The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes. Hassan Blasim

      

      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