Sulayman Al Bassam is one of the world‎'‎s leading contemporary dramatists‎.‎ His adaptations of Shakespeare‎,‎ performed around the world‎,‎ have won many awards and met with widespread acclaim on four continents‎.‎ This volume brings together for the first time three of Al Bassam‎'‎s adaptations of Shakespearean plays ‎- including versions of Hamlet‎,‎ Richard III and Twelfth Night ‎- collectively known as The Arab Shakespeare Trilogy‎.‎ The Al‎-Hamlet Summit sees the familiar characters of Hamlet reborn as delegates placed in a conference room in an unnamed modern Arab state on the brink of war‎;‎ Richard III‎:‎ an Arab Tragedy is a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare‎'‎s classic‎,‎ reworked and transplanted into the scorching oil‎-rich Islamic world of the Gulf‎;‎ while The Speaker‎'‎s Progress is a forensic reconstruction of Twelfth Night which transforms into an unequivocal act of defiance towards the state‎,‎ forming a dark satire on the decades of hopelessness and political inertia that fed twenty‎-first‎-century revolts across the Arab region‎.‎ The Arab Shakespeare Trilogy features an editorial introduction by Graham Holderness‎,‎ positioning the plays within the contexts of both modern Shakespearean drama and Arab culture as well as an author‎'‎s preface by Sulayman Al Bassam‎,‎ detailing the plays‎'‎ history of theatrical reception and outlining his philosophy of Shakespeare adaptation‎.‎