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Home > Literature and Theatre Studies > The Al-Hamlet Summit
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The Al-Hamlet Summit

Author: Sulayman Al-Bassam

Price: £9.99 (free postage)

"

“Al-Bassam’s astonishing text … takes the story of Hamlet and reworks it in a rich new poetic version … the results are electrifying.”


The Scotsman

About the book

“A superbly constructed dramatisation of a society's descent into fundamentalism and chaos” Sunday Herald

The Al-Hamlet Summit is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s 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 predecessor’s 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.

  • About the Author/s:

    Sulayman Al-Bassam

    Sulayman Al-Bassam was born in Kuwait in 1972.

    Other works include The Mirror for Princes, an imaginative exploration of the current war in Iraq as seen from the viewpoint of an eighth century Abbasid scribe (premiered at the Barbican in spring 2006) and an adaptation in Arabic of Richard III (which premieres in 2007 as part of The RSC’s Complete Works Festival in Stratford-on-Avon). He divides his time between Kuwait and London.

ISBN: 978-1-902806-62-4 Format: Paperback, 176pp Published: Aug 2006

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