Hakawatis | Globe Tickets

Discover the ancient tales from women of the Arabian nights in Hannah Khalil’s Hakawatis at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

As Hakawatis is a new play, not much is known about the storyline. However, Hakawatis audiences can expect lots of bloody action to take place. At the start, a tyrant gets over his wife’s infidelity of marrying and sleeping with a new woman every day, before eventually killing the vast majority of them. By the end of his tyrade, five brides-in-waiting remain. The remaining quintet do all they can to stay strong and fight for themselves and the future of womankind.

Hakawatis is not an English word. “Hakawatis” translates to storyteller, created from two Arabic terms: “hikaye” meaning tale and “haki” meaning to talk. Throughout Hakawatis, the women share their stories to one another to preserve their identities. It’s important then that the Hakawatis play is created by a Middle Eastern writer.

Shakespeare Globe’s writer-in-residence Hannah Khalil pens Hakawatis. The Palestinian-Irish writer’s previous works include Museum in Baghdad at the Royal Court, and The Fir Tree and Henry VIII at the Globe. The play features additional contributions by Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh, scriptwriter Suhayla El-Bushra, and Egyptian playwright Sara Shaarawi.

What’s on at Shakespeare’s Globe?

Hakawatis premieres at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the indoor venue forming part of Shakespeare’s Globe. Upcoming shows at Shakespeare’s Globe include Henry V, Titus Andronicus and The Winter’s Tale.