DUBAI // Every seat was filled for the two performances of Macbeth at the National Theatre in Abu Dhabi last week.
Tonight, the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Company from London takes the show, often dubbed as "The Scottish Play", to Dubai's Madinat Jumeirah.
"It is a brave move" to bring the play to this part of the world, said Neil Constable, the company's chief executive. "But it shows people have vision here and they are dedicated to bringing their audiences top quality performers. I mean, among our company are some of world's best actors of Shakespeare."
The actors portray a modern-day version of Macbeth, where the characters have mobile phones and wear army camouflage, but the language remains true to the Elizabethan format.
Tonight is the first of two shows in Dubai that will portray the murderous Macbeth and his wife in their quest for power. Mr Constable said there has been no censoring.
"There is a lot of blood," he said. "And the style of performance is extremely intimate."
The company of 13 actors travelled from London, where they are used to playing in an Elizabethan replica theatre on the banks of the River Thames.
Part of the Globe's ethos is the exclusive use of human generated sound and natural lighting.
The policy is intended to create an authentic and traditional recreation of a theatre experience from the 17th-century. In London, a large part of the audience also stands in the pits below the actors' feet, as they would have done in Shakespeare's time.
Obviously some changes have been made to suit the UAE shows, but the house lights remain on in the theatre to give the audience the full feeling of integration and to allow the actors to respond to the audience's reaction.
"We have clearly had to use light and a specially made set," said Mr Constable. "But we will not have any problem going without microphones. The actors are used to playing to 1,400 people, so 500 will not be a problem.
Mr Constable only took over the executive position at the theatre in November, after spending seven years at another London theatre and 16 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company as a tour manager.
One of the main reasons for his move was the educational benefits of the company. Over the two performances in Abu Dhabi 500 children saw a simplified version of the play though Globe Education's Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank project, under of Bill Buckhurst, one of the resident Globe theatre directors.
"Bill squeezes the most complicated parts of the production so that it plays well for an audience of school children and the style of costumes makes it more accessible," he said.
"The Globe is not just a place of performance but a place for education," he said. "We have people building replicas all over the world and it would be fantastic if someone wanted to build one in the UAE. If Shakespeare is taught well then the impact it has on the children is immeasurable."
Bridin Harnett, teacher of English literature at Al Nahda Girls school in Abu Dhabi, said her students really enjoyed the performance.
"It was amazing, a very innovative kind of Shakespeare. The modern setting brought it into the world of the students, which was helpful. But if the function of it was to give people the chance to experience it fully, then it would have been good to have a short synopsis of the story, so we could have properly understood."
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Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
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A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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