Award-winning writer-director duo Joanna Settle and Reem Almenhali are back with a reprised version of their 2020 production, Al Raheel | Departure.
You now have four chances to catch a poignant reprised production of the 2020 theatre production – Al Raheel | Departure. Scheduled from 29 September to 1 October at The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), director Joanna Settle and alumnus writer Reem Almenhali are back.
Weaving rich Arabic and English language poetry with a backdrop of images and movement, Al Raheel | Departure essentially explores the life of an Emirati woman. It reflects on a body that stays while a world changes.
The same has been co-commissioned by The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi and Cultural Foundation, presented with official support from the US Mission to the UAE. The performance was developed collaboratively from a series of poems written in response to women persisting and developing across childhood, womanhood, and ageing.
Since its world premiere in 2020, the creative team and company have returned to reexamine the work, in light of the lives lived in the intervening years.
The Arts Center at NYUAD will host four performances of the show from September 29 to October 1 at 7:30 pm and on Sunday, October 2 at 3 pm. Each performance will be followed by a Q&A with the artists.
Prominent members of the community have been roped in as moderators. At the moment, the line-up includes Emirati poet, filmmaker, and visual artist Nujoom AlGhanem as well as Alserkal Avenue Foundation Director and curator Nada Raza. Additional moderators are to be announced.
Executive Artistic Director at The Arts Center at NYUAD Bill Bragin said: “When we first commissioned Al Raheel, using a new approach Joanna Settle referred to as “urgent producing”’ it gave us a unique opportunity to support the creation of a network of contemporary Emirati theater of a kind that none of us had seen before.
“Its specific combination of poetic language in Arabic and English reflecting how people live here, evocative images, and personal exploration of womanhood truly touched audiences of all backgrounds.
“We realised at the time that the piece deserved a chance to be experienced by many more audience members, and we’re thrilled to have a chance to bring it back in a new iteration and continue the artistic conversations it started.”
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