Bahrain's Spring of Culture

March 26¥ Mai Al Khalifa Book Launch at the Shaikh Ebrahim Centre at 8pm. Mohammed Bin Khalifa - The Myth and Corresponding History, translated into English by Dr Mohamed Khuzai, is a narrative covered in three volumes. The first volume contains a summary of the modern history of Bahrain, the story of its people, their relation to the sea and their struggle against foreign colonialists and their neighbours.

March 27

¥ The Inspector General (Taiha) will be held at the Culture Hall at 8pm. The play was written by Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol and is considered one of today's great theatre plays.

It is a comedy of errors, portraying human greed, stupidity and the deep corruption of powers in Tsarist Russia. The story centres on a group of corrupt local dignitaries who mistake a snobbish St. Petersburg youth for a high ranking Inspector General. The play is directed by Algerian director, Loutfi Bensebaa and performed by Afaq Group for Dramatic Arts. The group was established in 1991 and has won awards for their performance of Taiha at national and international festivals in Jordan and the UAE.

March 27-29

¥ The Japanese Garden, an innovative show, using the Children Cheering Carpet system, a special multimedia place where the performers' movements animate the carpet with precious digital images and sounds will be held at the Salman Culture Centre on 11am and 5pm. It represents a revolution in theatre and storytelling. CCC The Japanese Garden is used to enact the story of a journey. First an actor tells the story, then a dancer performs it and finally the audience is invited to explore and animate the gardens themselves.

March 30

¥ A Konya Turkish Sufi Music Ensemble will perform at the Culture Hall from 8pm. The rituals of the Whirling Dervishes, still practiced today by the dervishes of the

Melevi order is an act of love and a drama of faith.

Sufi music is closely connected with religious music and the lyrics are mainly taken from poems of Mevlana Celaleddin-I Rumi. The 40-member Ensemble is headed by Omer Faruk Belviranli (vocal) and its art director is Yusuf Kayya (nay).

March 31

¥ French poet, novelist and essayist Bernard No‘l will take to the stage at the House of Poetry at 8pm. He is renowned for his novel, 'Le Ch‰teau de Cne' (1969), intended as an account of brutal experiences during the Algerian War. His most recent works are the collections of poems 'Le Sillon des Sens' (2005) and 'La Vie en DŽsordre' (2005).