Qatar University presents at 8 p.m. a theatrical performance entitled “Beyond Sintara” dealing with “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, the great novel by the famous French writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885), as part of the ongoing theatre festival of “Our Youth on Stage” at the Drama Theatre in the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara).
Tamim al-Bourshid, director of the production of “Beyond Sintara”, said: “When we were asked to nominate an international story for the festival, director Faisal al-Athba and I searched for a novel that has an international reputation, and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” was the most suitable book to address an issue and reach the university students in general, and the youth in particular, in relation to issues such as injustice, bullying, cruelty, etc. I worked on the idea of the original text in a different way to tell people that every time and place has a “hunchback” character, especially that the novel is based on issues related to injustice, cruelty and bullying experienced by a hunchback in Notre Dame, but we adopted this idea and applied it in a place we called “Sintara” so that the work is commensurate with the age in which we live, while preserving the spirit and thought of Victor Hugo’s novel.
Al-Bourshid, furthermore, explained that director Faisal al-Athba tried to employ all the theatrical elements to be harmonious in terms of costumes, decoration, cinematography and others, noting that the actors in the play are: Mohammed al-Mulla (the hunchback), Mohammed Yusuf, Abdullah al-Mulla, Munther Thani and Jassim Ashir. Mr. Tamim al-Bourshid added: “This is our third participation in the University Theatre Festival (Our Youth on Stage). We won the award of best integrated work in the first edition for our performance “Shabab Wa Lakin”, and we won the best work award in the second edition for our work “M’a Marabat Alsharaf”, which was written by me. Our team members work hard to prove excellence to all and be distinguished in this area. The difficulty lies in how to present a work based on the novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” which was presented in many cinematic, cartoon and television works. The hard work, therefore, was the must to present it with a new spirit. Actors also had to work hard to deal with the script to better perform the scenes, while the director had to turn every stone to present the best performance to the audience, as we all have watched the story performed before in different drama works. Indeed, it is integrity that made such international novel into a successful local performance on our stage.”