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Broken Wings, the acclaimed West end musical based on legendary poet Khalil Gibran's novel, is coming to the Dubai opera on the 17th and 18th of January. Written by middle eastern Duo Nadim Naaman and Dana Al Fardan, the show highlights key issues of early 1900's most of which are still relevant today, like wealth vs happiness, immigration and the importance of home and the fight for gender equality.
#BrokenWings #Musical #Legend
See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Broken Wings, the acclaimed West end musical based on legendary poet Khalil Gibran's novel, is coming to the Dubai opera on the 17th and 18th of January. Written by middle eastern Duo Nadim Naaman and Dana Al Fardan, the show highlights key issues of early 1900's most of which are still relevant today, like wealth vs happiness, immigration and the importance of home and the fight for gender equality.
#BrokenWings #Musical #Legend
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00:00Broken Wings, the acclaimed West End musical based on legendary poet Khalil Gibran's novel,
00:10is coming to Dubai Opera on the 17th and 18th of January.
00:14Written by Middle Eastern duo Nadim Naaman and Dana Al Fardan, the show highlights the
00:19key issues of early 1900s, most of which are still relevant today, like wealth versus happiness,
00:24immigration and the importance of home, and the fight for gender equality.
00:29Nadim Naaman had his hands full writing this musical, but it turned out that his role in
00:34the production would encompass much more.
00:36Initially, I didn't want to play Gibran.
00:39I wanted to just be the writer.
00:42But our producer, Ali Mata, who is also a very dear friend now, but at the time he was
00:50just my producer, I only just met him, he was very blunt with me and he said, listen,
00:54I can't put on a show in the West End and sell it to Lebanese people when you are the
01:01only Lebanese West End musical guy at the moment.
01:06They're just going to say, sure, why is he not in it?
01:09So I thought about this for a while and then I was like, you know what, actually it does
01:12make sense because I'm a writer, Gibran's a writer, and in the framework of the story,
01:20the character of old Gibran is like the narrator.
01:23He is on his own the entire time.
01:27He is at his desk in New York in 1923, writing his memoir, writing his book, and then he
01:34is imagining the past.
01:37So everybody else in the show is from the past.
01:39So it kind of works because I'm detached from it all.
01:43So although I'm in it, I'm also in it as a kind of lonely figure and it didn't require
01:51quite so much rehearsal because I don't have to be, I can watch the rest of the show basically
01:56and watch it from a distance.
01:59It was a sort of gradual decision that was made and I was again, I was going to leave
02:04the show as an actor, but then we took the show to Béthédine and it was the most overwhelming
02:11week of my career, you know, to see the response in Lebanon and where this show matters more
02:16than anywhere else.
02:19It convinced me to stick with it a bit longer and it's a pleasure.
02:23Hanal Khareshi, who plays Gibran's love interest Salma, understands the responsibility of playing
02:28such an influential character in the poet's life.
02:30I think she's very strong.
02:34She gets stronger throughout the show.
02:35She has a lot of things happen to her.
02:39Her journey is very tragic actually.
02:44I think she starts off as this excited young girl and she has a lot of setbacks to overcome.
02:57She falls in love with Gibran and then the same day she's told that she's going to be
03:04sent to marry Mansour, who is the bishop's nephew, so she knows then she can never be
03:10with Gibran and then she sort of has to just find the strength to live with that and yeah,
03:22I would say she's very strong, empowering.
03:26It's felt quite empowering to play that kind of a character as well.
03:32She goes on to teach Gibran a lot about women and about the society that they were in, which
03:40he then uses later in life when he becomes who he is, well, who he became.
03:48She was sort of his muse almost and his inspiration behind a lot of his works, so yeah, it's a
03:55lot of responsibility to play that kind of character.
03:58Sofia Faurugi plays Mother in the show, a challenging role due to the character existing
04:03as a memory with no dialogue.
04:05Yeah, so it's been almost two years since I had my first involvement and over this time
04:11we've just seen the piece grow and evolve and we've evolved with it as well and we've
04:17found new things and new connections.
04:22Mother herself is more of a symbol in the piece.
04:25She's only seen as the memory of Gibran, so you only see her in scenes where it's with
04:30younger Gibran as he's a younger boy.
04:36So in that way it's been a little, not hard, but it's not through dialogue, you never hear
04:41her speak, it's only through the spirit of the earth in the second half.
04:46So in that respect it's quite, it was a bit of a challenge to find and represent her as
04:52a more well-rounded human being.
04:56I think how you see her in the show is she's very tender, but she's really a strong woman
05:02and she took her children across to America when they were very young and I don't know
05:11how much you know, but her husband was imprisoned for embezzlement.
05:16So it was a very, what's the word, it was a very risky thing to do I guess, to you know
05:25up and leave your home and to do it on your own, you know, in this day and age it's difficult
05:31but I think she just inspired him to be, you know, to look at women as being strong.
05:40Ben Cox, a musical director of the show has high hopes for Broken Wing's success in the
05:44region.
05:45I hope that they'll receive it really well, I mean I think that there's an absolute universality
05:51in what we're doing with Broken Wings, I think that if you enjoy music and if you enjoy storytelling
05:58and if you, I think particularly because over here Khalil Gibran is such a big figure, I
06:04think there'll be more of a response even to the response we had in London because he's
06:10a character that really is in everyone's hearts and the message that we're trying to tell
06:14through the show, Khalil Gibran's message, is one of equality and tolerance and unifying
06:23everything that we believe in and just getting on with each other.
06:27Broken Wings will only be in Dubai for two days on the 17th and 18th of January and will
06:32have three shows.
06:33Visit Dubai Opera's website for more details.
06:36Logan Fish for Gulf News.