“The Arab Spring comes to the theatre in Sydney”
SBS World News Australia, 10 January 2013 (Patrick Abboud)
Full article and video: Arab Spring play premieres in Sydney

“A production of raw urgency.  Its thrilling to see such a fresh production at the Sydney Festival”
Australian Stage, 10 January 2013 (Ashley Walker)
Full article: In the Eruptive Mode

Interviews with Sulayman Al Bassam:
Sydney Festival TV, 10 January 2013
The Australian, 15 December 2012 (Sharon Verghis)
The Brag, Sydney, January 2013 (Rebecca Saffir)

“Ce work in progress qui porte la marque de l’écriture dense, shakespearienne, de Sulayman al Bassam, est un événement exceptionnel qui permettra de prendre la dimension des révolutions arabes dans toute leur paradoxale complexité.”
Gilles Kepel, Sciences Po, Paris 26 June 2012

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“With great flair and courage, Al Bassam presents a revolutionary play that exposes the corruption, repressiveness and intellectual terrorism that has ruled over the Arab world for so long. “
Al Qabas Newspaper, Kuwait (Susan Khawatmi)

“A deeply challenging work for a complex historical moment…also funny, engaging and unique”
Blast Magazine, USA, 14 October 2011 (Jason Rabin)
Full article: Stage Review – Speaker’s Progress at Arts Emerson

“Al-Bassam’s use of an adaptation of Twelfth Night as the central device in The Speaker’s Progress suggests not just that Shakespeare is the universal playwright, a writer for all times and places, but also that art’s power to subvert tyranny transcends eras and cultures.”
The Boston Globe, USA, 15 October 2011 (Don Aucoin)
Full article: The signs of ‘progress’

The Boston Globe, USA, 7 October 2011 (Christopher Wallenberg)
Full article: The Speaker’s Progress sees Twelfth Night through a Kuwaiti lens

Holland Festival blog, 6 June 2012 (Veerle Corstens)

Geslaagd spel met historiche perspectieven
Theaterkrant, 6 June 2012 (Moos van den Broek)

“In this beautifully subtle play The Speaker’s Progress, Shakespeare’s words become a revolutionary weapon”
De Dodo, 7 June 2012 (Daniel Bertina)

How the Arab Spring revitalized the Kuwaiti playwright’s passion
Rolling Stone, Middle East, 1 November 2011 (Janne Louise Andersen)
Full article: Sulayman Al Bassam’s Progress

Radio interview with Jeffrey Brown for PBS Newshour Artbeat, 7 October 2011

“what stands out is the compelling energy and stagecraft of this production, which confirms the power of theater, in talented hands, to tell a story that crosses languages and worlds”
The Bay State Banner, USA, 20 October 2011
Full article: Al Bassam tackles a universal quest in the age of Middle East dictatorships

Arts Emerson tumblr blog

The Hub Review blogspot (Thomas Garvey)

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene blog (Amy Tighe)

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“In this gripping production Al-Bassam has found the perfect correlative to Shakespeare’s poetry. The collision between past and present is smack-on.”
The Daily Telegraph, UK, 15 February 2007 (Dominic Cavendish)
Full article: Putting the sheikh into Shakespeare

“It is your right to ignore me,” mad Margaret announces in the play’s prologue. This production makes that impossible.”
The New York Times, USA, 11 June 2009 (Ben Brantley)
Full article: Gloucester’s Emir, Handsome this time

“an estimable example of artistic cross-fertilization”
The Washington Post, USA, 9 Mar 2009 (Peter Marks)
Full article: Richard III An Arab Tragedy at Terrace Theater

“I searched for a universal story told within the Muslim context and found it in this production of Richard III’“Joseph Melillo (Brooklyn Academy of Music)
The Village Voice, USA, 12 May 2009 (Alexis Soloski)
Full article: BAM’s Muslim Richard III

Video clip from the production for PBS Artbeat

Radio interview with Jacki Lyden, NPR (National Public Radio) USA

Full article: He’ll smile, and smile and be a (Pan-Arabic) villain Radio interview with Karen Frillman for WNYC, USA, 11 June 2009

BBC News video report Arab Culture goes Stateside on the Kennedy Center’s Arabesque Festival in which Richard III An Arab Tragedy played its US premier

Sulayman comments on the different audience reactions to the piece for Inside Media

The National, United Arab Emirates, 02 Feb 2009
Full article: Shakespeare studied in Arabic (Anna Seaman)

David Bootti’s video clip from the UAE premier at Al Ain, for Inside the National

Academic Reviews
“No doubt this already tight and fascinating production will continue to grow both funnier and deeper, and the surtitles will evolve to contain less of Shakespeare’s text and more of Al-Bassam’s. ”
Shakespeare Bulletin 2007 (Margaret Litvin, Yale University)
Full abstract: Project Muse – Theatre Reviews: Richard III An Arab Tragedy [pdf download]

“Al-Bassam begins his play, then, not with a man, but a woman; with a woman who is not English, but declares herself to be Arab; not with a theatrical star, but with a marginal figure; and not with one of victors who, in Walter Benjamin’s formulation, normally have the privilege of writing history, but with one of the defeated.”
Critical Review – Volume 19, Number 3, 2007 (Graham Holderness)
Full abstract: From Summit to Tragedy: Sulayman Al Bassam’s Richard III and Political Theatre [pdf download]

“Al-Bassam’s canny geopolitical translation of Richard III took advantage of the extreme adaptability of Shakespeare to examine the vicious plasticity of power”
Routledge Shakespeare – Volume 5, Number 4, December 2009 (Joseph Campana)
Full abstract [pdf download]

Global Shakespeare

Other media
A 3-camera recording of the performance at Al Ain Fortress, United Arab Emirates (2009), is now available with English surtitles. Please contact us to order a copy

The award-winning documentary Richard III, an Arab VIP is available for screening.
The film follows SABAB’s pan Arab troupe of actors as they travel between the USA and the Middle East, rehearsing and performing. Behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast, crew and audiences raise issues of politics and freedom of expression in the Arab world.
70 minutes in English and Arabic with subtitles
Filmed and Directed by Shakir Abal and Tim Langford
Video trailer

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“Inventively staged, ferociously acted…through it, Al-Bassam asserts the power of the stories themselves to bring about destruction – or creation.”
The New Statesman, UK, 5 June 2006 (Marina Warner) [pdf download]

“An enormously important and timely re-invention of Arab history”
Al-Qabas Daily, Kuwait, 2006

“The show finds its voice in swirling images, a brilliant mix of video and eerie soundscape, and a use of the space that makes it feel as if the whole production is bleeding at the edges. ...Its final 20 minutes are extraordinary, as every aspect of the production comes together in a strange, almost hallucinatory sequence of theatrical power and beauty.”
The Guardian, UK (Lyn Gardner)

“The constantly flowing images that make up this piece are like shards of a broken mirror offering vivid glimpses into a Middle Eastern past and reflecting back to us our present.  The resonances emerge powerfully…its eloquence is visceral and visual.”
The Times, UK, May 2006 (Sam Marlowe)

“These tales combine the wisdom of India, the sophistication of Persia, and the poetry of the Arabs.”
Tah Hussein

“To be a playwright in the Arab world is often a delicate balancing act between censorship and speaking truth to power.”
BBC Radio 3 Nightwaves interview (transcript), May 2006 [pdf download]

Sulayman talks with Andrew Marr and Frank Gardner
BBC Radio 4 ‘Start the Week’ interview (transcript), 5 May 2006  [pdf download]

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“This work is about as original and pulse-quickening as you could wish.”
The Times, UK, 12 March 2004 (Donald Hutera)

“Staged with hypnotic force”
The Independent, UK, 11 March 2004 (Paul Taylor)

“astonishing, electrifying…I doubt whether this year’s Festival will produce another show so directly relevant to the nightmare that is brewing in the Middle East, or so vivid and eloquent in the theatrical means it uses to confront it.”
The Scotsman, UK, 8 August 2002 (Joyce MacMillan)

“Al-Hamlet is a superbly constructed dramatisation of a society’s descent into fundamentalism and chaos… urgent, vital; sublime.”
The Sunday Herald, Scotland, August 2002 (Tim Abrahams)

“a disarming mix of Arab oral poetry and modern political rhetoric”
The Financial Times, UK, 10 March 2004 (Alistair Macaulay)

“Al-Bassam daringly transposes Shakespeare’s classic play to modern Middle Eastern setting”
The Daily Star, Lebanon, 29 March 2004 (Ali Jaafar, Outlook) [pdf download]

Hamlet Bin Hamlet. Sulayman Al Bassam fuses Shakespeare with the Middle East
Emerging Kuwait, 2006 [pdf download]

Culture Wars interview with Shirely Dent [pdf download]

Academic Reviews
“Sulayman Al Bassam’s experiments in the adaptation of Shakespearean drama seem at first glance to be mainly concerned with the sphere of politics…At the same time, Al Bassam is clearly trying to do something else with Shakespeare, something that goes beyond political parallels and ironic commentary on the state of the Middle East.  He is attempting to create new kinds of theatrical language and new forms of cultural mediation.”
European Journal of English Studies, 2006 (Graham Holderness)
Full abstract: Silence Bleeds [pdf download]

When the villain steals the show: the character of Claudius in post-1975 Arab(ic) Hamlet adaptations (Margaret Litvin)
Journal of Arabic Literature XXXVIII, 2, 2007  [pdf download]

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