Posted: 07 December 2022
Hakawatis: The writers’ room
How do you reboot the stories of One Thousand and One Nights? Hannah Khalil and Pooja Ghai tell Anya Ryan about their new candlelit version.
It is somewhat ‘prescient’ that Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights is opening at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, says its writer Hannah Khalil. It was on a walk home from the same theatre after watching Tanika Gupta’s Lions and Tigers in 2017 that the idea for the play was first conceived. ‘I had never seen anything at the Sam Wanamaker before,’ she says. ‘When I left, all I could think about was how amazing it was. I had to write something for that space.’
Fast forward five years and Khalil’s play is finally getting its premiere. ‘Originally it was supposed to go in the Globe’s 2020 season, just before we went into lockdown,’ she says. ‘Everything was a bit in limbo for a while, but we were delighted that it could be put on this Christmas,’ adds the director, Pooja Ghai, who coincidentally also directed Lions and Tigers, the play that first inspired Khalil to write. ‘She’s the perfect person for the job,’ is how Khalil, the Globe’s writer in residence, describes her collaborator, the Artistic Director of Tamasha who co-produce the play.
The play, which Khalil describes as ‘a reclaimed ancient story,’ originally came from her thinking about Scheherazade, the queen and storyteller in One Thousand and One Nights (a hakawati is a storyteller). ‘I wanted to work on the idea of her as a fable teller – but as one who is not as good as she thinks she might be,’ she says. From there, Khalil developed the idea of a writers room, with the women who are next in line for the king’s ‘wed, bed, and behead’ coming together and rooting for Scheherazade to tell stories and to do well. ‘It is a new version of One Thousand and One Nights where Arab women are empowered to tell sexual, dark stories,’ she adds.
The play, which Khalil describes as ‘a reclaimed ancient story,’ originally came from her thinking about Scheherazade, the queen and storyteller in One Thousand and One Nights (a hakawati is a storyteller). ‘I wanted to work on the idea of her as a fable teller – but as one who is not as good as she thinks she might be,’ she says. From there, Khalil developed the idea of a writers room, with the women who are next in line for the king’s ‘wed, bed, and behead’ coming together and rooting for Scheherazade to tell stories and to do well. ‘It is a new version of One Thousand and One Nights where Arab women are empowered to tell sexual, dark stories,’ she adds.
Key to the play’s development has been creating varied and full roles for non-white actors. ‘It is a great privilege to know actors from your community to write for,’ says Khalil, recalling moments from her career where actors have thanked her for writing parts that ‘feel genuinely complex.’ ‘This play is so human in its exploration of a group of women coming together to survive, adapt and evolve,’ adds Ghai.
Both seem ecstatic to stage the play in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Khalil tells the story of deciding to send Michelle Terry, the Globe’s Artistic Director, an email pitching her idea. ‘I was astonished when she commissioned me to do it,’ she says. ‘Because of that, the narrative is built completely for the space,’ continues Ghai, who describes the theatre as ‘energetic’. ‘The magic of the Sam Wanamaker is that it is a character in its own right. It is a real force,’ she says. Even so, Khalil describes the writing process of Hakawatis as being ‘quite demanding.’ ‘I’ve learnt that this theatre really needs clean, direct storytelling,’ she adds.
Although Ghai is keen to keep many of her directorial decisions close to her chest, she reveals that the image of the candle has been vital.
‘Atmospherically, candlelight gives the audience so much to experience,’ she says. ‘It acts as a metaphor for the pen, the storyteller and for change. We want the space to be interactive for both the audience and the storyteller.’ And Ghai has focused on the production as a timeless one; ‘I want it to be easy for people now to access the world and culture of the women onstage.’
Although Ghai is keen to keep many of her directorial decisions close to her chest, she reveals that the image of the candle has been vital.
‘Atmospherically, candlelight gives the audience so much to experience,’ she says. ‘It acts as a metaphor for the pen, the storyteller and for change. We want the space to be interactive for both the audience and the storyteller.’ And Ghai has focused on the production as a timeless one; ‘I want it to be easy for people now to access the world and culture of the women onstage.’
Khalil recognises that some might be resistant to the play being staged at Shakespeare’s home. ‘Even things like the play’s title might make people nervous,’ she says. This, however, only makes Khalil and Ghai prouder that the Globe has chosen to produce Hakawatis. ‘I argue for a certain community, it will make them feel welcome,’ says Khalil, ‘It is so important that we expand our minds about what institutions like the Globe can do and be.’
Of course, the Globe still has ‘a programme of Shakespeare’ for the bard’s devotees to enjoy, says Ghai. ‘But Shakespeare would have come across the stories of One Thousand and One Nights too – or at the very least things they inspired, like The Canterbury Tales,’ Khalil chimes in. ‘I see this play as something that can be in conversation with Shakespeare’s classics.’
Looking forward, both hope that the Globe and theatre, in general, will continue to champion ‘diverse stories, like Hakawatis. Obviously coming out of the pandemic, theatres are really worried about money and taking risks,’ says Khalil. ‘ But the reality is, risk can be an exciting thing. A theatre’s choice of play will bring in an audience, and it can be a different audience than it is used to. All they need to do, is the work.’
This article was written for Members of Shakespeare’s Globe for the Winter 2022/23 issue of Globe magazine. Find out more here. Anya Ryan is a culture writer and journalist.