Synopsis

Ten years after Desert Storm and the occupation of Kuwait, Sulayman Al’ Bassam – a Kuwaiti fringe theatre director, based in Britain – returns to his homeland with an English cast. He arrives, determined to liberate the minds of his people through a radical presentation of Hamlet.

Sulayman’s eccentric vision gradually turns into a nightmare; dogged by under-funding, the loss of rehearsal time, shambolic organisation, paranoia, faulty equipment, cultural clashes, the perceived ‘malicious’ intent of the local theatrical establishment, the shadow of the state censors and relying on the favours of an old boys network.

As things begin to unravel the story resembles surreal, high-farce; A chaotic performance, before the social elite of Kuwait, finds the cast performing to a background of cell phone signature tunes, which climaxes with Gertrude’s death scene played to the accompaniment of the theme tune from the ‘Pink Panther’.

Hamlet in Kuwait is also a vivid portrait of a society still struggling, ten years on, to come to terms with the full impact of the occupation and the changes to the country. Despite the evident trappings of wealth there are deep psychological scars and a developing struggle over the nations identity.

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