Arab court pans play, jails actor, director

By PETER WARG

A court in the United Arab Emirates not only thought a play was awful, but slapped the lead actor and director with 10 years each in the local prison.

The show, "Corpse-Eating Ants," was produced by an Indian expatriate amateur theater troupe in the emirate of Sharjah.

More than 350,000 Indians live in the UAE.

The court branded the one-act play as blasphemous because, according to Gulf press reports, ants feed on the corpses of Islam's prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ, who is also accorded prophet status in Islam.

Ten-year sentences for blasphemy were handed down by a UAE appeals court last week against director Morris Matthew and actor Kallarakkal Francis, who played a graveyard watchman in the production, according to the Indian Embassy in Cairo. The two had originally been sentenced to six years in prison about five months ago.

The play was performed in Malayalam, which is the main language of southwest India's Kerala state. The lingo has an especially rich theater tradition.

The show's playwright, Vasudavan Pillai, was sentenced to prison in absentia by the court.

"Corpse-Eating Ants" was an entry in a theater competition organized last year by the Kerala Art Lovers Assn. of the Emirates, and staged on the premises of the Indian Assn. of Sharjah.

Amateur theatricals are a major off-hours pastime among Western and Asian nationals working in the oil-rich Gulf states where entertainment facilities are few.

Seven others connected with the play were acquitted.