Trojan Women by Resuscitation Theatre

Abu Dhabi theatre group Resuscitation Theatre kept up the tradition of creative adaptation in the city's theatre scene, bringing Euripides' classic Greek tragedy The Trojan Women to the National Theatre stage as Trojan Women: A Very Moving Tale.

The play, which ran for about an hour, started off with a very action-filled and dynamic opening segment depicting the sack of Troy, followed by scenes in which the Trojan women lament and negotiate their fate as the Achaeans pick them off one by one, for slavery or death. The script was transposed into modern times, with the Achaeans wearing Western boot camp military uniforms and dog tags, and the Trojan women wearing paint-splattered, torn clothes. Props, however, still connected with the epic era.

Trojan Women included a significant amount of excellent physical theatre and dance -- par for the course in a Resuscitation Theatre play, but featuring choreographic collaboration with Dubai-based experimental theatre group Loom Ensemble this time around. There were a few singing segments, which I thought were handled very well too. Background music, however, made it difficult to hear some actors' lines from a distance if one was seated closer to a speaker; perhaps more projection was required if an actor is at stage extremes when background music is playing.

It was a job well done by all cast members with the singing and dancing; it can't have been easy to get what must have been varying amounts of experience to the level where everyone can hold their own in a synchronized dance and harmonized song. Acting-wise, I liked Felicia Corral's physical and fiercely expressive Cassandra, as well as Samah Konia's performance as a weary and pragmatic Hecuba. Aditya Vikram Jha did well as Talthybius, and Daughters of Troy, Safia and Sarah Al Mansouri, were impressive for child actors.

Backstage passes Exam

I watched the matinee show of Backstage's theatrical version of the film Exam today. The play, directed by Ahmed Rabieh, is cast in the mold of Cube and such, with a therefore somewhat predictable ending for those acquainted with this genre. Even so, there are plenty of twists throughout to keep the audience interested, starting from mere minutes into the play. One thing I liked about the writing is the world in which the play is set, which is gradually revealed later in the play, to much impact.

The character's archetypes and motivations, and the nature of the test are also slowly unraveled throughout. The acting quality and flow improved as the play picked up momentum; Amod Munga and Meera Almidfa were especially impressive. Costumes, set and props were good, and the play was executed commendably for all its technical demands.

The Yum Yum Room

Filip Ranebo; Laura Quirke; Bryan Mackenie

Despite my weekend schedule being filled with science, I managed to make it to the last show of The Yum Yum Room, staged at the Courtyard Playhouse. The coming-of-age play, written by Stephen House and directed by Sarah Dufayard, is set in a town in the playwright's home country of Australia, and touches upon subjects such as bullying, teen rebellion, growing up, and social stigma.

Filip Ranebo; Sol Abiad

The story is kind of open-ended; I'm guessing the titular room itself is a metaphor for escaping within when faced with the real world. Filip Ranebo plays the angst-ridden main character, Tom, who is portrayed as retaining a childish demeanor into adolescence. Major plot elements are his tempestuous relationship with his father, played by Bryan Mackenzie, ridicule from his peer group, and a naive fling with a schoolmate, played by Laura Quirke. Tom deals with these issues with the help of an elderly confidante, Mrs Mac, who is played extremely well by Sol Abiad with an age makeover. 

Looming large in Dubai theatre

Visiting Loom Ensemble members Sasha Bogdanowitsch and Michael Bauer joined their now Dubai-based fellow members Raphael Sacks and Neva Cockrell at thejamjar, staging their experimental play Say I Am You for the first time here. While the Dubai-based members have been running workshops and short public performances at the same venue for some time now, this marks their debut feature play in the UAE, and is a testament to the potential of online collaboration in theatre production.

We have had plays in the genre in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, including ones featuring dance, but the ensemble brought in something fresh with laudable integration of excellent synchronized singing, and live music performance by actors who often made use of unconventional instruments like panpipes.

Multiple stories taking place in different times and places took turns onstage as they interwove on approach to a shared conclusion. Some of the cast play roles in different stories, so there had to be a lot of quick costume changes. I think the play's greatest strength is the colorful and well-written characters, along with some memorable bits of dialogue for those paying close attention. Michael's performance was especially commendable. I also liked the light use of props (which included visual projection, symbolic objects and found objects), and the use of lighting. A new semi-stepped seating arrangement greatly helped with the visibility of lower parts of stage space. After the show, the Q&A session with the cast and director answered many of our burning questions.

A couple of days later, performing as the Loom Vocal Trio at The Fridge's Fridge Concert Series, Sasha and Raphael sang together with Kate Hamilton, who also directed Say I Am You, and is herself a rather talented singer. Much of the music that night was composed by Sasha too, with cryptic and elemental lyrics sung in forms somewhere between monastic chanting and communal tribal song. Some of the instruments from the play were used in this concert, including a jaw harp in a mesmerizing solo by Sasha.

Irish play Dancing at Lughnasa at DUCTAC

I had myself a little Irish theatre experience over the weekend with Dancing at Lughnasa, the debut production of a group that calls itself "Danu". The play itself, however, has a long history, and was even made into a feature film. About two hours in length, it was staged in one of the better-done sets I've seen at DUCTAC's Kilachand.

Set in inter-bellum coastal Ireland, in a small town, it centers on the relationships of and among five female characters, each written as a different archetype. Conflict between between social norms and personal fulfillment is one of the primary themes, along with insecurity and independence. The cast playing them do a good overall job of bringing to life women who are both strong and vulnerable. I thought Dererca Lynch and Aileen Kelly were particularly outstanding as Christina and Maggie Mundy, respectively.

Among the male characters, my favorite was Father Jack, and not just for the creative writing. Hats off to Paul McMahon for a great performance.

Backstage short play night at Cartoon Art Gallery

Backstage's weekend of short plays at Cartoon Art Gallery began tonight with two Alex Broun minis and one hour-long by Woody Allen. There were some good scripts to look forward to, so I had high hopes.

Alas, the first play, Exiting, came out quite obviously jinxed. There was often insufficient -- and sometimes, even incoherent -- projection of dialogue, especially at the beginning, and especially from the slimmer of the two actors (who also seemed to wear a permanent smirk, regardless of what was going on with his character). His costar did a much better job with his character, saving the play somewhat. Of course, little could be done by the actors about the fact that both twists were pretty much given away in the program. The second play, Selling Johnny Depp, turned out a bit better, although the actors, especially the male ones, could really have done much more in terms of emoting.

Death

Death

The post-interval Woody Allen play, Death, was a refreshing breath of good theatre, though. With effort put into ensuring visibly good production value, and generally good acting and directing, it was about as entertaining as a play with that script should be. Apart from one instance of thick accent obscuring lines (especially given the acoustics at the venue) and a few fumbles, the delivery was good all around. My only recommendation: I would have preferred more Woody-esque deadpan from the lead character, rather than near-constant wide-eyed shock. Overall, Backstage pulled off a good job with this one; I wish the preceding ones were done as well.

KR&JP 2013 Travelogue Day 6: Art and theatre in Busan

After a hectic few days of history, I took a little break in Busan. A break from history, that is.

Busan is one of Korea's cultural capitals, and it's second largest conurbation. A hilly and verdant city with lots of apartment block clusters and bespoke towers (left) boasting a lot of great food places and quirky cafes (right), it somewhat reminds me of Singapore. It's also significant for its modern-era history, as it served as a Republic stronghold during the Korean War. The return of the sun made it a lovely place to walk around and take in the sights.

Like Gyeongju Museum, large parts of Busan Museum (top left) were under renovation, leaving mainly the History Experience Room and its Joseon-era relics (bottom), costume display (top right) and ritual reconstructions (middle left) to see. And, finally, a chance to dress up, albeit as a Joseon king (middle right). One of the English-speaking stewards of the place was very interested in, well, my interest in Korean history and culture; we had a nice chat as she showed me around and helped me with the costume.

After lunch, I spent pretty much the entire afternoon and early evening in the Busan Museum of Art. The vast, multi-storeyed building was hosting a featured exhibition of Shin Sang-Ho's Final Frontier exhibition, the bulk of which was composed of the Boldly Go series: sarcophagus-like figures sailing a fleet of riveted metal ships (top left). Inside, several rooms, large and small, housed special exhibitions by modern and contemporary artists, such as Kim Bong-Tae's Accumulation (bottom right). One thing I especially liked about not only Busan Museum of Art, but many other Korean museums as well, was their inclusion of children's sections that engaged young visitors while not patronizing them.

Earlier in the day, I had seen a poster (bottom left) for a local theatre group's production, Off-Stage, for which the very nice chap at The Man Coffee also helped me reserve a seat. I hurried over to the Actor's Theater in the evening to watch it. The theater, like many of the good things in Korea, is down a staircase leading to the basement. It's a little cramped in the corridor, but fairly spacious in the actual theater room, and had an elaborate set (top) in place for the play. The play itself was about the relationships between and among two invisible ghosts and two living humans in a backstage room. I did not understand a lot of it, having very little knowledge of Korean, but it was still fun to watch some good acting by the cast (bottom right).

I had a lot more time for food today. For lunch, it was the spicy pork bone stew called gamjatang (top left) and the stuffed dumplings called mandu (top right). I tried a couple of snacks too: bungeoppang (middle left), a sort of sweet-stuffed waffle shaped like a fish, and goguma twigim (middle right), a supremely delicious tempura-like sweet potato fritter. For dinner, I had another pork stew (bottom left) at a Chinese-Korean place. I also tried a couple of local beverages, such as the energy drink vita500, which is advertised using a cute jingle, and cold Dutch coffee, which seems to be very popular in Korea.

And the night was passed in bar-hopping and sampling local beers. Yes, that is Psy on the right.

A Resuscitation Theatre play reading with Saleh Karama

It's not often that theater groups get to meet the writers of plays on which they're working, but Emirati director/playwright Saleh Karama dropped in on one of the play-reading sessions of Abu Dhabi-based theater group Resuscitation Theatre last week. I have been doing readings with the group for a couple of months, and we've covered three of his plays thus far. After their success together with One More Try last season, the group will be staging more of his works in the coming months.

With each play having been originally written in Arabic, and replete with metaphor and allusion to boot (one being particularly abstract as well), there were a lot of burning questions on everyone's minds, and it was great to be able to get these out and answered. I look forward to these plays making it to stage, especially the second one.

Resuscitation Theatre stages One More Try by Saleh Karama

Abu Dhabi's experimental/contemporary theater group, Resuscitation Theatre, staged Emirati playwright Saleh Karama's play One More Try last Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi National Theatre. The play, directed by Maggie Hannan, starred a tight cast of four, and ran ten short of an hour.

Khristene Astoriano as Baya, Sanoop Dinesh as the guard, Prabhath Dhevindra as Toufic

It was about the rather odd circumstances and encounters of a woman, Baya, who is in prison after killing her husband for cheating on her with her best friend, Betina. Betina later visits her and shares a cordial chat. Her lawyer, Toufic, is a conflicted and frustrated man, who seems to be trying to mess with her mind, which she variously deflects and reciprocates. The unnamed prison guard spends most of his time in the background, engrossed in closed circuit surveillance and interpretive dance.

Khristene Astoriano as Baya, Nancy Awar as Betina

Khristene Astoriano did a very commendable job playing Baya, her ample theater experience showing in her portrayal of this seemingly fatalistic character. I also liked Sanoop Dinesh's prison guard, well-choreographed and fluid as he was. Aside from a few lines sounding forced, it was an enjoyable experience in its genre, especially towards the end.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Dubai Drama Group

Brooke Butterworth as Titania, Ciaran O Maoilchiarain as Bottom, Cliff Single as Oberon, and Zain Sheikh as Puck

My last acquaintance with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was back in literature class in school. Dubai Drama Group's production of the famous comedy of errors at DUCTAC last weekend was far removed from the ancient Greek imagery in my young head, though, set as it was in mid-20th century America.

Jennifer Cooper as Helena, Olivia Middleton as Hermia, Ben Franklin as Demetrius, and Stefan Malinowski as Lysander

I was very pleased with both the choice and implementation of the costumes. All the human characters' clothes looked sharp and consistent. Having the royal fairy couple dressed up in East Asian attire was a nice touch, as were their hairstyles and face paint; all of these served well to set their world apart from that of the humans. Set design was also good - minimal, but quality. I'm not sure why the fairy underlings had to manipulate puppets of themselves, but this was executed well too.

Erik Hadden as Theseus, Celia Cookson as Hippolyta, and Hani Yakan as Francis Flute

As for the actors, practically everyone made excellent work of it, and while there were a few dialogue fumbles post-interval (this was the first show, though, so I trust this would have been remedied in subsequent shows), everything went on smoothly.

Toby Masson as Tom Snout

I especially liked Cliff Single's Oberon, and Zain Sheikh gave us an unceasingly energetic performance as Puck. Among the humans, I thought Olivia Middleton as Hermia and Ben Franklin as Demetrius were particularly outstanding. Ciaran O Maoilchiarain's Bottom was brilliant in all three forms, and Toby Masson's portrayal of Tom Snout was hilarious. 

Murder Mystery at The Western Steakhouse

There was blood on the night of May 23rd at The Western Steakhouse in Crowne Plaza SZR, and not just from the rare steaks. The campy immersion murder mystery, performed by the Dubai Drama Group actors amidst diners' tables, has been one of the group's signature performances in Dubai. The previous one, performed with the Emirates Festival of Literature, was sold out within no time, so I booked early for this one.

Western attire was recommended, and often seen on diners' persons that night. Each act was performed before, between and after the meal package's three courses, during which the actors would amble around tables and chat with diners in character.

After the characters were introduced in the first act, the relationships among  them were revealed and potential motivations for murder were exposed - from business ambitions, to unrequited love, to domineering attitudes. The first corpse hit the floor before the main course, and the rest of the play was filled with accusations and counter-accusations, as well as a second murder to raise the stakes. Before the murderer's identity was revealed at the end of the play, an audience vote was taken on who they think it might be. I was way off; I should have gone for a more obvious choice.

Each character portrayed an archetype, with Salman Qureshi doing a great job as a lovelorn kid, and Lamya Tawfik as a jolly but wily agent. Gold stars also to Sarah Murphy for pulling off an American-ish accent; we had only one actual American, namely seasoned actor Brent Jenkins, in the cast. Diners would be pulled up for a dance or a playful interrogation from time to time, mostly preceding the introductory act before the starters; this added a nice, engaging  touch to the event.

Are You There? by STAR TOO at The Fridge

I caught the late matinee of STAR TOO's most recent play last Saturday, at The Fridge. As with all of the Dubai experimental theater troupe's productions, the play was titled with a question, the sixth and current one being "Are You There?".

Before the play started, bookkeeper Tareq Ghosheh talked introduced the concept and individually-scripted/collectively-directed methodology of STAR TOO. This play was inspired by Jules Verne's  dystopian 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, which itself only got published in the late 20th century, and is considered to be a visionary piece of writing.

The play got off to a great start by taking a page from the novel and introducing the character Michel, played by Jamal Iqbal, in the first scene. Michel is ridiculed for studying the arts in a society that has been completely taken over by technology and commerce to the point where they are the only fields of work that are considered to have any  value. The story was told using minimal and/or symbolic props and costumes, as is the style of experimental theater. The audience also got to vote between an idealistic and realistic ending.

One of the scenes was a cryptic masked dance led by Shereen Saif, and another was a sort of build-a-machine act around a stuffed corpse doll, both of which were good.

The sequence where the actors here interacted over video comm with actors in Paris was, unfortunately, difficult to follow, due to the choppy quality of the connection, and the audio in general was not too great. Part of the "enslaved to technology" theme, perhaps?

The truth officer candidate's sequence was fairly interesting to watch, with its theme of extreme technological essentialism. Sarah Dufayard was good in this one, and I think Drazen Lucic made a sincere effort. Alexandra Vareno's rantologue near the end was also nice.