63320 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | adaptation Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | extras | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Shakespeare. Arabic Translation by Mehdi Al-Sayigh | |||||
Synopsis: | this engrossing Arabic adaptation of Richard III, which comes all the way from Kuwait, and isjampacked with multimedia interventions and theatrical display that can be both exhilarating and distracting. Translated into what I instantly recognised as a mix of classical Arabic and more modern colloquial forms, SulaymanAl-Bassam's adaptation makes evil Richard of Gloucester the aspirant king of a Middle Eastern peninsula. Backed by foreign interests, in the form of a French Buckingham, he falls out with them once he has grasped control of the crown. Eventually, his tyrannical behaviour leaves him open to an external invasion backed by dissident internal forces. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Speaker's Progress, The |
| 1st Produced: | BAM Harvey Theatre | 06 Oct 2011 | |||
Company: | SABAB Theatre | ||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #133886 | ||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | ||||
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Genre: | piece | ||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | |
Parts other: | - | ||||
Notes: | Music By: Lewis Gibson | ||||
Synopsis: | A condemned 1960s staging of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night has become the focal point for political resistance blogs and underground social network movements. The state, eager to suppress this dangerous mixture of nostalgia and dissent, commissions The Speaker, a once-radical theater producer now turned regime apologist, to mount a forensic reconstruction and public denunciation of the work. As The Speaker and his group of non acting volunteers delve deeper into the ""reconstruction"" they find themselves increasingly engaged with the material they are supposed to be condemning. They soon discoverin the act of performance and the growing participation of their audiencea solidarity that transforms the gathering itself into an unequivocal act of defiance towards the state. | ||||
Further Reference: | - |
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Trading | ||
| 1st Produced: | Gulf Youth Theatre Festival | 2003 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #52171 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Tragi-comedy Tragedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | It was conceived as a play for and about young people, commissioned by the National Council for Youth and Sport in Kuwait and performed in Arabic by a team of young Kuwaiti actors | |||||
Synopsis: | Parallel-tastic! It is always a pleasure to see what new situations our Bard's stuff can be applied to. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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