Dubai Shopping Festival 2002 will host the show play Alfa Laila Wa Laila (Arabian Nights) by the Lebanese Karakalla Dance troupe. The play will be staged for four days as of March 20 at a special theater is being built in the Dubai Media City, according to the UAE daily Al Bayan.
The play is an international show performance exclusively produced by Dubai Media City for Dubai Shopping Festival 2002. This performance will be the biggest for the troupe with large numbers of Lebanese artists and actors participating in it including Anthony Corbaj, Elli Shweiri, Joseph Azar, Simon Ebeid, Danny Atwi and Rifat Tarabeh. This is in addition to a number of Lebanese and international technologists exceeding 300.
“The selection of Arabian Nights as a topic for the new play has come after an in depth study. The book which carries the same title narrates in a panoramic manner the popular customs, tradition and beliefs which prevailed at that time. Also the tales narrated by Shahrazad carry humanitarian, fantastic and beautiful dimensions that can be expressed through art painting particularly in view of the fact that Shahrazad has become a symbol for the woman who crowned her beauty with sacrifice,” Abdel Halim Karakalla, the performance chief supervisor told a press conference in Dubai.
The play director Evan Karakalla told the Arabic daily Al Hayat, “In addition to the classical Arabic version of the story, we sought the help of European writers to see their ways of translating this art masterpiece. We were affected by the style of the French writer Anthony Galan and his top literary language. We avoided narrating the tale of Arabian Nights from Sinbad to Ali Baba, Budoor and others. We dived deeply in the legend personalized by Shahrazad. She is a human sacrificial who accepts to be the victim of a despotic angry king who threatens women. She highlights the woman’s role and manages to teach human beings how to love in addition to saving the society from killing and winning a real man.”
The director noted that the tales of Arabian Nights have been rewritten to keep in step with the show performance. Those who participated in writing the scripts include Abdel Halim Karakalla, Raymond Jbarah and Faisal Mattar in addition to poet Said Akek who participated through new poems which he wrote exclusively for the play in order to be presented at the performance beginning and end.
Evan noted that he collaborated with a number of musicians in composing and remaking the play music which is basically based on music composed by international musicians including Maurice Rafil and Rimsky Corsakoff, which was remade to suit the eastern spirit of the play. The music of the violin and other eastern tools will be blended with Symphony orchestra. Also the Lebanese musician Tawfiq Al Pasha composed few music masterpieces for the play while the Iranian musician Ho Shang Kamkar took care of the music redistribution.
The play will be distinguished with its innovative wardrobe inspired from the ancient eastern heritage and from the tales of Arabian Nights. Actors and troupe members will change on the stage more than 450 wardrobes designed by Karakalla Research Center especially for this show – Albawaba.com
