The British theatre company H2 Productions is bringing a slice of old Italy to the UAE with Pinocchio, today through Saturday at Madinat Theatre, Souk Madinat Jumeirah. The production moves to Abu Dhabi's National Theatre for a five-day run of shows next month. For the first staging of the children's classic, four young performers from the Emirates will act alongside six actors from the UK.
The play's director, Graham Fawcett, has adapted the original story - written in 1883 by Carlo Collodi and made into an animated Disney film in 1940 - for audiences here. The goal was to make a traditionally dark fairy tale about a boy whose nose grows with every lie he tells more of a fun adventure, Fawcett said.
Taking a break from rehearsals, Fawcett - who also performs in the show as Gepetto, the creator of the wooden puppet, and Magnifico, the evil circus master - said audiences should expect surprises, a beautiful set and plenty of entertainment.
"It's a timeless story because it's one with a strong moral," he said. "This is a brand new production written for this audience and, because it has pantomime elements, will see audience participation, creating that extra magic.
"With children, sometimes pantomimes are their first venture into live shows, so we hope to inspire and encourage them to not just stay in and watch TV, but to come out and experience live magic," said Fawcett.
H2 Productions will also bring The Wizard of Oz to Madinat Theatre in December.
Tickets for the Dubai performances, running until Saturday at Madinat Theatre, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, are Dh140, www.madinattheatre.com
Tickets for the Abu Dhabi performances, running from October 14-19, cost from Dh95 to Dh495, www.skyevent.ae
melshoush@thenational.ae
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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