Since the turn of the millennium, the Arabian Peninsula has produced a
remarkable series of adaptations of Shakespeare. These include a 2007
production of Much Ado About Nothing, set in Kuwait in 1898; a 2011
performance in Sharjah of Macbeth, set in 9th-century Arabia; a 2013
Yemeni adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, in which the Shylock
figure is not Jewish; and Hamlet, Get Out of My Head, a one-man show
about an actor's fraught response to the Danish prince, which has been
touring the cities of Saudi Arabia since 2014.
This groundbreaking study surveys the surprising history of Shakespeare
on the Arabian Peninsula, situating the current flourishing of
Shakespearean performance and adaptation within the region's complex,
cosmopolitan, and rapidly changing socio-political contexts. Through
first-hand performance reviews, interviews, and analysis of resources in
Arabic and English, this volume brings to light the ways in which local
theatremakers, students, and scholars use Shakespeare to address urgent
regional issues like authoritarianism, censorship, racial discrimination
and gender inequality.