Suleyman Al Bassam's directorial career has taken him from Kuwait to the Royal Shakespeare Company. Natasha Dirany asks him why he's decided to update Molière, via the Gulf...

Your new play ‘Hayyal BuTair’ is an adaptation of ‘Tartuffe’, arguably Molière’s most famous play. What attracted you to the text?
I’ve been attracted to making a comedy for some time now and ‘Tartuffe’ has always been high on my list. It’s a beautifully conceived, devilish, raucous and riotous piece – exactly the kind I love!

What common ground did you find between Molière’s world and the contemporary Middle East?
Molière’s world floats midway between the street and the Commedia dell’ Arte traditions and the pomposity of the court of Louis XIV with all the trappings of the High Baroque. The play caused a great stir politically after its premiere in Versailles in 1664, as it touched upon religious hypocrisy and hit more than a few nerves as a result. In fact, King Louis XIV – although seemingly attuned to the messages within the play – was fearful that it might be widely misinterpreted by the ‘common man’, and so it was censored. We felt this dilemma of questioning elements of the establishment was something intriguing for our times and, as with the original, the approach would mimic Molière’s and be satirical, boisterous and provocative in form. It was also great fun to create fresh dialogue and invent situations for a family pitted against one another as the result of an absurd domestic intrusion by a charlatan and a fraud. It’s certainly not intended to resemble the sublime, but rather to be both entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time.

As a director, what do you feel that Arabic language brings to the stage?
Arabic on stage is exciting when it is a living language, complex, layered, ironic. The stage is a wonderful cauldron for this language and allows it a space to be free – or at least undermine some of its bonds.

Luckily for Lebanon, you will be presenting the play in Beirut. Why did you choose to stage it here rather than the Gulf, or even London?
My co-producing partner and I were keen to get this project up and running before autumn 2010 as I need to move on to complete the final part of the Arab Shakespeare Trilogy before the end of 2010 [Bassam has been directing the series for the Royal Shakespeare Company]. We felt that our primary audience would be Gulf Arabs, particularly the Kuwaiti crowd. However, summertime in Kuwait is low-tide so we figured that if we couldn’t get the audience to come to the show why not bring the show to the audience? Plus, the idea of opening a musical play in Beirut at the height of summer engendered a kind of festive dynamic to the whole affair.

Your previous plays include ‘Al-Hamlet Summit’, ‘Richard III: An Arab Summit’ and ‘Kalila w Dimna’. What is the benefit of telling stories via adaptation? Do you feel it gives you more creative license as a director, or less?
I think familiarity does create a common ground for both the audiences and the artists to engage with one another in a particular way that is very dynamic, and which flows in both directions. Certainly, new work can be equally engaging as repertory but – as the audiences recognise the maxims of these pre-existing plays – the artistic providers of the work are then doubly challenged to bring something original to the stage that provides the audience a chance to take a new perspective on it all, re-examining what we thought we knew. I think the audience gets a kick out of this, as do I. There’s a lot of creative adrenaline generated through this kind of interaction.

Your career as a director is certainly impressive. What has been your career highlight so far?
My two kids! Who are also ‘adaptations’ if you will – of my partner and I.

‘Hayyal BuTair’ Thur 8-Mon 19 at Al Madina Theatre (01 753011) Saroula Centre, Hamra Street. Tickets (01 999666) LL60,000, LL90,000, LL120,000.