**** (4 stars)
“Courageous”
Gosh I’m glad we weren’t presented with the whole 150-or-so-hours of the entire narrative of this Arabic epic. It’s a long tale that used to be told at weddings and celebrations, and would be spread over many days in which the basic saga would be embellished with many diversions and flights of fancy. Palestinian and Arabic theatre makers Khashabi Theatre kindly reduced the main tale to its bare bones – but even so, there was much to tell.
We entered the Lyceum’s auditorium to find Rana Baransi, Maya Omaya Keesh, Rami Nakhleh, Adan Rabos, Misan Miso Samara, Atallah Tannous and Abed Zoabi already on stage, waving to us and saying hallo – Marhabbah – as we made our way to our seats on whichever level they were. Thus we were, as with all good storytelling, instantly engaged in and with what we were going to hear: not invisible and silent observers, but people willing to be a part of whatever unfolded on stage.
There’s no way I can summarise Al-Sirah Al-Hillaliyyah [the epic of Bani Hilal] – even its barest bones took up two pages of the programme. It’s a long, heroic saga full of misunderstandings, fighting, jealousy, plotting, revenge, and above all blood and slaughter. My Arabic is non-existent and I, like many others, was grateful that both short plot summaries and translations of much of the dialogue were screened on the back wall of the stage – a necessary distraction but at times a real hindrance to trying to keep alert to the many things going on in front of us.
There was music – wonderfully haunting singing from Rana Baransi and Abed Zoabi in particular – with fascinatingly complex instrumental and percussion accompaniments and mood-setting. There was shadow play and shadow puppetry and very clever use of gels and spotlights to provide backgrounds; there were ‘real’ giant horses; there was movement and dance; there were solo and chorus scenes. All this combined to enable masterly storytelling – face, voice, gesture, body language and movement all working together to draw us in, provide strikingly beautiful visual moments, and keep us engrossed in the narrative. The flexibility and versatility of all the artists was deeply impressive: at times it was enough simply to watch, listen and enjoy without trying to keep track of what exactly was going on. And it wasn’t all doom and gloom – there was much humour along the way.
It’s no mean feat to keep an audience engaged when speaking to them in a language with which most of them are not familiar. Yes, it happens in opera – but then the singers spend a lot of time repeating the same thing, which helps a lot! When both the story and the language are unfamiliar, it’s much harder [just as with Angels in America in Dutch last week]. All credit to Khashabi Theatre, playwright Bashar Murkus and creative producer, dramaturg and visual artist Khulood Basel for creating a magnificent piece providing a window into a world of which I knew very little. Though I have to add that, reflecting on the major motives driving the action, it’s depressing that current world events are often being driven by exactly the same motives…
In these troubled times, it’s all the more important that Khashabi Theatre are preserving Palestinian culture when attempts are being made to erase the entire nation and its heritage.
It’s not surprising that the performance was greeted with a standing ovation, both for the quality of the show and for the courage and determination of the performers. Thank you, International Festival, for bringing Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah to us and inviting us to engage with a world so very different from Edinburgh in 2026.
Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah, Edinburgh International Festival, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Run Ended for more information go to: https://www.eif.co.uk/events/al-sirah-al-hilaliyyah
ScotsGay Arts 