'Director wins prestigious Shakespeare award for Hamlet'
"To be or not to be," - In Kuwait few are likely to know the origins of this famous quote. But one young Kuwaiti director has taken Hamlet to new heights, directing the play in its original language.
Hamad Al-Jenaie is a Kuwaiti producer, actor, director and photographer. This past Wednesday, he received the first Dame Judi Dench Shakespeare Award. His theatrical journey started at a young age, when his parents took him to a performance of Macbeth in 1996-1997. From that moment, Jenaie fell in love with the theater world and Shakespeare in particular.
"I remember watching Macbeth and did not really understand it, but I was amazed by the production, story and performances," he said.
The 31 year old Al-Jenaie recently directed his first Shakespeare play in Kuwait, the well-received Hamlet, performed at the Yarmouk Cultural Center in late November. The three night run attracted audiences from all ages, nationalities and interests enjoying Al-Jenaie's vision of the troubled world of Elsinore. Jenaie directed Hamlet with local and expatriate actors, including a local Kuwaiti actor, Yousef Al-Nasser, as the lead.
From an early age, Jenaie read and researched The Bard, and when he was a teenager, received a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare. He spent his formative years in the United Kingdom, and was brought up on English literature and passionate performances in Kuwait.
In directing Hamlet, Jenaie experienced some unique challenges adapting the play to the Kuwait environment.
"We used a similar text something for the audience to interact with, using the idea of a mental asylum because I studied psychology. I was fascinated by the mindset of the characters in the play and especially the psychological disorder of Hamlet. So I thought that might work, as anyone can understand a patient in a mental asylum and the action and characters could be in his mind," he said.
Jenaie told Kuwait times that when the first trailer came out, the audience expected a regular play of Shakespeare but when they saw it as a play in a modern era with a developed theme they were so touched and liked the change.
"It is a 400-year-old text that survives till today. We were trying to keep the original language with a slight change in familiar words to the audience to keep it fresh and alive. "
The play enjoyed wide success, with full houses for every performance and student visits that included question and answer sessions.
Jenaie told Kuwait Times that his first public production was in Kuwait. "Meeting Alison Shan Price, MBE, Founder and CEO of One World Actors Centre, was a step forward. She is my mentor, introducing me to theater techniques and methods."
His first production that premiered in Kuwait was "The Dream Dealer: The Musical" by Marita Phillips and Harriet Petherick Bushman and directed by Price. "That was the first time Alison invited me to become a co-director on a production called Woman in Black (story by Susan Hills and adapted by Stephen Mallatratt)," he said.
"The challenges I faced were how to understand the production and the physique and technique of bringing a script to the stage. We wanted to create a multicultural theater and build something related to the story we were performing."
Jenaie aims to create a different style of theater in Kuwait and continue as director and producer to give the audience a better story while creating a multicultural environment. He advises those who want to get involved in this industry to learn, read, work as a team and be passionate about what you are doing.
Jenaie received a distinction at gold medal level in musical theater and gold medal level acting in the LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) examinations in Kuwait.
Hamad also received The Hamad Al Jenaie Award for Musical Theatre.
Also The Adam Darius Award in 2017 and Alison Shan Price MBE International Award in 2018.
In 2019, Hamad received the First Dame Judi Dench Shakespeare Award.
He has played major Shakespearean characters including Iago (Othello), Oberon (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Cassius (Julius Caesar) in Kuwait.
In 2015, he won the part of King Creon when One World Actors Centre represented Kuwait at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015 with the 4-star bilingual Antigone, an Arabian Tragedy, based on the play Antigone by Jean Anouilh and which Al Arabia TV filmed. The show was nominated for an Amnesty International Award.
After that, he returned to the Fringe in 2016 as The Father in One World Actors Centre's The Blue Box - Memories of Children of War that received 5-star ratings. It is based on stories by teenager Emma Abdullah.
Hamad is currently working on new projects in the future and wants to thank his family and friends for the amazing support and will continue to bring in new projects.
By Faten Omar