Nabil Elouahabi &
Nick of Time Productions Ltd present
The
Nightmares
of Carlos
Fuentes
By Rashid Razaq
Based on a short story by Hassan Blasim
The World Premiere
First performed at the Arcola Theatre Studio 1
on 23 June 2014
Supported by
AND: Martin Brodie, Ian & Benedicte Clarkson, Baginsky Cohen, Gill Fitzhugh, Jenny Hall, Ali Matar, Nadim & Bobbie Sawalha and The Unity Theatre Trust.
The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes By Rashid Razaq
CAST in order of appearance
| CARLOS | Nabil Elouahabi |
| LYDIA | Caroline Langrishe |
| CASE WORKER/SAHAR | Sara Bahadori |
| KEVIN/KHALED | Selva Rasalingam |
PRODUCTION
| Director | Nicolas Kent |
| Designer | Ellan Parry |
| Lighting Designer | Matthew Eagland |
| Sound Designer | Andy Graham |
| Assistant Director | Diyan Zora |
| Casting Director | Marilyn Johnson |
| Production Manager | Andy George |
| Stage Manager | Sophie Sierra |
| Assistant Stage Managers | James EnserJoanna WalkerNicole Vardon |
| Set Construction | Tim Highman & The Scenery Shop |
| Marketing | EMG Media & Marketing(www.emg-ents.com) |
| Press Representative | Emma Holland |
| Social Media Manager | Georgia Landers |
| Cover Design | Shiv Grewal |
| Production Photographer | Judy Goldhill |
| General Manager | Mat Burt |
| Producer | Nicolas KentNabil Elouahabi |
| Executive Producers | Heritage Arts Company PW Productions |
| Assistant Producer | Yinka Ayinde |
| Production Coordinators | Jessica HallWilla Cunningham |
| Accountant | Jon Catty for Nick of Time Productions Ltd |
| Financial Controller | Bob Thomas |
| Production Accountant | Dee Vithlami |
The play is set in London, an immigration detention centre outside London, and Baghdad between 2006 – 2011. It runs approximately 75 minutes without an interval.
Acknowledgements
WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS, ORGANISATIONS AND COMPANIES FOR THEIR HELP WITH THIS PRODUCTION: SHEENA BHATTESSA, CRESSIDA BROWN, LUCY JACKSON, BEN LATHAM & THE REFUGEE COUNCIL, RICHARD NORTON-TAYLOR, LIZ FRANKEL, RA PAGE, ESTELA WELLDON, PETER WILSON, THE COMMA PRESS, THE MANDEVILLE HOTEL, AND ALL THE STAFF AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE.
HASSAN BLASIM (Writer of the original story)
Is a poet, filmmaker and short story writer. Born in Baghdad in 1973, he studied at the city’s Academy of Cinematic Arts, where two of his films ‘Gardenia’ (screenplay & director) and ‘White Clay’ (screenplay) won the Academy’s Festival Award for Best Work in their respective years. In 1998 he left Baghdad for Sulaymaniya (Iraqi Kurdistan), where he continued to make films, including the feature-length drama Wounded Camera, under the pseudonym Ouazad Osman, fearing for his family back in Baghdad under the Hussein dictatorship. In 2004, he moved to Finland, where he has since made numerous short films and documentaries for Finnish television.
His stories have previously been published on www.iraqstory.com and his essays on cinema have featured in Cinema Booklets (Emirates Cultural Foundation). After first appearing in English in Madinah, his debut collection The Madman of Freedom Square was published by Comma a year later (Nov 2009). Madman was long-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2010, and has since been translated into numerous other languages. A heavily censored Arabic edition was finally published in 2012 and was immediately banned in Jordan. In 2010, Hassan was described by The Guardian newspaper as ‘perhaps the greatest writer of Arabic fiction alive’. His second collection, The Iraqi Christ was published in April 2013, and subsequently translated and published in Finland at the end of 2013. A selection of stories from both of his two collections were published in the States in Feb 2014, by Penguin USA, under the title ‘The Corpse Exhibition’. In May 2014, The Iraqi Christ was announced the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – the first Arabic title ever to win the award and the first short story collection ever to win the award.
RASHID RAZAQ (Playwright)
Rashid’s debut play The President and The Pakistani (directed by Tom Attenborough), based on the real-life story of Barack Obama and his illegal immigrant flat-mate opened at the Waterloo East Theatre in run-up to the US presidential election in 2012. Rashid’s short play Arab Spring (starring Nabil Elouahabi) was performed at the Nursery Festival in 2011 and was featured on BBC Arabic Service. His short play, Hardcore, was selected for a best of programme at the 503 Theatre. He is a graduate of the Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers’ Programme.
Rashid wrote Man and Boy (starring Eddie Marsan), which won Best Short at the Tribeca Film Festival 2011 and a top prize at the Aspen Film Festival. His previous short film Father (starring Sam Spruell and Matt King) was selected for festivals in the UK and internationally. He has co-written the forthcoming feature film Orthodox (starring Stephen Graham) about an Orthodox Jewish boxer and has another feature film in development.
Rashid works as a reporter for the London Evening Standard covering subjects including crime, arts and politics, and is a screenwriter as well as a journalist.
CAST
SARA BAHADORI (Case worker/Sahar)
Trained at Bretton Hall, Leeds. She is of Iranian/British heritage and hails originally from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Her television credits include ITV’s Coronation Street, BBC’s Waterloo Road, YTV’s The Royal Today and BBC’s Doctors. Her Theatre credits include The Worm Collector at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Soul Destroying Finger Food at The Old Red Lion and Click at Riverside Studios. Her comedy work includes performing her own writing in sketch-shows at Leicester Square Theatre and as part of Triforce Promotions’ Monologue Slam. Her recent radio work includes impersonating the legendary ‘Freda Kelly’ as the lead role in Sorry Boys, You Failed the Audition for BBC Radio 4. More at www.sarabahadori.com
NABIL ELOUAHABI (Carlos)
Theatre credits include Love Your Soldiers at the Sheffield Crucible, The Great Game: Afghanistan for the Tricycle Theatre/US Tour, Crossing Jerusalem also at the Tricycle and Sparkleshark for the National Theatre. Recent Television credits include Fox’s 24, BAFTA award-winning drama Top Boy Series II for Channel 4, Generation Kill