Emirati playwright Saleh Karama Al Ameri is a man of many words

For Emirati playwright Saleh Karama Al Ameri, life is a symphony.

“My job is to listen and observe, then to interpret and let my imagination run with the stories,” he says. “I am not society’s conductor, but I want to be the one that listens well and forces others to hear this piece of music.”

Al Ameri has been listening for 15 years, and his views on society have become immortalised in 17 Arabic-language plays examining subjects ranging from human nature and the power of appearances, to the danger of adhering to the status quo and the value of human life.

“I am interested in human nature and I like to think philosophically; that’s how I write,” he says. “The pieces of the plays are all different, but the cornerstone is the human, so the plays are universal.”

Non-Arabic speakers will get a chance to enjoy one of his stories when his sociopolitical drama, Alms for the Poor, has its first staging in English from tonight until Saturday at the National Theatre in Abu Dhabi.

Original article by Hala Khalaf

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Emirati playwright Saleh Karama Al Ameri is a man of many words