“To be or not to be”: soldiers in arms and period costumes on the stage of a building dating from the British colonial era, the famous monologue of Hamlet resounds in Arabic in an unprecedented adaptation in Yemen, an extremely rare event in this war-torn country.
Between moral dilemmas and a tragic power struggle, William Shakespeare’s emblematic play has a powerful echo at the gates of the Red Sea, in the poorest country of the Arabian Peninsula, devastated for more than eight years by a bloody conflict between the pro-government fighters to Houthi rebels.
The former are supported by neighboring Saudi Arabia, the latter by Iran, the two great rivals of the Arabo-Persian Gulf.
Organized in partnership with the British Council, the ten performances of Hamlet sold out at the beginning of January in Aden, a southern city controlled by the government and which became its temporary capital following the capture of Sanaa by the Houthis in 2014.
“The play was adapted from Shakespeare’s English into classical Arabic and then into the specific dialect of Aden. » Photo AFP
“Old Dream”
“Most of the reactions are good and promising,” rejoices the director of the play Amr Gamal, also director of Ten Days Before the Wedding, one of the few Yemeni feature films made in recent years.
“People don’t leave the room before the end of the play even though it’s long,” he says.
However, the director expected a “limited” audience, the general public being rarely fond of foreign works. But the success of the play will allow other performances this year, he assures.
The troupe performs in the precincts of Parliament, a historic building that dates from the strong British colonial presence in a strategic city located on the Gulf of Aden, near the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Marwan Mafraq, assistant to the director, evokes “an old dream” finally realized. “It’s not just a Shakespearean play, it’s also the restoration of a historical monument,” he says.
But, beyond this piece, the artistic environment has become very restricted in Yemen because of the conflict, regrets Marwan Mafraq, when the country was known for its very rich history and culture.
The war has devastated this country of 30 million people, facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with a permanent threat of large-scale famine. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced, according to the UN.
” Love and peace ”
The troupe was trained remotely via the Zoom app for two years by the Globe Theater in London and the Volcano Theater in Wales. The British Council, which has overseen this cooperation, affirms its “commitment” to allow “young Yemenis to express themselves creatively”.
“The play was adapted from Shakespeare’s English to classical Arabic and then to the specific dialect of Aden”, explains Omar Majalad, who plays several roles including that of Guildenstern, friend of Hamlet.
“As artists, we always have the hope that there will be great cultural, theatrical or cinematographic productions that highlight Yemeni culture,” says the actor.
If, like many artists around the world, the actress Nour Zaker qualifies Hamlet as a play “not easy that cannot be taken lightly”, she particularly had to face, as a woman, many “very great difficulties”, in a very conservative country.
“My family didn’t object to it, but it’s difficult because society doesn’t accept it,” she says.
But the spectators say they are “greedy” for these cultural events, like Heba el-Bakri, who came to one of the performances of Hamlet. “Our people are exhausted and need entertainment,” she said following one of the performances.
Fadi Abdelmalik also “hopes” to see many other artistic works in the future. Yemen should, he said, “give more importance to art and music to cultivate love and peace”.
By AFP correspondents in Aden, with Shatha YAISH in Dubai
“To be or not to be”: soldiers in arms and period costumes on the stage of a building dating from the British colonial era, the famous monologue of Hamlet resounds in Arabic in an unprecedented adaptation in Yemen, an extremely rare event in this country ravaged by war.Between moral dilemmas and a tragic power struggle, the emblematic play by William…
