UAE scoops four awards at special theatre fest

The UAE scooped four awards at Kuwait’s Gulf Theatre Festival for People of Determination earlier this month.

The play 1+1=1 supervised by the Ministry of Community Development won the best integrated show award. Mohammad Al Ghafli bagged the trophy for the best actor while Abdulla Al Jarwan won the award for the best sound effects. Nabeel Al Mazmi was awarded for best composition.

(1+1=1) is inspired by American writer Edward Albee’s “Zoo Story” and is part of the fight club novel. Five Emirati actors three of whom are people of determination took part in the play.

Wafa Hamad Bin Sulaiman, Director of Welfare & Rehabilitation for People of Determination at the Ministry of Community Development, said they are focused on the inclusion and empowerment of people of determination.

Bin Sulaiman elaborated that half of the actors suffered from visual and physical impairment, noting that the goals of this play were to reassure that the inclusion of the People of Determination was not limited to their close relationships only but to reach different members of the community and inform them of their daily lives and pressures. The ministry makes great efforts to change the society’s misconceptions of the people of determination that they always need help, cannot live independently and have limited productivity and unable to reach distant goals.

Al Maazmi said, “The title of the play (1+1=1) demonstrates the power of passive people and influence to capture the mind and behaviour of others; the story embodies a hidden symbolic meaning which is the inclusion of people of determination in the community.”