Hammamet International Festival takes flying start with new adaptation of “Othello”
Tunis , July 16, 2007 (TunisiaOnline) --The 43 rd edition of the Hammamet International festival took a flying start on Sunday with a new adaption of Shakespeare's “Othello”, entitled “Othello or the star of the day”.
The play which was adapted and staged by Mr Mohamed Driss, the Director of Tunisia's National Theater, was performed for the first time on Sunday on the stage of the Hammamet cultural center's open air theatre. Among the many spectators attending the event was Nabeul's Governor, Mr Mohamed Lamine El Abed.
The Director of the festival Mr Fethi Kharrat said that by “programming the play at the opening of the festival, the organizers wanted to stress the festival's first vocation, namely dramatic art.”
He also added that the festival wanted to pay tribute to one of Tunisia 's early stage directors and actors, the late Ali Ben Ayed who for the first time adapted Shakespeare's masterpiece on the same stage during the festival's opening session in 1964. The title of Ben Ayed's original adaptation was then inspired from the main character's Arabic name, “Outayl”.
Mohamed Driss's “Othello” is a new reading of the play which is a hymn to life and hope, as well as a glorification of love, powerfully rendered by a modern dramatic language and an innovating staging technique.
The 43 rd edition of the festival will continue until August 21, and will include the scheduling of other plays such as Fadhel Jaibi's “Khamsoun”, Mohamed Kouka's “Fen” and Hamadi El Mezzi's “Mawal”, as well as many other musical performances.
Tunisia
ranking in recent World Reports