Majnun Layla | HowlRound Theatre Commons

Nabra Nelson: Salam Alaikum. Welcome to Kunafa and Shay, a podcast produced for HowlRound Theatre Commons, a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide. Kunafa and Shay discusses and analyzes modern and historic Center Japanese and North African, or MENA, and SWANA or Southwest Asian, North African theatre from throughout the area.

Marina Johnson: I’m Marina.

Nabra: And I am Nabra.

Marina: And we’re your hosts.

Nabra: Our identify, Kunafa and Shay, invitations you into the dialogue in one of the best ways we all know how with advanced and scrumptious sweets like kunafa and completely heat tea or, in Arabic, shay.

Marina: Kunafa and Shay is a spot to share experiences, concepts, and typically to have interaction with our variations. In every nation within the Arab world, you may discover kunafa made in a different way. In that method we additionally lean into the variety, complexity, and strong flavors of MENA and SWANA theatre. We convey our personal views, analysis, and particular visitors with a view to begin a dialogue and encourage additional studying and dialogue.

Nabra: In our fourth season, we give attention to classical and historic theatre, together with discussions of conventional theatre varieties and in-depth evaluation of among the oldest and most important classical performs from 1,300 BC to the 20 th century.

Marina: Yalla, seize your tea, the shay is excellent.

Nabra: Audiences usually pack homes to see love tales, particularly these about forbidden love. Romeo and Juliet is a well-known Western instance of this phenomenon, however the trope goes again a lot additional, to a poem that seemingly impressed, even inadvertently, Shakespeare’s well-known play.

On this episode, we have a look at the timeless story of Layla and Majnun made well-known by Nizami Ganjavi as a poem and later adopted for the stage and the display screen numerous occasions.

So I discovered the play titled Majnun Layla, which interprets to “loopy about Layla” or “obsessive about Layla.” After which I discovered the poem on which it is primarily based. Like so many others, I instantly grew to become obsessed by it.
 

Marina: I first encountered Layla and Majnun within the first yr of my PhD. My world theatre historical past class had an task that every of us was chargeable for bringing in a single or two performs associated to our space of examine or one thing that was only a explicit curiosity to us from something thought of theatre historical past. By the best way, lecturers, particularly these in greater ed, I liked this as an task as a result of it actually allowed us to consider what it meant to broaden the canon in our personal methods.

So I discovered the play titled Majnun Layla, which interprets to “loopy about Layla” or “obsessive about Layla.” After which I discovered the poem on which it is primarily based. Like so many others, I instantly grew to become obsessed by it.

Nabra: For many who do not know, the story of Layla and Majnun is without doubt one of the most well-known traditional love tales to have come out of the Arabian Peninsula. It has roots in Arabian folklore and poetry and has been retold and reinterpreted in numerous varieties over the centuries. The tragic story of Majnun and Layla has been immortalized in Arabic literature via numerous poetic works, most notably by the twelfth century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi in his epic poem, Layla and Majnun. Nevertheless it was identified within the Arab world as early because the fifth century and Persia as early because the ninth century.

Two well-known Persian poets, Rudaki and Baba Taher each talked about the lovers of their works. Wali Ahmadi from UC Berkeley has written that the story of Majnun and Layla, “clearly attracts from transient, disjointed oral anecdotes reported in earlier Arabic sources. It was Nizami who beautifully labored via the scant supplies in his possession, developed a extra advanced plot, intensified the characterization, and composed a way more multilayered story within the Musnavi rhyming couplet kind to be integrated together with 4 different lengthy narratives into his monumental quintet.”

Marina: A Majnun Layla enjoyable truth: Eric Clapton learn a e book of Persian poetry, which included the story of Layla and Majnun. He primarily based his music “Layla” on this story and imagined it as representing his ardour for George Harrison’s spouse Pattie. Practically 9 years after the discharge of the album Layla and different Assorted Love Songs, Eric and Pattie had been married. So in the event you’re ever jamming to the music Layla, simply know that it’s primarily based on Layla and Majnun.

Nabra: Okay, so let’s begin with a really primary plot rundown. Our two important characters are seventh century Bedouin poet Qays and his lover Layla. Discover that Qays is definitely known as Qays, his actual identify, at first, and we’ll speak about what occurs later, and the place Majnun is available in.

However Layla and Qays are in love from childhood, however are by no means allowed to be collectively. Qays is perceived to be out of his thoughts in his obsession with Layla. Layla is pressured to get married to a different man, and Qays lives primarily in exile the place he spends his time writing verses about his endless love for Layla. Though they make efforts to see one another once more, they each die with none actual relationship going down.

Marina: The marginally longer model is that Qays of the Banu Amir tribe falls in love along with his classmate Layla. As the 2 get older, the depth of their love will increase. Though Layla too is actually captivated with love, it is Qays who publicly and unreservedly pronounces his obsessive ardour and elegiac lyrics, thus incomes the epithet Majnun, actually which means “possessed” or “mad.”

Majnun’s fixed poetic reward of Layla’s magnificence and his stunning unconventional conduct in public raised considerations for Layla’s mother and father. Fearful about their daughter’s status and the glory of their tribe, they be sure that the lovers are separated. When Qays’s father proposes marriage between Qays and Layla, Layla’s household rejects the provide because of Majnun’s Scandalous conduct, which although seemingly harsh is just not completely unreasonable.

As Majnun wanders aimlessly within the desert, residing an ascetic life and composing verses about his love for Layla, his father tries to remedy him of this obsessive love by taking him to the Kaaba, the holiest of Muslim websites. There Majnun prays to Allah to accentuate his love for Layla much more. In the meantime, Layla’s father arranges her marriage to a rich however shallow man named Ibn Salam in opposition to her will. The wedding stays unconsummated as Layla stays devoted to Majnun till her husband dies of rejection and grief.

Nabra: At occasions, Majnun is given the chance to satisfy Layla in individual, however even when she seems earlier than him via a faithful middleman, he refuses bodily or sexual contact. Majnun sees an ideal selfless love for Layla transcending bodily needs.

This side of the story has led many to interpret it as a Sufi allegory the place Majnun represents the lover searching for union with the divine. When Layla falls ailing and dies, Majnun loses his function in life. He rushes to her grave website the place he embraces her headstone and breathes his final, lastly united together with her in loss of life.

Nizami’s story of Layla and Majnun may be interpreted in numerous methods, as a mystical allegory or as a standard love story. Regardless of its mystical parts the poem additionally holds profane dimensions that contribute to its wealthy and charming narrative.

Marina: And there are totally different alternate endings. So in the event you’re conversant in this story however aren’t conversant in the narrative that we simply laid out, by no means worry, what you heard is only one of many various ways in which this has been interpreted all through time.

So typically Layla does consuMMAte her marriage with this different man, despite the fact that she nonetheless loves Majnun or Qays. There are simply many various ways in which this ends. So you’ll be able to verify all of them out. We’ll go into a number of of them at present, however not that many, as a result of it has been round for therefore lengthy. There are simply so many various endings.

However I feel I grew to become obsessive about this story as a result of I could not imagine that there was a very well-known love story that was so superbly written that I hadn’t heard of, and it really appeared to affect the whole lot round me. The day after I found it, I typed “Majnun Layla” into Netflix and located an adaptation there. I noticed a dance piece marketed that was taking over the story of Majnun Layla. It was in all places, and I simply did not notice it.

Along with being superbly written, I am at all times taken with tales that take up previous present origin tales, so to talk. This all led me to surprise although, why is Romeo and Juliet the frequent Western referent when it is clear that this story predates Romeo and Juliet and possibly influenced Shakespeare?

Literary historian Agah Sırrı Levend in his analysis on Layla and Majnun states that these Japanese love tales might have entered Western literature via the Crusades. He additionally argues that it is the supply for works like Tristan and Isolde amongst others. And I’ve to say as I used to be doing analysis for this episode, I stored pulling up articles that had been just like the “Japanese Romeo and Juliet,” and I used to be like, that feels so unfair contemplating how far earlier than Romeo and Juliet it got here. However that is…

Nabra: That is Orientalism for you.

Marina: Colonization… imperialism…. Laborious to choose only one. So Nizami wrote the poem within the twelfth century, and the weather and tales he mixed had been positively round earlier than that. So he in all probability wasn’t the primary author to cope with the topic, however essentially the most well-known that we all know of for these listening who’re like, I neglect when Romeo and Juliet was written… It wasn’t written till someplace between 1594-96.

So it is thrilling and superb to me that Layla and Majnun have iNFLuenced extra about our present cultural local weather than one may initially assume. Apparently, it does have enduring reputation and common attraction.

Nabra: We wished to share a number of of our favourite excerpts from Nizami’s immortal poem, Layla and Majnun. This prose model has been tailored by Colin Turner and revealed by Blake in London in 1970. “The long run is veiled from our eyes. The threads of every man’s destiny lengthen properly past the boundaries of the seen world. The place they lead we can’t see. Who can say that at present’s key is not going to be tomorrow’s lock or at present’s lock, not tomorrow’s key.”

Marina: “Dearest coronary heart, if I had not given my soul to you, it might’ve been higher to offer it up for good, to lose it perpetually. I’m burning in love’s hearth. I am drowning within the tears of my sorrow. I’m the moth that flies via the night time to flutter across the candle flame. Oh, invisible candle of my soul, don’t torture me as I encircle you. You have bewitched me. You have robbed me of my sleep, my cause, my very being.”

Nabra: “Time passes, however real love stays. The lifetime of this world is for essentially the most half nothing however a succession of illusions and deceptions. However real love is actual and the flames which gas it burn perpetually with out starting or finish.”

As well-known as Nizami is, Fuzuli, who got here a number of centuries later, his Leyli and Majnun is a masterpiece of traditional Azerbaijani and Turkish literature. Fuzuli, whose full identify is Muhammad bin Suleyman, was a distinguished Azerbaijani poet and thinker of the sixteenth century. He is thought of one of many best contributors to the Dîvân or traditional poetry custom.

This interpretation of the story generated extra curiosity than earlier Arabic and Persian variations, which the Turkish literature scholar Iskender Pala attributes to the sincerity and lyricism of the poet’s expression. The poem explores themes of affection, devotion, insanity, and the eager for union with the beloved. Fuzuli’s rendition of the story is widely known for its profound emotional depth, lyrical magnificence and philosophical musings on the character of affection and the human situation.

In reality, it has been described by the Encyclopaedia Iranica as “the fruits of the Turkic Masnavi custom in that it raised the private and human love tragedy to the aircraft of mystical longing and ethereal aspiration.”

In case you’re ever jamming to the music Layla, simply know that it’s primarily based on Layla and Majnun.

Marina: Like every inspiring story, it has been tailored many, many occasions. Layla and Majnun is an opera additionally primarily based on the tragic love story that we have talked about composed by a Azerbaijan composer, Uzeyir Hajibeyov. It’s thought of one of many earliest examples of an opera within the Muslim world.

The libretto was written by Azerbaijani poet and playwright MuhaMMAd Hadi. The opera was first carried out in 1908 in Baku, Azerbaijan and is marked as a major milestone in Azerbaijani and Islamic music historical past. It combines parts of conventional Azerbaijani music with Western operatic kinds, creating a novel and modern composition.

The opera incorporates conventional Azerbaijani musical devices such because the tar, kamancheh, and balaban, together with Western orchestration. The music options melodic traces impressed by Azerbaijani Mugham, which is a classical improvisational modal musical custom.

Nabra: There have been different notable diversifications of the Layla and Majnun story in opera kind, together with works by composers akin to one other Azerbaijani composer, Gara Garayev; Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who provides a Russian tackle the traditional story; and Vagif Mustafazadeh, who blends jazz with Azerbaijani music.

The final one is not a conventional opera, however it’s a important musical work impressed by the story. These diversifications spotlight the timeless nature of the story and its skill to resonate with audiences throughout cultures and generations. It was additionally tailored by Isaac Brandon within the late eighteenth century and staged as an opera Kais: Or Love In The Deserts: An Opera, in 4 Acts on the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.

Marina: There are such a lot of film diversifications. The primary three I discovered are Iranian movies from 1937, 1947 and 1959, adopted by an Egyptian adaptation in 1975 starring Soad Hosny and Ahmed Mazhar. There are two well-known Indian variations of the story, A 1976 Layla Majnu starring Rishi Kapoor and Ranjeeta Kaur. After which 2018 a remake as properly. And certain we’re positively lacking many, many movies on this record.

After I requested my pals at a latest Bollywood film night time if they’d seen these Indian diversifications, they as an alternative confirmed me a clip from Aaja Nachle, which options the story of Layla and Majnun. So we’ll get again to that extra quickly.

Nabra: There was additionally Laila The Musical. The play begins in modern-day Bradford. A younger lady known as Laila is working away from her household as a result of she’s in love with a person, however her father needs her to marry another person. There is a storm raging, and so she takes refuge in a bookshop the place she comes throughout the story of Layla and Majnun and enters a fantasy world. The situation after all, then strikes from Bradford to historical Arabia, and her household takes on the characters within the previous story. The query dealing with at present’s Laila is stark: will her destiny be the identical as that of her namesake?

Marina: Y’all, I couldn’t discover the reply to this on-line, so I have to know in the event you’ve seen this, inform us what the ending is. We couldn’t discover the ending on-line.

Nabra: It appears amazingly melodramatic, as all of those are. Truthfully, I feel that is a part of the attraction up till at present and since historical occasions.

The Mark Morris Dance Group additionally created a model of the traditional story, which was a seventy-minute present that includes two singers and musicians of the Silk Street Ensemble on conventional Asian devices, mixed with Western strings just like the violin, and so on., and a percussionist on stage with sixteen dancers. From the photographs and movies obtainable it was a big scale and, on the very least, an extremely designed manufacturing.

Marina: The Bag and Baggage theatre firm in Oregon, who I didn’t learn about earlier than doing analysis for this, did a retelling in 2017. And I really like this a lot as a result of apparently Scott Palmer wished to placed on a play with these star-cast lovers, and fell in love with the epic poem, however determined that staging the unique four-thousand-verse Layla and Majnun could be impractical. Yeah, that makes loads of sense.

So he was quoted in an area paper speaking in regards to the story’s magical animals (“We did not have a gazelle price range”) and different supernatural results. He determined to fuse the 2 tales of Romeo and Juliet and Majnun and Layla. Apparently he found massive variations. “Layla is way more fashionable and feminist, way more headstrong and impartial than Juliet,” he stated. He invited commentary from each Muslim theatre firm in America, he says, and sought recommendation from students at Columbia College and College of Oregon, the place Nabra and I’ve a buddy, Michael Malek Najjar, who teaches there. And he apparently served as, I do not know, no less than doing consultations for this present.

He cautioned, no Aladdin, no flying carPets, stomach dancers, genie lamps, and none of that appeared on this manufacturing. However applicable to the twelfth century Persian type setting, the high-status Roman girls, not the Muslims, are those who wore headscarves. I really want I may have seen this model. It looks like a lot care was put into this adaptation, and it feels prefer it’s interesting to all audiences in numerous methods and actually doing what I feel theatre does properly, which is ask questions and discover solutions out via our observe.

Okay, so this has been an enormous overview, some diversifications which are positively every worthy of their very own inquiry. And I wished to share them as a result of I actually really feel prefer it’s enjoyable, for me no less than, to go down this rabbit gap of what sorts of tales are we taken with as a gaggle, as people, and what threads form of proceed all through totally different spheres, after which after they’re tailored, which elements or totally different audiences and totally different theatres spotlight them. Is it the love as a result of we are saying love is common? Are there cultural points which are actually being held onto? And what does that imply? So I feel these are the questions that I am notably taken with right here.

So at present we will focus a bit bit extra on the clip that I instructed you about from Aaja Nachle and my favourite film, which is the 2021 Indonesian Majnun Layla.

The poem itself could be very performative, and maybe we may have a look at it as a efficiency textual content.

Nabra: So to return to Aaja Nachle, it is a Bollywood movie launched in 2007, directed by Anil Mehta and starring Madhuri Dixit within the lead function. The movie’s title interprets to “Come, Let’s Dance” in English. The plot revolves round a lady named Dia who returns to her hometown in India from the USA after her dance trainer and mentor Makarand falls ailing.

Upon returning Dia learns that her previous dance theatre, which was as soon as the guts of the cities, is scheduled to be demolished to make method for a shopping center. Decided to avoid wasting the theatre and revive its glory, Dia units out to reunite her previous dance troupe and stage a spectacular efficiency to lift funds and garner help for his or her trigger.

As Dia reconnects together with her previous and rallies the neighborhood, she faces numerous challenges together with opposition from those that are skeptical about her plans and obstacles in her private life. Alongside the best way, she finds love and help from people who share her ardour for dance and her need to protect their cultural heritage.

Marina: As you’ll be able to inform, the film is not in regards to the Majnu and Layla story essentially, however the Layla Majnu part of the film is a pivotal half the place Dia and her quest to avoid wasting the theatre decides to stage this manufacturing of this classical love story.

Within the conventional story of Layla and Majnun usually, there’s a robust emotional connection between the 2 lovers that usually results in the assumption that they’ll really feel one another’s ache. Whereas this idea varies relying on the model of the story and cultural interpretations, it is a recurring theme in lots of retellings.

Nabra: The thought of Layla and Majnun, after all, feeling one another’s ache usually symbolizes the depth of their love and emotional bond. Regardless of being bodily separated, their souls are stated to be intertwined in such a profound method that they’ll sense one another’s emotional and religious states. This notion provides to the tragic and romantic parts of their story.

Within the film we see this act out in a number of alternative ways. So in Aaja Nachle, as a toddler Majnu writes Layla’s identify in his college pocket book and will get whacked throughout the hand with a stick. The identical welts that present up on his palms additionally present up on Layla’s, and this continues all through the course of their story till lastly, when Majnu is killed, Layla dies as properly.

If you have not seen this twenty-minute phase of the film, you significantly should test it out. Additionally watch the total film, that is on my record as properly. It is fast-paced; superbly produced, dance, and sung; and it will actually blow you away; and it’s totally available.

Marina: Shout out to Namrata, my shut buddy who confirmed me the clip once I instructed her about this episode. It has been such a spotlight.

So going again to my authentic story of the primary time that I found Majnun and Layla, and I regarded on Netflix, and I typed “Majnun Layla” into the search bar, and I discovered this Indonesian movie, and I adore it a lot. As a result of it retains what it feels is the essence of the story with out preserving all the loss of life, which is what Nabra doesn’t like about it.

Nabra: I would like the tragedy y’all.

Marina: However the plot of the movie was glorious. So a fast rundown, as fast as I could make it. As a younger lady, Layla, and her mom see her father—who’s a shadow puppeteer—die. Her merciless uncle takes care of them however actually make her and her mom reside underneath his thumb. It is clear that her father’s affect have made her right into a storyteller and dreamer, which does not at all times match what her uncle needs for her, and what’s doubtlessly culturally anticipated of her as properly.

We flashed to when she’s now an grownup, and he or she’s educating in a classroom in Indonesia. She’s encouraging her class of younger girls to comply with their goals and never simply be content material with getting married as a result of it is prescribed for them. She will get a educating fellowship in Azerbaijan after which returns to her residence to seek out out that her mom and her uncle have decreed that she will get married.

She initially refuses, saying she does not need to have an organized marriage. She needs to marry for love. Nevertheless it quickly turns into clear that she’s meant to be this regent’s spouse, a man who she used to go to high school with. And perhaps it will not be that dangerous. Her household needs it. The person has cash and can maintain her household. And the person’s father says particularly that he did not need to marry anybody else. He simply wished to marry Layla as a result of she’s robust and non secular and good. And he additionally lets her go to Azerbaijan to show to comply with via on this fellowship primarily that she simply bought.

So she leaves for Azerbaijan engaged to this regent man, however when she arrives, she shortly falls in love with Samir. Her brother, I can not inform if it is her actual brother or an in depth buddy that she calls brother, however Ilham introduces them. Samir clearly is not wealthy. He works on the embassy as a prepare dinner and is in Layla’s class. His affection for her is evident, they usually find yourself spending a number of days collectively as he reveals her across the metropolis.

When he appears nearer to declaring his love for her, she asks him to not say something that may smash their friendship. Ilham encourages her to be with Samir, however Layla is torn. When she talks to the regent man on the cellphone, she’s clearly sad and he’s planning their very fancy wedding ceremony with two thousand visitors, which is developing quickly.

Nonetheless, she lights up when Samir recites poetry together with her, and after they talk about literature and philosophical concepts, Regent man will get so jealous and offended that she is not speaking to him on the cellphone that he involves retrieve her and convey her again to Indonesia. Samir tries to persuade her to not marry a person she does not love, however she’s torn. He waits for her in a location. She signifies the place they need to meet, however she does not present. She’s on a aircraft again to Indonesia.

Again in Indonesia she is planning for the marriage with regent man, however she’s clearly emotionally exhausted and upset. Samir is just too, however he results in Indonesia. Lengthy story quick, Layla’s uncle tries to lock her up and stop her from seeing Samir, however her mom helps her escape, understanding she might get the wrath from the uncle for doing this. Layla meets Samir on a bridge and tells him they are often collectively. Then out of the blue regent man, his dad, and 6 thugs present up. I do not know what their plan is. Are they going to retrieve Layla? Are they going to kill Samir? Are they going to do a mix of this stuff? Not clear, however all of them present up wanting fairly threatening.

The cronies push Layla and Samir round for a bit bit after Layla will not go together with him willingly. After which when Layla appeals to him and says, “do you actually need to marry somebody who does not love you?” Regent man says, “Marriage is not about love.” After which his dad says, “Okay, that is going very poorly. You are embarrassing the household by not with the ability to get your lady again.” And he palms him a gun.

Nabra: Now, the uncle who has clearly introduced them right here, will get scared and jumps in entrance of Layla getting shot within the course of. He in all probability dies, however the cameraman shortly strikes to a different factor, like Layla and Samir beginning their getaway, just for the Regent man to order his thugs to tie rocks to their ft and throw them within the water.

We see some actually terrifying and delightful photographs of Layla and Samir on the backside of this physique of water wanting into one another’s eyes as Samir breathes his final breath. However then we see Layla’s mother soar in, swim to the underside and minimize their ropes. On the shore, Layla, who virtually died however did not fairly die, tries to resuscitate Samir, who we assume is useless, and he or she thinks is useless. However he involves, and Ilham and Samir’s cousin present up and convey all of them to security. Our subsequent photographs are in Azerbaijan the place Samir and Layla are in love and have a toddler.

Okay, so they do not die, however the uncle dies, which is enjoyable. However it might’ve simply been so lovely them dying. That scene was very beautiful, superbly shot. However I do not know why they would not present Layla dying. It was very bizarre. She did not appear to be perturbed by drowning. She was simply after all, upset about Samir. After which I used to be like, however you had been each within the water on the identical time. Anyway, Layla, I feel, is an element mermaid, as a result of she is far much less drowned than Samir.

Marina: To Nabra’s level right here, you see them each they usually’re simply parallel underneath the water, they usually’re each struggling to breathe. However then Samir conks out a full, I do not know, thirty or so seconds earlier than Layla’s mother comes down, and Layla’s simply chilling. So perhaps she simply has the most effective breath management of anyone you have ever met. However I feel it is as a result of there’s one thing about her love for Samir that won’t enable her to offer in.

Nabra: Aww, that is candy.

Marina: Now, that is the place Nabra and I disagree. I used to be like watch this, you are going to adore it a lot. And he or she stated that she favored, however that she wished all these things, like loss of life.

Nabra: I simply wished the loss of life. I feel that they may have leaned… The melodrama was so enjoyable, they may have leaned into it and earned it much more. I feel they may have gone additional, however Marina’s coronary heart, perhaps it might’ve burst. I am simply jaded.

Marina: That is positively true. My coronary heart would’ve burst. However I additionally love this, as a result of it did not should be as unhappy as the top of the poem or some other telling. And I feel a part of the explanation, Nabra, is as a result of the folks within the film aren’t conversant in the poem. Within the film she says she’s named Layla after the character Layla from the poem. So it is smart that she does not meet the identical destiny as her namesake. There’s some progress for ladies there maybe, we’re seeing how this story impacts us over time, and that we are able to nonetheless have the identical forms of love, however that we do not have to die for them, or that our love may be pure in different methods.

I have never finished a deep evaluation on this movie itself. I simply actually like to observe it. However yeah, if different folks have concepts, please go away them within the feedback on HowlRound; we might love to speak. However I feel this film is nice. It is predictable in all the suitable methods. It is superbly shot. The intertextual references are nice.

I feel the puppet present that her and her father are doing at first seems just like the Ramayana, the place the 2 lovers are Rama and Sita, which looks like a becoming place to start out Majnun and Layla, it is actually lovely.

Nabra: It is also simply actually very beautiful to see loads of conventional cultural parts, like wayang kulit, and get a tour of Azerbaijan, which is de facto beautiful. It is simply very properly shot with regards to exhibiting off a rustic that I do not assume lots of people within the US have seen if they don’t seem to be Azeris themselves. So yeah, they’re simply very nice cultural parts from loads of totally different cultures built-in into that.

Marina: Sure, for certain. Okay, so I need to finish this episode by placing out one thing that is been perplexing me. I discovered an article a number of years in the past that talks a couple of play that in Egypt within the late 1800s known as Martyrs of Love, and it actually does not point out a lot, and it does not point out any of the star-crossed lovers that will’ve occurred within the Arabian Peninsula, the Higher Center East, no matter we need to name these areas at these earlier occasions.

And it goes into my considered loads of these articles calling this Indonesian film that we simply talked about too, a contemporary Romeo and Juliet, which is wild. As a result of the film is actually known as Layla and Majnun, they usually’re calling it a contemporary Romeo and Juliet. So it is attention-grabbing to me that it is nonetheless the reference, and that is a part of why we wished to make this episode.

Additionally, lots of people did develop up listening to this story of Layla and Majnun. I am not a type of folks, so it is nice for me to say like, oh, the following time that I train theatre historical past maybe this can be a story that I usher in sooner. And even convey within the poem. The poem itself could be very performative, and maybe we may have a look at it as a efficiency textual content; however taking a look at these diversifications, I feel, does one thing crucial too. So simply wished to spotlight among the present tales of lovers from the East and have a look at the ways in which their tales have been tailored over time. Thanks, y’all.

Marina:  This podcast is produced as a contribution to HowlRound Theatre Commons. You could find extra episodes of Kunafa and Shay and different HowlRound podcasts by looking “HowlRound” wherever you discover podcasts. In case you liked this podcast, please put up a score and write a overview in your platform of alternative. This helps different folks discover us. You can too discover a transcript for this episode together with loads of different progressive and disruptive content material on the howlround.com web site.

Nabra:  Have an thought for an thrilling podcast, essay, or TV occasion the theatre neighborhood wants to listen to? Go to howlround.com and contribute your concepts to the Commons. Yalla bye.

Nabra and Marina: Yalla, bye!