This is nothing new. Many years ago, in another lifetime and long, long before 9/11, I myself played Sir Toby Belch in a production of Twelfth Night that made everyone Muslim and set the whole thing in the Ottoman court, notwithstanding how preposterous that made the story line. But that one was just a case of a director trying to make a splash; this one is explicitly politically motivated -- although the point seems a bit unfocused. If Hamlet is a Muslim prince, who is King Claudius? The United States? Does Hamlet's indecision become that of a young Muslim deciding whether or not to join the violent jihad?
From Backstage, with thanks to AntidhimmitudeFrenchChapter:
Hamlet has become a Muslim prince at the Ottoman court in an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which its Bosnian director says reflects the world after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.In possibly the biggest theater co-production the war-torn Balkans region has seen in some 20 years, Haris Pasovic is seeking to put "Hamlet" into a 21st Century setting.
"One of the most important issues of the 21st century is the world's increased understanding of the Muslim issue following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York," Pasovic, himself a Bosnian Muslim, told Reuters in an interview this week.
"I think the Muslim world today is facing the question: 'To be or not to be?', and I don't mean metaphysically," he said before the show's premiere late on Wednesday in Sarajevo.
Sarajevo-born Pasovic was among the most prominent theater directors in the then-Socialist Yugoslavia, living and working in Belgrade before Bosnia's 1992-95 war....
This time he chose the Ottoman court for its resemblance to Shakespeare's Danish one, where characters vie bloodily against one another for control over the throne and the court's affairs.
The play, set in obviously Eastern, though minimalist scenery, is visually striking with colourful costumes and mystical music performed live on stage.
It was well received in Sarajevo, a traditionally multi-ethnic city dominated by moderate Muslims since the war.
Just as Ottoman princes wore undershirts embroidered with Islamic prayers before they went into battle, Pasovic's Hamlet wears an undershirt on which the line "To be, or not to be -- that is the question" is printed in Arabic script.
"That undershirt is important because it is like a human skin. I think that every serious man today must wear the question 'To be, or not to be?'," Pasovic said.
And so a story in a Christian setting, in which the hero questions the injustices of the world and his own personal tragedy, can just as well apply to Muslims.
"Hamlet is a universal story that concerns us all," Pasovic said. "These issues do not concern only Muslims, but all people equally, showing that we all share the same problems regardless of religion, nation and culture."
This is ridiculous. But everything concerning these people usually is. I remember reading Hamlet in high school and watching the film verison starring Sir Laurence Olivier. It was absolutely wonderful.
How are they handling lines that make this play's actual setting Denmark such as:
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Hamlet. ACT I Scene 4.
It would be amusing to hear about this from that completely non-Muslim quasi-Muslim, "Muslim-for-identification-purposes-only-by-silly-journalists" Muslim, the director Emir Kusturica, fresh from his stint at Cannes. But he's not going to say a thing.
Lord, what fools these mortals be.
And whatever its virtues, Hamlet will never replace The Merchant of Venice as the favorite, and usually the only, Shakespearean play in the Muslim repertory. What makes that particular play such a steady favorite? The choosing-of-the-casket scene? Jessica, on such a night? The quality of mercy, a distinctly non-Muslim idea? What could it be?
I dont see what the problem is here. i mean how many settings of shakespeare have we seen? how many politically motivated productions? they could not be counted i suspect
pasovic is right, hamlet is a universal story, as so many of the great works are, cutting across boundaries of time, place or whatever
if englishmen in england can swap it about why cant bosnians in bosnia - its not owned by anybody
as for that boozy old buffoon, toby belch, (i hope you werent type-cast in that one, robert!)hed have got on just fine at the ottoman court, particularly the one under sultan mahmud II (1808-39), when the whole place was awash with drink, particularly champagne and raki, or arak, the middle east version of pastis, also the preferred tipple of ataturk. i can just imagine him swanning around the taverns, clubs and salons of the middle and upper classes of which istanbul was full, in the company of his cretin friend sir andrew aguecheek or whatever his name was
Mohammlet's Soliloquy
To behead, or not to behead -- that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous Infidels
Or to take arms against a sea of Christians
And by opposing end them. To die, to explode --
No more -- and by an explosion to say we end
The humiliation, and the thousand impure shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a Shahada
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to explode --
To explode -- perchance to Paradise: ay, there's no rub,
For in that bomb of death what Paradise may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Cannot give us pause. There's disrespect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of Fitna,
Th'Occupier's wrong, the proud Jew's contumely
The pangs of despised honor, Sharia's delay,
The insolence of Saudis, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a full rucksack? Who would Infidels bear,
To grunt and sweat under an X-Rayed life,
But that the joy of virgins after death,
The undiscovered Caliphate, from whose bourn
No martyr returns, inflames the will,
And makes us insensate of those ills we have
To fly to buildings that we know not of.
Dr. Pepper,
That was superb!
I printed it out and pasted above my computer. And, of course, your name has been duly added underneath.
Haaa. That was awesome, Dr. Pepper.
However, don't EVEN dream of a career satirizing Moslems. Nobody does that better than Moslems themselves. Plus, it could crimp your life expectancy.
Thanks thomas and Shaughn. I hope my spin on Shakespeare did not disturb his Rest in Infidel Peace by making him spin in his grave.
Hugh asks, re the Merchant of
Venice: What makes that particular play such a steady favorite?
Why, it's the pound of flesh, of course!
Some forgotten artistic expression in its own right:
Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwish
Record !
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the nineth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?
Record !
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks...
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself
at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?
Record !
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew.
My father..
descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather..was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house
is like a watchman's hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title !
Record !
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards
of my ancestors
And the land
which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks..
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!
Therefore !
Record on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper's flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger
And my anger !
How are they handling lines that make this play's actual setting Denmark such as:
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Hamlet. ACT I Scene 4?
They probably haven't asked the Queen of Denmark herself:
COPENHAGEN, April 15, 2005 – Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II claimed that Islam poses a global threat and urged government to show no tolerance toward the Muslim minority in the north European country, reported the Telegraph on Friday, April 15.
It's about time that we started staging "Mahomet" by Voltaire. I'd like to see a production of that.
Any directors, producers, actors, reading this interested in doing so?
Alas poor Hamlet, I knew him well.....
Re: "Mahomet", Gibbon, some hundred years after Voltaire that play, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire wrote:
In proper names of foreign, and especially of Oriental origin, it should be always our aim to express, in our English version, a faithful copy of the original. But this rule, which is founded on a just regard to uniformity and truth, must often be relaxed; and the exceptions will be limited or enlarged by the custom of the language and the taste of the interpreter. ... The prophet Mohammed can no longer be stripped of the famous, though improper, appellation of Mahomet...
I wonder why "no longer"? At any rate, some 150 years later, nobody says or writes "Mahomet" anymore. I wonder why? Another insidious example of creeping PC in the guise of "correct" Middle Eastern "scholarship"?
Dr. Pepper,
In Spanish, there has been no change since Day 1. He is Mahoma.
Thank you. :)
Ibn Rushd,
I've noticed a phenomenon in language development over time where vowels get transposed. The original Arabic I think (just from hearing Muslims say the word "Mohammed" or "Muhammed") has the order of O - A (or U - A), while the Spanish, as you say, and the French, reversed that order. I mean, there doesn't seem to be any logical or linguistic reason why the Spanish couldn't have from the beginning said "Mohama" instead of "Mahoma", or the French "Mohamet" instead of "Mahomet", is there? I wonder how those transpositions get started.
A tolerant`s hedonism:
Why are some liberal Democrats so worried about religious influence on American politics? The easy answer is this: Without the constraints of religion or any moral foundation, it is much easier to live the life of a 1968 California hippie; that is, a drunken, philandering, dope-smoking, baby-killing liberal. Where there is no God, things like conscience and sin and guilt and self-restraint are no problem. Apparently many people on the east and west coasts are afraid that if people behave like Christians, the party's over.
http://www.akdart.com/culture3.html
Shakespeare
Another reason its great to be English.
Shame that Islam, on the whole slaughters artistic genius where it finds it & hammers all creativity out of its young.
As they have nothing at all like Shakespeare in their whole history, we see Islam hijacking what it cannot create for its own nefarious aims.
Whats next, Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Mullahs?
LeavingtheLeft: "Without the constraints of religion or any moral foundation, it is much easier to live the life of a 1968 California hippie; that is, a drunken, philandering, dope-smoking, baby-killing liberal. Where there is no God, things like conscience and sin and guilt and self-restraint are no problem."
King: This post, single handedly, has not only made you irrelevant, it has also placed you in the exact same boat as the crazed Islamist extremists who also seem to think that people need the "constraints of religion" to establish a moral foundation. With this, I decree that you never were on the left to begin with and as such, cannot "leave" as your moniker suggests.
What a court jester!
`With this, I decree that you never were on the left to begin with and as such, cannot "leave" as your moniker suggests.`
You really are an ignoramus aren`t you. Your post is superflous, leading to nowhere.
As a jester, I then can call you an IDIOT stuck on STUPID - and you can`t take umbrage at that.
Terence Rattigan`s words in the Winslow Boy aptly portrays the useful idiot`s groping in the dark and his posts:
'a supercilious sneering fish'
But i must thank kingky for using the word `court`. Not an ordinary jester, but one at court.
As the last Arab poet Adonis has said, there is no Arabic literature -- only propagandistic trash, at the level of Demian Bedniy (Khrushchev's favorite). Mahmoud Darwish (of whose wretched stuff an example is given above) is among the worst -- possiblythe worst, but of course that doesn't prevent him from having been awarded a Lannan Prize (this year's winner: Cornel West). Let's investigate the people who slither into those positions at varioius foundations -- and then proceed to reward those just like them. The original donors, one suspects, would not exactly be happy.
But the non-poetry of Darwish above -- "I am an Arab" -- is useful to have because it makes a pont obvious -- the "Palestinian " identiy is a phony one, constructed for purely political reasons. The real identity, for many Arabs, is that of being an "Arab" -- the nation-state hardly matters by comparison, and this is why we should all remember the words of As Saiwa-head Zuheir Mohsein, whose famous quote about how "the Palestinian identity is there only for political reasons" and that there is "no difference between Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Palestinians, etc." (this is close but not verbatim) is true -- true from the Arab point of view which is captured in the doggerel above which, apparently, has been put up for our edification. Oh, it's helped to edify us all right -- one more splendid example of the utter phoniness, by the best-known "Palestinian" poet, of how unimportant being a "Palestinian" is, and how important being an "Arab" is -- and the unselfconscious self-congratulatory nature of the thing also deserves a good look.
Leaving: "Your post is superflous, leading to nowhere."
King: No, my post went right where it needed to go - to expose you as a neo-con, right winged, religious nut job who seems to think that his brand of religion ought to be embraced or else one become a baby killing liberal. You said that above, didn't you? Some "lefty."
Upon further dissection, it is not only apparant that you are clearly trying to force your religious beliefs unto others, you are doing the exact same thing as those you protest here. For this, sir, you are the jester. Any variation you care to make of my name or comment does not change that simple fact.
I suppose that when you "left the left" you also left behind some other things like common sense...
Kingie-wingie: "...exact same boat as the crazed Islamist extremists who also seem to think that people need the "constraints of religion" to establish a moral foundation. With this, I decree that you never were on the left to begin with..."
Umm - sorry Kingie, minor question: how does not smoking marijuana, or being a hippie, or drunk, or in favour of abortion, not make me or anyone else not on the left? Aside from the drinking, I don't do any of the above. So I'm not allowed in? How about Christians - need they not apply? How about muslims? Jews? Homosexuals?
Dumb.
Kingie: "it is not only apparant that you are clearly trying to force your religious beliefs unto others"
No, that would be your homie Ia, who said: "I wouldn't force religion on anyone, BUT..." Thankyou for playing. "But" means he would. Guess you missed that. Got any logical arguments, there?
Leaving's right. You're wrong.
Prophet Geoff
"Leaving's right. You're wrong."
King: This is the only sentence that did not involve a double negative or loose interpretation.
I also disagree with you in the most fortuitous manner. Clear enough Imam, Prophet or whatever other acronym or pseuo we're using today?
KT
Of course, this Bosnian director is obnoxious. He speaks as if only Muslims suffered in Bosnia. The major press gave little attention to what the Bosnia Muslims and their outside comrades in arms, were doing to Serbs and even to their ostensible allies, the Croats. Of course, all these groups were bloodthirsty in that war. So why did the West promote independence for Bosnia in the way that they did? But it would be more helpful to the cause of fighting jihad, in my view if the positive art/lit were encouraged.
Can I encourage people here to look up and promote lit/art that honestly looks at the Muslim/dhimmi relationship? That would be more constructive than sniping among ourselves. I suggest three movies to look up, possibly to rent for showings at home or to groups, if available [that I can't guarantee].
These films, all by famous directors, are:
He Who Must Die [Jules Dassin, based on a Kazantzakis novel, Melina Mercouri stars]
Justine [George Cukor, based on Lawrence Durrell novels, the Alexandria Quartet]
America, America [Elia Kazan]
Also, was a movie ever made of Franz Werfel's novel, 40 Days of Musa Dagh?
Hugh quotes from Zuhair Muhsain's interview with a journalist named Dorsey. It was published in the short-lived US leftist weekly Seven Days and the Dutch Trouw. The year was 1977 in March for Trouw and maybe February or March for Seven Days. Muhsein gave away the whole phoney story but nobody seemed to care that the Pal people were a psy war artifact.
King Tolerance responds to Hamlet by quoting poetry. Oh yeah? Well, I too have some background in the study of literature:
Scene 3
[clop clop]
ARTHUR: Old woman!
DENNIS: Man!
ARTHUR: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
DENNIS: I'm thirty seven.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I'm thirty seven -- I'm not old!
ARTHUR: Well, I can't just call you `Man'.
DENNIS: Well, you could say `Dennis'.
ARTHUR: Well, I didn't know you were called `Dennis.'
DENNIS: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?
ARTHUR: I did say sorry about the `old woman,' but from the
behind you looked--
DENNIS: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an
inferior!
ARTHUR: Well, I AM king...
DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By
exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to our outdated imperialist
dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our
society! If there's ever going to be any progress--
WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh -- how
d'you do?
ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, King of the
Britons. Who's castle is that?
WOMAN: King of the who?
ARTHUR: The Britons.
WOMAN: Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR: Well, we all are. we're all Britons and I am your king.
WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an
autonomous collective.
DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship.
A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
WOMAN: Oh there you go, bringing class into it again.
DENNIS: That's what it's all about if only people would--
ARTHUR: Please, please good people. I am in haste. Who lives
in that castle?
WOMAN: No one live there.
ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?
WOMAN: We don't have a lord.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We
take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the
week.
ARTHUR: Yes.
DENNIS: But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified
at a special biweekly meeting.
ARTHUR: Yes, I see.
DENNIS: By a simple majority in the case of purely internal
affairs,--
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: --but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more--
ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh -- who does he think he is?
ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, 'ow did you become king then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, [angels sing] her arm clad in the
purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of
the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to
carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing
swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive
power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some
farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power
just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an emperor just
because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd
put me away!
ARTHUR: Shut up! Will you shut up!
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
HELP! HELP! I'm being repressed!
ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!
DENNIS: Oh, what a give away. Did you hear that, did you hear
that, eh? That's what I'm on about -- did you see him repressing
me, you saw it didn't you?
Hamlet a muslim? Well then, he joins the ranks of such famous muslims as Alexander the Great, Abraham (oops, I mean ibrahim), Joseph (oops, I mean yusuf), Moses (oops, I mean musa), and many others.
Heck, maybe Bush is muslim, too! You never know.
LOL
sonofwalker: "King Tolerance responds to Hamlet by quoting poetry."
King: Naw, I just injected a little culture into this otherwise provincial thread that is slandering Hamlet.
Is it the culture that bothers you or just the fact that its Arab poetry that bothers you? Read the poem - it is an excellent window into the current Arab mindset. There are helpful hints in there, as well.
I am an Arab
...
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew.
It's partly the above that infuriates me, though most of it would come under discussion for similar reasons.
What's the problem? Let's look at Fichte:
Who is the narrator above? No, not Methuselah, even older; so, this narrator must be God to be so old. But of course not. The narrator is fascism personified. The narrator is not a person, not a Human being, not an individual; the narrator is a cliche of Romance fascism. The narrator is symbol, and the symbol is of racial memory and exclusion of Other. The narrator is "authentic."
If you're with me here I'll carry on as I get time. Better yet, wait till I post excerpts from an essay on Nativism at http://nodhimmitude.blogspot.com and there you can post till you're sick of it.
There is this poem, song really, about an arab called Ahab which begins
Let me tell you about Ahab the Arab
The sheik of the burning sand
He had emeralds and rubies just drippin' off 'a him
And a ring on every finger of his hand
He wore a big ol' turban wrapped around his head
And a scimitar by his side
And, every evenin', about midnight
He'd jump on his camel named Clyde, and ride
It was a hit for Ray Stevens in 1962
Granny: "There is this poem, song really, about an arab called Ahab"
King: I can totally see why you'd consdier this stimulating enough to post here.
As they say, "You can judge a lot about a person by their taste in art."
sonofwalker: "If you're with me here I'll carry on as I get time."
King: Can hardly wait.
I take it you consider Jimmy Savile's cover version to be superior then? It wasn't the chart success of the Stevens version of course but the charts aren't everything.
Granny Weatherwax, it's good to know that your name doesn't refer to you being old enough to be an actual granny. We know all the same tunes, so we must be roughly the same age, I being slightly older than 16 last time I looked, admittedly some time ago.
KT, give me a day or two to post on Nativism. You obviously enjoy the attention you receive here, and I can't promise you'll get anything like it at my blog. I do get a fair number of readers, though they don't often write. If you have a position to inform my readers on you're welcome to take your chances with them.
Just don't try repressin' me. 'ho elected you king, anyway? Oh, what a give away. Did you hear that, did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about -- did you see him repressing
me, you saw it didn't you?
Sonofwalker
Geoff and I tried him with Python last week but I don't think he's familiar with the work of Cleese, Idle and Palin. The novelty popular song made little impression either.
Oh well....
However, over on the Nigerian Islamic court orders amputation thread things are getting.......pretty interesting!
I wish trendy theatre directors wouldn't do these kind of things. I saw a Hamlet with a black actor once who was American and far too hunky and muscular to represent the sickly Hamlet. I recently saw an opera by Handel with the main character dancing and prancing about like Madonna. For some reason, theatre directors think they need to put a modern "spin" on something that speaks for itself and is timeless.
Upon further dissection, it is not only apparant that you are clearly trying to force your religious beliefs unto others, you are doing the exact same thing as those you protest here. For this, sir, you are the jester. Any variation you care to make of my name or comment does not change that simple fact.
I suppose that when you "left the left" you also left behind some other things like common sense...-posted by KT above.
___________________________________________
So it`s time for your education again.
My `religous beliefs` - kindly tell me what religion i am and in which manner have i cooerced you, or anyone else here, to convert.
If you are unable to answer that, you are a liar too, which is common among useful idiots and muslims (they call it taqqiya).
By the way here`s a picture of a now homicidal, effete, obese, drunkard tolerant:
http://www.ytedk.com/intro.htm
Common sense? Strange you bring that up when you have shown you don`t seem to have any despite your ability to string words together to form sentences.
`you are the jester`
That`s not very nice. At least you qualified earlier with `court jester`.
Just before Tybalt and Mercutio clash their swords, Hamlet walks in wondering whether to be. As our star-crossed lovers head to Friar Lawrence to exchange vows, they find Much Ado About Nothing’s Beatrice and Benedict going through pre-marriage counselling. And when Joo Lee runs to find the magical potion that will give her a semblance of death, she runs into The Three Witches from Macbeth chanting spells around an exercise ball. Can someone say culture shock?
http://www.think.com.my/review.cfm?rev_ID=74