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Two UAE theatre professionals to attend Edinburgh Showcase

Actress Samira Ahmed and Dr Habib Al Attar, Senior Director of Theatre at the UAE Ministry of Culture and Youth, will be part of the delegation of more than 25 theatre professionals from the Middle East that will participate in the biennial event. The Edinburgh Showcase would take place alongside the Edinburgh Festival, world’s biggest festival of performing arts.

The Middle East delegation, consisting of theatre personalities from Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the UAE and Yemen, will see a diverse mix of contemporary UK performance and take part in panel discussions on Arab theatre.

Ranging from the experimental to the established, many of the 30 productions programmed by the British Council ask pertinent questions about individual, national and cultural identities in an increasingly inter-connected world.

The Middle East delegation would visit Edinburgh as part of the British Council’s effort to increase opportunities for creative dialogue between people in from the Middle Eastern countries and and the United Kingdom. It will coincide with the launch of British Council’s first comprehensive theatre programme in the Gulf region, building on previous successful projects in other parts of the Middle East, and working with local partners to develop a programme of tours, capacity building and collaborations.

In an Edinburgh Showcase first, Kuwaiti delegate and writer-director Sulayman Al-Bassam will collaborate with acclaimed British playwright Mark Ravenhill. They will produce a brand new play for performance at the Traverse Theatre, in collaboration with award-winning theatre company Paines Plough.

The British Council Director of Drama and Dance, Sally Cowling, said: “Over the last 10 years the Edinburgh Showcase has provided an important marketplace for British theatre makers looking to build an international profile for their work, and an exciting gathering point for theatre presenters from all over the world. We are delighted to welcome our largest-ever delegation from the Middle East this year and for many delegates, particularly from the Gulf region, it will be the first real engagement with contemporary UK theatre. Against the backdrop of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the enduring spirit of the Edinburgh Showcase is to inspire, challenge and foster debate about the very nature of theatre and the world we live in. I am sure this year will be no exception.”

Yara Moualla, Arts Project Manager at the British Council UAE, commented: “The British Council in the UAE is focusing on arts to build bridges between different cultures.

“The Edinburgh Showcase is very important and offers us the opportunity to meet British artistes and actors, and become more familiar with their work and experiences. This event will introduce us to unique British theatrical productions and understand the art, whilst meeting actors and theatre colleagues from all over the world,” actress Samira pointed out.

On his part, Dr Attar commented: “We will do our best to introduce the theatre movement taking place in the UAE, and meet other artistes and actors from all over the world as well. We will try to understand the standard of the theatre in other countries, not to forget the importance of the English theatre, which is very close to our own Arabic theatre. It is essential that we familiarise ourselves with this new work and meet the creative people behind it.”

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