The New Kingdom: A New Play of Ancient Times

The grand story of victory, loss, love, heartbreak, ambition, and defeat in ancient Egypt has been brought vividly to life by bringing it down to a raw, human scale for the stage. The struggle of the ruling class of the grand Eighteenth Dynasty against an occupying enemy is told in epic scale in The New Kingdom, a new play from Emmanuel Paul. In 1540 BC, Egypt is divided. In the years following the invasion of the Hyksos, a band of nomadic warriors roaming from land to land from their Palestinian base, nothing is certain. The Hyskos have control over the north of Egypt and have bedeviled the once-mighty Theban dynasty for more than a century. The Theban capitol has been forced from Avaris into the south. Decades of war are replaced by decades of peace, and the people are weary. The Thebans have rested all hope for the restoration of their former power on the narrow shoulders of the young Ahmosis, who has seen his father and brother murdered by their enemies. The young pharaoh now shares power with his mother Aahotep, who will stop at nothing to see her surviving son grow into a great leader. Under his rule, Egypt will finally be freed from its invaders and become united again. Ahmosis must now fight a growing religious uprising if he hopes to bring Kush the glory it once knew and bring about an era of unequaled prosperity and peace.