Pearl Diver's Daughter: Fanciful play to have premiere at Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation

The Pearl Diver's Daughter could have it is world premiere this weekend on the Cultural Basis in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Picture: Cultural Basis

This Sunday, the Cultural Basis in Abu Dhabi will host the world premiere of the immersive present, Pearl Diver's Daughter as a part of the Abu Dhabi Pageant.

The manufacturing is the results of a collaboration between two Emirati girls, creator Maitha Al Khayat and composer Eman Al Hashimi. Collectively, with the American modern dance group Firm E and Lebanese singer-songwriter Mayssa Karaa, they've created a fantastical story, advised via music, motion and magic.

A historic supply of livelihood within the Arabian Gulf for generations, pearl diving has performed a big half within the historical past of the UAE. Whereas many have paid tribute to the custom, Pearl Diver's Daughter casts it in a brand new mild, with surprising parts of fantasy and magic.

“After I write tales, whether or not for kids or for younger adults, I at all times like to spark curiosity,” Al Khayat tells The Nationwide.

“I like the thought of the viewers leaving and asking themselves questions and need to discover out extra about what they've seen.”

Al Khayat is an creator and illustrator who has printed greater than 100 youngsters’s books, a few of which have been translated into English and Turkish and utilized in curriculums at colleges within the UAE. Her guide, My Father’s Date Palm Timber was nominated for greatest image guide illustrations on the Zayed Guide Award in 2020.

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When Al Khayat was first approached by the American Embassy in Abu Dhabi to jot down a narrative in regards to the adventures of a pearl diver, she was launched to Paul Emerson — founding father of dance troupe, Firm E.

The preliminary idea she was introduced with was an journey of a pearl diver and his daughter who desires to hold on the household custom. Nonetheless, Al Khayat, whose household in earlier generations had been pearl divers and merchants, didn’t join with that story and selected one thing she felt was extra genuine.

“It is not about girls empowerment as a lot because it's extra about household relations and connections and sacrifices,” she says.

“I actually wished to focus on that as a result of within the UAE, for the reason that previous, and even proper now, the issues that tie households collectively are our sacrifices, how they assist one another, and the communication and connection between them.”

Al Khayat's present is the story of a diver who comes throughout a legendary pearl. Because the embodiment of a spirit, the pearl provides the diver a alternative. He can seize it and return to land, changing into rich at the price of his daughter one-day drowning at sea. Or he can keep at sea within the type of a dolphin and stay there to avoid wasting her.

Kids's creator and illustrator Maitha Al Khayat created Pearl Diver's Daughter to shine a highlight on the heritage and sacrifice of many UAE households. Picture: Reem Mohammed / The Nationwide

“We wished it to have a side from the UAE by way of the pearl diving component,” provides Al Khayat. “We additionally wished one thing to merge cultures collectively in order that it may it may imply one thing to the UAE or to the Center East but in addition it may imply one thing else to a different nation internationally.”

Music and dance play essential roles within the efficiency and Al Hashemi says creating the rating was difficult and fulfilling. .

“You actually should reside the story itself as a way to think about it and be capable of compose it,” Al Hashemi says. “Typically I imagined myself because the daughter, generally I imagined I'm the ocean itself, or the daddy or the pier. I had lots of imaginations in the course of the composing and that is what I got here up with.”

Al Hashimi has composed and written lyrics for a number of operettas and movies and has carried out throughout the Gulf as a pianist. She additionally represented the UAE on the World Expo in Milan in 2015. The Emirati composer used some conventional musical parts from the UAE when creating the rating, however wished to depart room to evoke a way of fantasy and magic, too.

“We aren't doing any documentaries right here, we're doing fantasy,” she says, including that each viewers member will interpret the efficiency in their very own distinctive methods.

Emirati composer Eman Al Hashimi delved deep into the script for the manufacturing to create the musical rating. Picture: Alliance Francaise Abu Dhabi

Al Hashimi explains that scoring a manufacturing with a number of acts was extra complicated than her earlier work composing and arranging socres for movie.

“To make a full (manufacturing), with totally different (music) and for every act, the place there ought to be particular kind of music, rhythm — that was a problem, I cried so much,” she laughs.

“It was an enormous problem however I succeeded. That is the great half.”

Al Hashimi hopes that the story and her music will raise audiences on a jounrey that lasts properly past the on-stage expertise.

“What I really need is for the viewers to share with us their very own fantasy,” she says.

“I am curious. I need to know what they felt. I need to ask every one who would ever watch the present — the place did you go? As a result of in relation to creativeness, the sky is the restrict. And so they may encourage me to do one thing else sooner or later with their very own imaginations.”

Pearl Diver’s Daughter shall be carried out on Sunday at The Cultural Basis, Abu Dhabi. Extra data is at abudhabifestival.ae/programme/pearl-divers-daughter