A few years ago, one thing was made up in my mind, there was no hope for Kuwaiti theaters to return to its glory days. A few days ago, I was proved wrong. There is hope and I found in it in Zain’s musical play titled Mesbah Zain. I didn’t expect much and to be honest it wasn’t perfect, but compared to the plays in Kuwait this is beyond magnificent.
I’m going to start off with some of the mistakes I noticed. One important factor is the timing. The invitation indicated that the play will start at 3:30 and end by 4:30, however it finished by 5:15. There was a half hour delay in the beginning, which made everyone in the audience bored and a 15 minute break in the middle. Another thing is precision. The songs weren’t sung live, but the actors still had to remember all the words. There were some parts where the actors forgot to move their lips on time, which makes things weird. Last of all it lacked accuracy with the props. They weren’t being moved and placed in the right position on time. The audience could easily see the “prop-guys” moving around the stage.
The plus sides. I have never seen a play in Kuwait that changes its props in every act. I was really pleased with that. They used special effects and different lighting techniques that I don’t think is used in other plays. Shjoon Al Hajery – the star of the play even flew above the audience in one scene. That is something you don’t see everyday in Kuwaiti theater. There were also moving and flying objects throughout the play. I liked how the play was about Aladdin because it’s easier for kids to relate to the story. The songs were really catchy to the extent that their melody is still stuck in my head. Overall, if anyone gets the chance to go to the play during this Eid break, its worth going to!
