Coming in Time for #Shakespeare400: Four Arab Hamlet Plays

This April 23 will mark the 400th year since the death of William Shakespeare:

It has spawned a worldwide series of talks and events (see Shakespeare400.org or Shakespeare400chicago.com for a few).

Among the events are the publication of Four Arab Hamlet Plays, ed. Marvin Carlson and Margaret Litvin with Joy Arab. Additional translation by Khalid Amine, Michael LoCicero, and George Potter.

They four plays are:

Nabyl Lahlou’s Ophelia is Not Dead (Morocco, 1968)

Mamduh Adwan’s Hamlet Wakes Up Late (Syria, 1976)

Nader Omran’s A Theatre Company Found a Theatre and Theatred “Hamlet” (Jordan, 1984)

Jawad al-Assadi’s Forget Hamlet (Iraq, 1994)

The collection also includes an autobiographical sketch by Mahmoud Aboudoma: “Gamlet” is Russian for “Hamlet” (Egypt, 2006).

The initial launch event, held today, March 14 at 6:30 p.m., Segal Theatre, NYC, will include readings and a discussion. Details here.

There was also a series of Arab Shakespeare events at the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature last week, and Margaret Litvin looked in-depth into Arab Shakespeares in her 2011 book Hamlet’s Arab Journey.