Arabic-English resuscitation

Afshan Ahmed talks to the Emirati playwright Saleh Karama Al Aameri, whose Arabic plays have been adapted for an English-speaking cast.

The Emirati playwright Saleh Karam Al Aameri. Lee Hoagland / The National

The Emirati playwright Saleh Karama Al Aameri stands on the sidelines of a rehearsal, hand on chin, intently following the interpretation of his Arabic plays by an English-speaking cast, days before they perform for audiences in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

Four of his plays, which have received much praise in the Arab world, have been translated into English and will be staged by members of Resuscitation Theatre in the capital.

“I like to keep a close eye on the adaptation of my work,” says Al Aameri, with the assistance of a translator.

“I’ve noticed how true the actors are to the script even though it is in a different language. It still has the soul of my work.”

The show Under One Umbrella is the theatre group’s united effort to expose non-Arabic-speaking theatre fans to Emirati writers and their views on society and ­culture.

Maggie Hannan, the director of the group, says it wants to promote local work in performing arts.

“There is this stereotype of what Emirati culture is,” she says.

“Most people feel that it is only about camels, falcons, dates and cars decorated on National Day. What we are doing now is showing them that there are writers such as Saleh who think. It is just that their voices aren’t heard enough.”

Al Aameri, who set up the Abu Dhabi Theatre in 1977, has written 17 plays and several short stories, receiving awards such as the Best Arabic Play at the Cairo Arab Theatre Festival in 2007. He and a friend developed the English versions – One More Try, Sea Breeze, Evening Chat and Mobius – which will be performed by 17 actors, led by five directors.

“I want more people to see my work,” he says. “The outside world can discover what our literature is like and start reading.”

Hannan believes his work takes the same direction that was dominant in the writings of the 20th-century writer Franz Kafka. “When I read the play I was astonished at the bold concepts it tackles,” says Hannan, who has directed One More Try.

“It is what we call absurdist vein, it is all very symbolic.”

Resuscitation Theatre first debuted One More Try in English last year. This year, the company, known to Emiratise well-known western plays, decided to refine four of Al Aameri’s translated one-act pieces for a show.

While Al Aameri’s writing borrows from day-to-day experiences or conversations picked up at coffee shops, a lot of it dwells on personal conflict as well.

“There is a bit of me in every play I write,” he says.

“A writer cannot give his best work if he lives in a paradise. He has to worry and go through pain and that comes through in some of my work,” says the writer and filmmaker.

“I was moulded by this medina’s [city] sands and suddenly around me I see everything growing so rapidly. How would you react if you suddenly find your city so ­different?”

He says the dissonance with the rapidly morphing environment in which he grew up is recurring.

“I love my city, I adore it, but I feel lost. Where should I go? I still feel like an outsider in my own city. It rips my heart out.”

This disconnect is the central theme of his play Sea Breeze, which he wrote in 2007.

Al Aameri says a single emotion has to be carried forward with imagination to create something for stage. “I always write with the idea that it should be enacted. I imagine where the actors will be on stage and how they will emote. So my writing starts with real life – but then I add to it. I try to take small stories and imagine what may have happened before or after to create a script.”

Hannan says the charm lies in being able to interpret his scripts in different ways.

“My western point of view is very different from what Saleh may want to portray. For example, in the play Evening Chat, I have a contrasting view of the character. For me, the play is about control and betrayal.”

Al Aameri says he would like the audience to come to their own conclusions. “I prefer that people have different opinions and emotions after the play,” he says. “A non-Arabic-speaking audience may be more entertained by my work because they place deeper meanings and symbolism to actions, which enables them to ponder over it afterwards.”

• One More Try and Sea Breeze are on tomorrow and Friday, November 21 and 23; Evening Chat and Mobius are on Thursday and Saturday, November 20 and 22. Shows start at 8pm at Emirates Writers Union Auditorium, National Theatre, Abu Dhabi, opposite Abu Dhabi Media on 15th Street between 2nd and 4th streets. Tickets are Dh75 for adults, Dh50 for students. Visit www.timeouttickets.com. After-show talks will take place tonight and on November 20 with the actors, directors and playwright

the plays

One More Try

• Director: Maggie Hannan

A prisoner, about to go on trial for the murder of her husband whom she caught committing adultery with her best friend, has accepted her fate and is looking forward to the death penalty. She is confronted by her lawyer who wants to free her. But what is freedom? Are any of us really free?

Sea Breeze

• Director: Robert Liddington

Four characters in one story. One is a guiding force who leads them on a rough-and-tumble journey, looking for a way out. Another is sceptical about his motives and the outcome of the enterprise. A third is fearful yet posturing and the fourth is the anchor who brings them down to reality. These prisoners of their behaviour, attitudes, abilities and inabilities come face to face with their frailties and limitations. In doing so, they give us some insight into this predicament.

Evening Chat

• Directors: Faisal Salah and Faisal Al Jadir

Two estranged brothers finally meet. Their long delayed encounter is plagued by secrets of their pasts, which they will have to reveal sooner rather than later.

Mobius

• Director: Zakaia Cvitanovich

A man, sitting in his cafe, hears a knock at the door. His self-imposed isolation is infiltrated by a woman: one woman who manifests into other women. Are the women real? Or is all this his imagination? Have the mistakes of his youth come back to haunt him? Or is he just a man in his twilight alone with his memories?