Hi Everyone. Nicky here. Angelas Husband. Firstly. Thank you to everyone who expressed interest and kind words regarding my recent working trip as an actor to the U.A.E. and more specifically Dubai.
Angela has had the idea to put a little blog together just fill you in on some of my personal experiences there. Not just the professional and social aspects but the everyday and economic challenges, even slight confusions that occur as you acclimatise to a different culture and way of life.
So here it goes. I know a lot of you will have been to Dubai so my expressions here are solely recollections of my own real life happenings both in a work environment and in a social climate that took a little bit of getting used to.
First some back ground. So. Initially I had a zoom meeting with our director Kevin back in November 2023. That meeting had went very well and we had struck up a rapport in sense of story telling, meaningful words and script and of course work ethic and how to mix and execute all of this together to make a production of something that’s good enough to be put in front of an audience.
Unbeknown to me, Kevin had contacted my agent to say how well it all went and for them to keep him informed as to what I was up to professionally, that there may be space in my calendar for the upcoming version of Shakespeares final classic ‘The Tempest’.
Cut to: Monday 9th September 2024 and I receive an email from my agent that Kevin at Kevali productions in Dubai would like another meeting with me and to have a shakespearian piece ready to perform. I thought.. Great!. Once again our meeting went well and Kevin had said that he wanted to make sure I was interested and that I still had the same attitude and zest. I did my piece anyway ( ‘The dagger speech’ from Macbeth’ ) and was offered the part there and then and to be ready to leave (Should I accept terms) by the 20th of September.
As you can imagine it was a bit of a scramble for Angela and I. Less than two weeks to get organised across the board of work and family and getting through other projects we had started for our business, realising what could be put on hold and what needed to be done.
I can’t thank my beautiful wife Angela enough for helping to make my mind up truly about going, because I wasn’t “dying” to leave her or our daughter Charlotte. This would be the longest I would have been away from Charlotte since she was born. So it wasn’t easy and pulled at the heart strings. I know three and a half weeks seems like nothing but being away from her for so long and especially being so distant from my usual kisses, hugs, laughs and tucks into bed etc.. really put doubts in my mind. I also need to thank my mother-in-law Alice and our neighbours and friends for their help and kindness while helping Angela out while I was away. It really does take a village to raise a family.
I Find myself landing in Dubai airport at roughly 1:00am. Straight away I’m reminded of the last time I was here. I was passing through on the way to a connecting flight to Adelaide, Australia while touring with National theatre of Scotland/Great Britain on the ‘The James plays’. Everything felt the same. The Air-conditioning was freezing. I would soon find out why. The only difference between this time and last was that I didn’t leave the interior of the Airport as I had to catch a connecting flight.
I had flown with some others of the Scottish based cast (Everyone else was from England) and when we got off the plane you have to work your way through immigration. Everything I found was very strict, but professional and super clean. Noticeably so. Pristine clean. It was more like a posh hotel. Chandeliers, white and gold coloured pillars, flowing escalators and beautiful lighting states on the walls and ceilings. Everyone dressed in what seemed like tailored uniforms. Nothing, not a hair, seemed out of place.
All going well you have to get an 'internal airport train' to bag collection. That can be a rush, it can be busy and uncomfortable for some but the trains are every couple of minutes so it’s easy to hold off and not get caught up but if you don’t know or realise that then it can feel like your’e rushing to get ahead of the rest. Everyone is heading in different directions and need to get to places quick. So while it didn’t bother me personally I could understand that other people had been delayed and where anxious to get to other parts of the Airport.
We met up with our Director and the rest of the cast who had arrived an hour earlier than us at the ‘Starbucks’ just inside the airport entrance and we made for the beautiful cars that where bringing us to our living quarters complex. The heat when it hit on the short walk to our cars I can only describe as being like a sauna, that’s all around you everywhere you go, that’s too hot and you’ve got your clothes on, which will get drenched and I mean soaked in your own sweat. At that time in the morning (Roughly 2am) it was 36 degrees and Dubai was just starting to come to the end of it’s Summer which had saw temperatures hit between 49 and 52...Mental!
When we got into the car the air conditioning was freezing. It was welcomed for the first few mins and then it just felt like you were sitting in a cold bath with your clothes on. The extremes of it. Go figure.
The city at night as we travelled through, to me, was stunning. The lighting, the excitement, the quality of the overlapping, curving, and endless beauty of lit motorways. It was futuristic. There was no sense of the history I was looking for at that moment. Just new, modern and exciting visions of a future that had been realised in the here and now. The Burj Khalifa (Worlds tallest building) centrally raking skywards beautifully lit with flashing elements that demanded attention. I would notice LARGE neon writings down or across the faces and sides of huge sky scrapers. They looked holographic and 3-D like and reminded me of some elements of the ‘Bladerunner’ movies. I’d wager there was at least a small influence there. I thought... ‘That’s clever!’. Over the next few weeks I would get to know the place better and these Huge writings and what they meant lead to a bit of a slight negative about the place but I’ll come to that later but as a first impression. Stunningly beautiful and futuristic.
Our complex was great. We rehearsed there in our lovely rehearsal room so no need for travel thankfully, as the traffic can be dire and rob you of your time significantly. I had my own bigger version of a studio apartment. Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom everything you’d need. Swimming Pool with a bar just outside, 24 hour gym, tennis and five aside football courts. We where situated just across from the famous Burj Al Arab hotel. Literally 3 mins walk. Just painting a Picture.
And so to work.
‘The Tempest’ If you don’t know is regarded as Shakespeares last classic as we know them. It has been done multiple times in theatre, tv and film. ‘The Tempest’ has been regarded as a quite controversial play for it’s time with themes and elements of the supernatural and which-craft weaving they’re way through the narrative of class, entitlement, love, monarchy and murder that where the usual staple of Shakespeares tragedies and comedies but here are interspersed with otherworldly manipulation and spell which carried fear and punishment for the general public back in England/Britain in the 15 and 16 hundreds.
My Character ‘Antonio. The Duke of Milan’ is one of the few Characters to appear in Multiple Shakespearian plays. 5 times in all. All with a different purpose and manoeuvrability. He is the brother of ‘Prospero’ whom Antonio usurped and exiled to an un-named Island where we first meet the characters. Prospero had conjured a storm that wrecked the ship of Antonio and the rest bringing them to this un-named island). It’s rumoured ‘Ian Fleming’ took elements of Antonio and applied them to his ‘James Bond’ in the books along with other influences of course.
It was a very challenging part. The language can be difficult and the Shakespearian rhythm (The Iambic pentameter) can be challenging to hold onto when emotions become involved but it was a beautiful challenge. It had been a long time since I had done some Shakespeare and it took a minute to get out of the natural human reaction, to then fall into the poetry and rhythm of the words.
Rehearsals were a daily thing for 12 days. But we worked privately on our days off. We had to. To get it right and become good at passing that rhythm on. We all had challenges with the rhythm be we all got there. Our evenings where our own. It was still so bright and so warm it was a waste not to be out in the streets and explore. Sometimes we all went out together and sometimes we did our own thing.
I was either out running and putting my feet on the ground or I was out doing some photography and taking pictures. Some of which you will see in this blog.
Before I get into personal aspects one of the social and economic things I have to address is the cost of things. For example. A few of us like our football and went to the local bar (I won’t name it) to watch a few games. “Happy hour” would be on. “HOUR” being the optimal word. Happy hour at this place was 4pm till 8pm. There would be a happy hour menu consisting of a mix of cocktails, beers (Bottle or pints) and wines or spritzers. All very similar in price. That price being roughly £8 for a pint of Heineken. After 8pm that price would go to £11. After 11pm which we did twice for Champions league games. (8pm. UK) That price went to £15 a pint.
There’s a lot of that over there. They don’t tell you anything after happy hour. So you could be sitting on a tab at your table and not realise you’re paying double for the same drink you started drinking when you first came in.
You can also, only have an alcoholic drink. Inside hotels, bars and restaurants. For the most part it's strictly forbidden on the streets and you can’t buy it in supermarkets. There’s a zero tolerance policy and you may be lifted by street security (Not police. Different thing) if you’re thought to be overly intoxicated in Public. Which we did see a couple of times.
As amazing as the place is there is something a bit controlling about it. You’re confined to a certain attitude that kind of hovers in the air. I was not allowed to photograph certain buildings like mosques, bridges or the financial district but, you could use your phone? just not a proper camera. Make that make sense. Technically your’e not allowed to hold hands in public unless you are married, even then you may be asked to prove it and P.D.A.s are a No! No!. Because it’s new to you, It makes you ask why? but it actually didn’t take that long to get used to. Again I’m talking as a person who was living there. Not as a holiday maker where you can do all of those things in your complex. Out in the streets it’s a different matter.
In many, many ways the place is hugely admirable. Clean. Not even a crisp packet on the streets, no potholes on the roads, illuminated and inviting and friendly despite what I just described previously. it’s Multicultural. Not just the workers and not only the holiday makers but in the schools, Where native Emirates, Asians, British, American children all play and learn together, all speaking English and have no reason to be divisive. That was a wonderful experience and highlight when we did a few morning perfomances for some of the schools. Eye opening to.
They drive like maniacs over there and drive on the right side of the road at high speed. Weaving in and out of each other where constantly beeping horns are the norm. U-turns! We’d be arrested here for such manoeuvres. High speed U-turns is something we had to look out for constantly.
Again Having said that. The traffic light system is unique. It can take a long time to change but is observed religiously. We were told that there is a fine of 50,000 AED if someone runs a red light. That’s £10,000 pounds. As a member of the public walking, I would walk across the road if there were no cars coming when the little green man, was the little red man and I'd wonder why the others wouldn’t cross. Doing something like that and Jay walking (randomly crossing the road) can get you fined or stopped by the street security. All of these rules around you and fines to accompany them should they be broken.
In any event. The more I/we got used to it the easier it became. We continued to rehearse bringing the play together and spent our evenings doing what we wanted, The beaches and roads are immaculate. There is a 7000m running track at the beach that is made of a rubbery type surface and so you bounce when you jog. To be clear. 7000m one way so it's 7000m back. Great idea. Beside that is a track for bicycles, scooters and mopeds that sprawl along the beach walk. Stunning sunsets and unrelenting heat with a back drop off glowingly beautiful hotels and private residences . These tracks take you into and through lovely man made areas dripping in juice bars, coffee shops, restaurants and food trucks. Like ‘Kite Beach’ and then a deeper area of the night swimming beach. It’s the kind of thing that keeps you running or walking further, peeking curiosity to see what may lie up ahead.
Anyway. As our first performances approached things really started to lift off the page. You could feel a gelling and a passing of the tune around the actors and it really felt like we where all creating the environment and pathway to the story that people would not only understand but enjoy.
Our tour consisted of a Theatre base in Dubai, but theatre trips to Abu Dhabi to perform at the ‘Erth’ Theatre. Seeing the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque there for the first time is Indescribable. A massively sculpted Behemoth of a building. Imagine Hampden park stadium 3 times as big and twice as high. There where two trips to schools, where the theatres there would rival anything we have here (and these where schools) and then also to the QE2 which after her retirement has had her base in Dubai since 2008 becoming then a beautiful floating hotel in 2018. Which still invites top class names and entertainment to perform in its classic theatre. Obviously.....😉
Honestly. It was really unique to be there on that ship. A privilege actually. Something from my childhood before I became a teenager that I remember having an other worldly quality to it. Like the Empire State Building or Taj Mahal it always had that mystical movie quality to it that always seemed to be on the News, T.V. or in Movies, and always regarding something important. Yet here I was freely waking round it taking pictures, looking at old photos of rock and movie stars and at the beauty and grace of Princess Diana. Performing on a stage where so many had gone before. I even got the chance to play a piano that sits outside the theatre. A Heavily covered and secured Piano in which John Lennon, David Bowie and Elton John apparently all sat at and played, valued today at over $2,000,000 dollars I was led to believe. Kind of mind blowing and deeply retrospective. I was sitting inside History. Surreal.
When the actual shows started our time was more limited. Two show days everyday. Some morning and afternoon some morning and evening. So it was more about resting and recovery but our play was so well received. Ours was about 1 hour 45mins long. The original is about 4 hours long to play but rarely is it done that way anymore. On my last day I decided to stay on the QE2 in between shows. We had an 8pm show that night. I decided to Jog to the ‘Old Town’. That was an experience. It was also something I’d been longing for. The rivers, streets, buildings and natives of Old Dubai. I loved it. Though jogging, I did stop to take it all in. A completely different pace to life. Working, busy, always active and revolving and on the streets. The odours of fresh authentic cooking, fresh fruit and flowers only spoiled at times with the smells of smoke and car fumes. Eyes and Smiles from the locals who had enough English to say ‘Hello sir’ as if they where happy to see someone from another space on the planet happily blend into their streets, I would stop from time to time as I jogged by to shake an outstretched hand and I would respond in kind. There was one negative comment to be honest which didn’t bother me in the slightest. I just took it in stride as part of the experience of being some where different in the world.
We performed our last show that night. Finishing around 10pm. My flight was at 7:50am the next morning. But we had to be at the airport for 4:00am. Travelling back to our apartments took about an hour, so all too quickly it was coming to a kind of Anti-climactic end. Not because of the experience but because of the ‘Right. We’re done it’s heading home time’ It was quick. With not much time to sit back and take stock. It was an hour to our apartments, Have food, check packing and another hours drive to the airport to be there for 4am-ish.
Overall it was a wonderful experience. A chance to indulge in something Shakespearian in a city that truly never sleeps. An amazing mix of down to earth, kind, hardworking people blended with a problem solving, clever, futuristic playground with mammoth glowing signs streaking from jaw dropping skyscrapers and city scapes that take your breath away. Coming full circle back to these buildings. I found out that a lot of these signs where advertising and promotion. Everywhere was advertising, Building company names, In massive brash seemingly holographic lettering 30ft high and 100ft long. All over the buildings. You couldn’t find a hospital but you’ll know exactly where to invest your savings. You start to notice the same names everywhere. Constantly looking to either sell or search for investment. It’s a small detail in an otherwise outstanding city that’s streets ahead of most places around the world. Full of Innovative, clever problem solving ideas. Mesmerising visuals and ease of access with the best authentic Shawarma I've ever tasted. All the while being extremely safe.... 9/10
Goodbye Dubai.
Nx
Loved reading this. Many thanks for sharing. I am now sharing with friends who are heading to Dubai in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks so much for sharing this experience! I loved reading it !! What an amazing and unique experience!