Horrible Histories Barmy Britain

The Horrible Histories musical comedy theatre show returned to Dubai this weekend with Barmy Britain, a journey through British history. Although it was staged this time in the huge Madinat Theatre, and with more showtime options from which to choose, I nonetheless made a relatively early booking, as the show is immensely popular. I'm not sure how many other adult fans of the TV show were in the audience, as almost everyone else seemed to be accompanying children. Even I was the only one, though, who cares? As a history geek, I could not miss it.

No material from the TV series was used in the hour-long show, as far as I recall from the former, but the two-man cast still had some great sketches scripted and songs composed to bring alive British historical facts and figures, from Boudica to Charles I to Victoria. The HH TV show tradition of contrasting historical contexts with modern culture ad absurdum could be seen in some of the sketches, such as Queen Elizabeth going undercover, and the Dick Turpin story done in the style of a reality TV show. The actors did well for the number of very diverse roles they had to play, pulling quick costume changes between sketches, and delivering a very energetic performance all through.

So while the show was oriented towards a child audience (with a couple of sing-along games and such), I still found most of it engaging at my level, and certainly very educational.

Blazing a theatrical trail with Draupadi

In case anyone was wondering about the week of social AWOL that preceded it, I had been immersed in this year's big theatre project: Draupadi - The Voice of Dignity. Indeed the largest production in which I have ever been involved, it was also the furthest away from my general idea of the kind of theatre in which I would be involved: music, dance, physical theatre, body paint, bodysuits, etc. Having not been an audience member myself, I can only comment on the experience of being stage-side.

Firstly, it was a huge privilege performing at the capacious and opulent Madinat Theatre. These seats would soon be packed through, and the Indian Consul General would attend one of our shows. The second show's audience was more audibly responsive than that of the first show, but I gathered that both proffered favorable reviews.

Us statues with designer and graphic artist Nivi Saha

Our makeup artists and costume designers/tailors did a fantastic job with the body paint, body suits and costumes. Especially with stage lighting, I was taken aback at just how convincing my fellow statues appeared.

(photo credit: Sarah Arfan Photgraphy)

Having to be on stage about 90% of the time, we spent most of the time on the yajna platform in stillness (but changing poses from time to time), occasionally breaking off or coordinating to act out short background scenes or be human props. Given the diversity in backgrounds and physiques of the statues, it must have been interesting to watch how each of us executed our parts (being fairly well-versed in the Mahabharata, I integrated imagery from the ongoing story into my free poses)

Classical Indian dance

(photo credit: Sarah Arfan Photgraphy)

(photo credit: Sarah Arfan Photgraphy)

The play told the story of Draupadi using both dialogue and dance theatre, focusing on her birth, her betrothal contest and marriage to all five Pandava brothers, her humiliation in the Kaurava court, and the death of her sons, the Upapandavas, in the legendary India-wide Mahabharata war. It was illustrated with spellbinding classical Indian and contemporary dance by local troupes, Tapasya and Loom Ensemble, as well as Third Half Theatre's staging of segments of a philosophical discussion between a modern-day Krishna and Krishnaa (one of Draupadi's epithets).

Although I was disappointed that the classical dancers did not wear more traditional costumes, it was a worthy sacrifice in the cause of quick costume changes, which were required in order to play different roles in different scenes. I was impressed by how, despite having to perform complex, coordinated dance sequences, the classical dancers also did a great job with acting. The show culminated in a wonderful final scene of both sets of actors/dancers performing onstage together as the ancient and modern pairing of Krishna and Draupadi.

(photo credit: Sarah Arfan Photgraphy)

And not in the least, the delightful classical/modern fusion music and singing by the Malhaar Choir, combined with Nivi Saha's glorious graphical artworks of scenes and motifs from the epic, gave a thoroughly inspiring sound and look to the production. It was hard to stay still with such great music playing right next to me, and to not move my head to watch the audio-visuals and dance. I am just so proud and honored to have been trusted with a role in this ginormous endeavor.

Draupadi: A fiery woman in a crowded theater

Being offered a part in this project came as a bit of a surprise. But knowing that Draupadi - The Voice of Dignity involved the Malhaar Choir, Loom Ensemble, and Third Half Theatre, it was not hard to say "yes". It also helped that I was several weeks into a Mahabharata mythos geek trip.

Although I, as a cast member, repeatedly witness their performances, the choir has me rapt each time we do a run-through. The instrumental array features Indian classical music instruments together with electric guitar, synth keyboard and cajon, producing hypnotic music that straddles West and East. The singing is rousing and spellbinding (a couple have become the earworms of the month), and the dancers make their well-practiced skill seem almost effortless in mesmerizing choreography; listening to the choir and watching the dance makes the countless hours of rehearsal feel not as long.

Thanks to Third Half Theatre and Loom Ensemble, these song, music and dance segments are interspersed and framed with an English-scripted philosophical/magical story that references the epic, along with contemporary dance and physical theatre.

As for my role, I don't want to give away details, except that watching fidgety me hold still for minutes at a time is in itself a spectacle. I have never done anything in this particular style of theatre, but we have a supportive and enthusiastic team. Therefore, I have high expectations of a grand performance, especially extrapolating what I have glimpsed of the production aspects.

The play stages on May 23rd/Fri and 24th/Sat, 7:30pm, at Madinat Theatre. There are a few tickets still on sale, and they can be purchased at timeouttickets.com or at the Madinat Theatre's offline box office.

Mime and dance in Mirror for the Soul

It's been a week of theatrical discoveries: first, Raw Theatre, and now, Alterum Theatre. Alterum seems to be of Russian origin, and primarily focused on dance, which they performed as a philosophical drama. Instead of what usually comes to mind when one hears of a Russian dance performance, though, this was a thoroughly contemporary show, comprised of mime, physical theatre, and brilliantly-choreographed, expertly-timed dance sequences derived from street/BBoy styles. In terms of design, it was also visually a huge treat all around, and I loved the steampunk masks and mime makeup, as well as the vintage costumes.

Dance of the Devadasi by Maayavi at Madinat Theatre

Maayavi Dance Drama Concepts' Indian classical dance spectacular Dance of the Devadasi was a through entertainment experience, from start to finish. I'd never before seen a combination of drama and Bharatnatyam, and the plot of this dance drama, centered around the tropes of youthful ambition, budding love, jealous scheming, dashed hopes and tragedy overcome, was heartwarming and familiar, and propped up the dance sequences well.

I did feel that there was a bit too much going on with the lights; I would have preferred something more subtle in that department. Some of the music was embellished with contemporary percussion and effects; I would have preferred more classical music, but the event seems to have been marketed as a fusion thing, so I should have probably expected this to happen. Also, the dialogue was pre-recorded and dubbed into the play, which was a little awkward and unnatural-sounding at times.

As far as what we came for, namely the dancing, the dancers performed well, especially lead dancer Bhakti Harish as the titular devadasi. The scene in which she performs for the visiting prince was, I think, particularly grand and well-executed, including a nice duet dance.

BOLDTalks Woman 2013

I've been attending the annual BOLDTalks ensemble speaker event for the past three years. And so far, it's been the one every year. This year, however, BOLDTalks is expanding with various special interest sessions, starting with a female-focused BOLDTalks Woman event. According to this event's description, "each discussion will present on a matter related to women". Apart from myself, there were a fair number of men in the audience, and this was very encouraging.

The event was, as usual, opened with a word from organizer Tamer Nahas, who introduced the BOLDTalks concept. As with the main conference earlier this year, it was held at it's new home this year, Madinat Theatre.

Nahas then handed the event over to the master of ceremonies, Bexta Tierney. I thought Tierney hosted the event rather well, with good stage presence and command of the proceedings, and adhering to the Law of Brevity in general.

The event got off to a great start with the first speaker, Rana Husseini, who talked about how she came to fight against violence inflicted upon women in order to preserve an archaic notion of social honor. Resolving, as a young journalist, to not let these "honor killings" go unreported or under-reported, she brought the issue into the spotlight in her native Jordan. An imposing and determined woman, she persevered in raising broad awareness of the problem until the government stopped letting the murderers get away with light penalties, as was previously the case. She also provided many somber statistics on the prevalence of honor killings, the motivations, and the perpetrator profiles (which included the role of women in perpetrating or covering up the murders).

The next speaker, Marina Cantacuzino, presented her reconciliation- and forgiveness-based response to violence and injustice, providing various stories illustrating where this concept succeeded (and occasionally did not quite succeed). She discussed "The Forgiveness Project", which she founded to promote this vision of forgiveness breaking cycles of revenge.

Cantacuzino and Husseini were then seated together for a panel of sorts, with the debate titled "Forgiveness vs Punishment". Honestly, I found this juxtaposition very strange, as there did not seem to be a conflict between the two. Certainly not as far as the speakers were concerned, as from neither talk did I get the impression that any speaker was advocating one at the expense of the other. For that matter, Cantacuzino said rather clearly in her talk that forgiveness was independent of justice, and did not equate it to judicial leniency. In any case, other matters ended up being discussed. I just wish the "panel" had a more convincing motion to debate.

Cath Turner, an NYC-based Al Jazeera English reporter, was next, talking about her experience tracing her origins to the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. She spoke about how "Operation  Babylift", the airlifting of Vietnamese babies like herself out of South Vietnam, followed by their resettlement in adoptive homes (in her case, that of a white Australian family), was more about propaganda value. She played clips from a documentary of hers to illustrate this discovery, and the story of how she tracked and was reunited with her biological mother. While I sympathized with her having been drafted as a baby into an American propaganda campaign, and the discomfort she experienced growing up as a "visible minority", I quite disagree with how she extended that experience to apply to all adoptions across racial lines. I certainly don't agree with her perception of the importance of "blood and soil", and of socialization of children with others who look like them.

The final speaker before lunch was sassy Yemeni self-appointed "queen" Nadia Al-Sakkaf. Herself the daughter of a - fortunately - supportive father, she was able to take advantage of relatively (for women) rare educational opportunities, and rise professionally to become the chief editor of the Yemen Times. She shared some inspiring stories of how various Yemeni girls and women had overcome barriers to women put in place by the patriarchal society into which they were born. She also spoke about how the situation for women in Yemen is getting better, contrary to general perception. Hers was one of the best talks of the day, as she was an excellent orator, and had some great stories and insights to share.

After a hearty lunch, we were audience to a violin performance by Nadine Artuhanava while attendees returned to their seats.

There were two speakers post-lunch, the first of whom was Accenture's Rebecca Schmitt. Hers was also one of the best talks of the day, as she narrated her journey through her career while taking on incremental challenges of motherhood. Eventually going through a period of settling for a contained part-time job as her brood expanded, she talked about the decision to do so. She went on to talk about how she eventually landed up in India, becoming the breadwinner of her family, while her husband became a stay-at-home dad, and how this situation was perceived socially. Accenture being the lead sponsors, I was concerned that her talk would have a lot of corporate spiel. This was not the case, thankfully.

The second and final speaker was Rania Amer, the founder of the Pure Heart Program. She discussed the challenges of reintegrating cancer survivors into the workforce, and talked about her efforts in combating prejudice against them returning to productive jobs suitable for them. One of these efforts is a novel job fair aimed specifically at cancer survivors, and linking them up with prospective employers.

For her work with cancer survivors, Amer was presented with an award by a representative of the lead sponsor, Accenture.

The show closed on a musical note, as the all-female Indian pop fusion quartet Indiva took to the stage to entertain us with song and story, including their recent awareness-raising song about anti-woman violence, Suno. A couple of jam numbers with Julie-Ann of Dubai Drums was included.

All the featured speakers were accomplished, and had taken a stand for what they believed was right. Husseini, Al-Sakkaf and Schmitt, especially, were not only accomplished women, but also addressed issues specifically related to women's lives and challenges, and so fit the event's stated purpose more closely. All in all, I think the event was worth attending for the perspectives and narratives of these female achievers.

Fridge Score: Katya Apekisheva

This week, I had the pleasure of attending a Katya Apekisheva piano concert. The penultimate show in The Fridge's debut classical music series The Score, it was a breathtaking demonstration of long-honed skill with my favorite musical instrument. We were treated to a few well-known compositions in the first half, a second half consisting of Mussorgsky's Pictures in an Exhibition, and a Grieg encore. The acoustics of the Madinat Theatre were also most conducive to the better appreciation of the performance.