Rakan Returns to East in October

Mufreh Al-Shammari With a different approach and a vision that draws closer to the child’s world today, the stage play “Rakan Ya Ma Kan” returns to the stage of Sharq Theater starting October 1, in an experience that combines entertainment, education, performance, and singing. The play was written by artist Nasar Al-Nassar in a manner different from previous versions, and he will direct it with a new vision to achieve the goal of its revival.

The work previously garnered significant attendance and several awards at the Children’s Theater Festival, but its new staging has undergone rewriting and development, based on the conviction that children themselves have changed, and what once captured their attention is no longer necessarily sufficient today.

Al-Nassar chose to preserve the spirit of the story, but he opened its windows to a new world, one in which technology has become part of childhood’s details, and artificial intelligence is present in the lives of both children and adults.

Because theater does not merely aim to amuse children, reading and books are placed at the heart of the narrative, alongside artificial intelligence, which will not appear as a passing idea but as a character present in the events, conversing with the child, drawing close to them, and posing an important question: How do we use technology without losing books and imagination?

This equation represents one of the most beautiful stakes of “Rakan Ya Ma Kan”: telling the child that technology is not an enemy, and books are not relics of the past, and that knowledge can come through more than one path, but imagination remains the most beautiful of them all.

The play’s presence is further enhanced by the participation of names well-known in the memory of Kuwaiti children’s theater, foremost among them artists Abdulrahman Al-Aqil and Samah, along with Mai Al-Balushi, Kifah Al-Rajab, Abdullah Haitham, Abdulrahman Al-Hazim, Ahmed Youssef, Youssef Matar, Abdullah Al-Dubais, Hamoud Hamed Al-Nassar, Issa Al-Muwail, Rital Jassim, Hamoud Al-Faraj, and others.

The specific choice of Al-Aqil and Samah gives the production an additional dimension, as they are not just names on a cast list, but part of the memory of Kuwaiti children’s theater. Their presence alongside a new generation of artists creates a beautiful blend of experience and fresh presence.

“Rakan Ya Ma Kan” does not return merely to present a show for children, but to sit with them in the same row, listen to their questions, touch their world, and offer them a story that simply says: No matter how time changes, a child will always need someone to tell them a story worth keeping in their memory.