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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Hakawati performances leave audiences spell-bound

Abu Dhabi: Families from the Arabic community in the capital enjoyed an evening of storytelling and comedy as the Hakawati Group, led by master storyteller Ahmad Yousuf Mohammad, performed some well-loved classics such as The Emperor's New Clothes in the style of 1001 Nights.

The event was originally part of the Abu Dhabi Festival 2010, which was organised by the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (Admaf) that ended on Wednesday, April 7.

It was re-scheduled to April 9 after the tragic death of Shaikh Ahmad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in a glider crash on March 26 in Morocco.

Entertaining

"It [the performance] was very entertaining and the children loved it," George Khoury, a 37-year-old Lebanese expatriate who works as an electrical engineer, said. He attended the performance with his wife Marie and two children, Christine and Marwan, who are six and four years old.

The performance was centred around the theme of 1001 nights but with a twist. Instead of Scheherazade telling stories to stay alive, it is Shahrayar who must do so. The one-and- a-half-hour performance saw members of the theatre troupe act out various moral stories, with plenty of action and comic moments as well as lively audience participation.

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