TODAY.AZ / Arts & Entertainment

Americans fascinated with Elchin's "Shakespeare"

23 November 2015 [18:46] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The Mint Theater Company in New York City has hosted a play titled “Shakespeare in space” based on the “Shakespeare” play of the famous Azerbaijani writer, Elchin Efendiyev.

The premiere of the show held on November 18 was directed by Annie Ward, the artistic director of the Complete Theatre Company.

The play shows the rule of love and trust, despite the pressing everyday problems of mankind. A unique situation further exacerbated by the arrival of a new patient, who claims to be from another planet and becomes transformed by the writings of Shakespeare.

Commenting the performance, Ward expressed gratitude on behalf of the Complete Theatre Company to Elchin for the opportunity to stage "Shakespeare" in New York.

She told the local media, that all eight actors involved in the play were completely passionate about their roles.

“We have allowed ourselves to make creative changes to adapt Azerbaijani play for the New York public and thus Americanizing humor. Events in the play are developing rapidly, with a lot of music and sound effects. Everything is so dynamic, that after each act the actors deplete, in the best sense of the word, as if they had just run a marathon. The acts are very dynamic. We renamed performance from the original name "Shakespeare" to "Shakespeare in space," Ward said.

The artistic director also admitted that this performance served as a radical change in her life.

“While casting for the play, the actor for the role of doctor, who was my first choice for this image, was unable to play the role because he was too busy on other work. A second preferred candidate, who could play the role, was in the cast of another theatre. The third actor, who wanted to play a role, in my opinion, was not so good. He asked to participate in the casting, and became one of the best actors in the play. And all this, in the end, led to our betrothal,” she said.

The performance received wide publicity in New York theater community, and was staged six times from November 18 to 22.

Efendiyev made a great contribution to the popularization of Azerbaijani art in the world. "Shakespeare" was staged in theaters of different countries including Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Shakespeare is Elchin´s 10th play in a period which more or less coincides with Azerbaijan’s revival as an independent nation.

When he was 16 years old, his first story was published in the “Azerbaijani Youth” newspaper. Elchin’s first book “One of the Thousands Nights” was released in 1965. His books are published in many countries around the world, and translated into more than 20 languages.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/entertainment/145393.html

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