Date
February 8, 2016
Venue
Community Meeting Room at Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Avenue, Evanston IL 60201
Hamlet was first performed in Egypt around 1893 as a historical romance in which Hamlet defeats his uncle, and reigns with the Ghost’s blessing. “Culturally transplanted” Shakespeare has a lengthy performance history in the Middle East, especially among the educated elite. Yet how is Shakespeare connecting today to a broader Middle Eastern audience?
Riad Ismat, Buffett Institute Visiting Scholar and former Syrian Minister of Culture, is an award-winning Syrian short-story writer and author. He was awarded an honorary PhD, from Greenwich University, for his Shakespeare contributions. He has also directed Shakespeare for Damascus National Theater and The Academy. His television serial, A Crown of Thorne, liberally borrowed themes and characters from such plays as Macbeth, Richard III, Hamlet, King Lear and As You Like It, basing the events of that saga in the Arabian Desert in the pre-Islamic period. Dr. Ismat will examine the history of Shakespearean performance in the Middle East and discuss his own extensive experience with Shakespearean productions. This program is offered in collaboration with Evanston Public Library, as part of the #DiscoverWill: Illinois Libraries Celebrate Shakespeare’s First Folio program series.