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1979 Eyes on the Harem
Unpublished.
Synopsis
On 27th April 1909 Sultan Abdul Hamid, the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is about to flee his palace before the people break in. The women of his harem are in confusion for by tradition they are murdered as sultans have been replaced. The split level stage of lavish, elegant opulence and stark simplicity are settings for tap dancing, vaudevillian music and song and improbable non-linear sketches as the harem of myth and film is repeatedly concerned with castration, imprisonment, assassination and savage repression which corrupt the lives of abused and their abusers. The authority of empire becomes a joke.
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This has been staged once when it was directed by Fornes at INTAR, (International Arts Relations), Hispanic American Arts Centre, 420 West 42nd Street, NYC. The Set Design was by Larry Brodsky, Costume Design by Frank Krenz, and Lighting by Edward M. Greenberg. Cast (incomplete): Robert Daniel, Kathleen Burns, Lucinda Hitchcock Cone, Janet Leuchter, Sultan - Cliff Seidman, Court Attendant - Michael Kemmering.
Fornes was awarded an Obie for Direction of Eyes on the Harem. |
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