The short play Saber Came to Tea explores powerful themes.
It will be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this weekend. The collaborative production featuring original music and multimedia elements, is based on true events about a young Yemeni couple defying traditions and risking their lives to be together.
Yemeni artists-in-exile Shatha Altowai and her husband, composer Saber Bamatraf, used their experience to create the narrative with writer and director Robert Rae.
Saber Came to Tea is part of five other theatre pieces from Community Interest Company ART27’s First Hand series.
Rae is co-director of ART27 and also co-wrote Saber Came to Tea.
“Saber and Shatha arrived in Scotland via the University of Edinburgh artists in exile scheme,” Rae tells The National. “When we met, it struck me that here’s a real opportunity in terms of the context of what ART27 does.”
Altowai and Bamatraf relocated to Edinburgh after the escalation of the civil war in Yemen made it dangerous for them as artists. The couple had earlier released a short documentary, Voice of the Rainbow, which explored and questioned many conventions of Yemeni society, which restricted the freedoms of artists and women.
After facing harassments and threats they emigrated to Edinburgh in November 2020 with the support of the Artist Protection Fund.
Saber Came to Tea was an idea Altowai and Bamatraf had while still in Yemen.
“These kinds of stories are based on issues in a family are a bit sensitive,” Altowai says. “We wanted to do it but we didn’t know how until we came to Scotland and met Robert who encouraged us to just get it done.”
Consisting of seven cast members including two musicians, Saber Came to Tea is the story of a groom who leaves the city to visit his new wife’s family in their village. Once there, he’s surprised at the modest and conservative life her family lead.
“This is basically a true story,” Bamatraf says.
“When the civil war erupted in Yemen two months into our marriage we had to be separated. Women went to the villages for safety and men stayed in the capital. After six months, we decided we’d get together in the capital and start our art initiatives but then our house was destroyed by an air strike. These kinds of stories and conversations are covered in the play.”
Through a little magic and drama, the audience is immersed in the story of the wife Aflan, played by Altowai, who stands in defiance against the constraining social norms of her family.
Altowai explains how surreal and difficult it was to play a version of herself based on actual events that defined her.
“It’s interesting to be myself in Scotland but feeling that I’m still in Yemen,” she says. “I miss my family and my country and that’s why I changed the name of my character. I couldn’t do it with my name, it evoked too many emotions.”
The drama is performed in Arabic with English subtitles appearing on screens on each side of the stage. The screens also provide stunning visuals of the Yemeni landscape.
“Like many people, my head has been filled with images of the destruction in Yemen,” says Rae. “But suddenly we are looking at very beautiful images and you recognise what a stunning place it is.
"Also Saber’s music is incredibly accessible. For example, the piece Arabia is a beautiful.”
Bamatraf performs four pieces of originally music in the play, most of them composed in Yemen.
"Arabia explores and expresses my feelings of living in the complexities of our city during the war and the everything that’s been happening in Arabia. The piece is more of interpretations and expressions form my inner self," he says.
“I hope that the audience, gets to see our position when we were in Yemen. We were living in very hard conditions. Bombardments from the sky, dealing with these social norms specially constraining women’s freedoms, a lot of issues against artists and all of these issues we see in the news.
"But within that we can see positivity and resilience and that is what I want people to see is also happening in Yemen.”
Scroll through the gallery for more pictures from Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
PRO BASH
Thursday’s fixtures
6pm: Hyderabad Nawabs v Pakhtoon Warriors
10pm: Lahore Sikandars v Pakhtoon Blasters
Teams
Chennai Knights, Lahore Sikandars, Pakhtoon Blasters, Abu Dhabi Stars, Abu Dhabi Dragons, Pakhtoon Warriors and Hyderabad Nawabs.
Squad rules
All teams consist of 15-player squads that include those contracted in the diamond (3), platinum (2) and gold (2) categories, plus eight free to sign team members.
Tournament rules
The matches are of 25 over-a-side with an 8-over power play in which only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle. Teams play in a single round robin league followed by the semi-finals and final. The league toppers will feature in the semi-final eliminator.
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
The specs: Volvo XC40
Price: base / as tested: Dh185,000
Engine: 2.0-litre, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 250hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.4L / 100km
The biog
Age: 59
From: Giza Governorate, Egypt
Family: A daughter, two sons and wife
Favourite tree: Ghaf
Runner up favourite tree: Frankincense
Favourite place on Sir Bani Yas Island: “I love all of Sir Bani Yas. Every spot of Sir Bani Yas, I love it.”
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Europe wide
Some of French groups are threatening Friday to continue their journey to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the European Union, and to meet up with drivers from other countries on Monday.
Belgian authorities joined French police in banning the threatened blockade. A similar lorry cavalcade was planned for Friday in Vienna but cancelled after authorities prohibited it.
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
