When it comes to musicals, smaller can be better. The notion is what Qatari composer Dana Al Fardan wants with his slimmed-down version of Rumi: The Musical in an exclusive Akademy event at Dubai’s Etihad Museum on Wednesday. The new show will then go on tour in Turkey later this year with dates to be announced soon.
Speaking to The National, she describes how the show is a more “intimate” retelling of the full-blown production, which had its premiere at London’s Coliseum Theatre in 2021.
"The London premiere was at one of the biggest stages in the West End so we had the full cast and orchestra," Al Fardan says. "We look at this version as more of an evolution of the show. While there are some cosmetic changes to the set, the biggest difference is that we have a smaller cast of six people and instead of a 30-piece orchestra it is accompanied by the piano.”
The move aims to make the onstage drama more immediate. Starring British-Lebanese stage actor Nadim Naaman, Rumi: The Musical follows the relationship between the titular 13th-century scholar and his mentor Shams Tabrizi. While the duo lived in the Turkish city of Konya, Al Fardan says the production strips away references to the setting to focus on their relationship.
"While set in its time, the focus of the show is on Rumi the man" she adds. "So we place him in a regular family setting as we follow the development of his ideology."
Keeping the story centred on Rumi was essential for Al Fardan, who co-wrote the production with Naaman. It was an attempt to restore some balance to the historical figure, who is now a mainstay of pop culture, with novels and songs inspired by his life.
“An unfortunate by-product of fame is that you're dehumanised and that’s what essentially happened to Rumi,” Al Fardan says. “He became a concept and too great for the mind to conceive of in terms of its human context and that’s why you may find a superficial understanding of who he is. What we want to do is strip it way right down and really focus on the man himself and not the myth or pre-conceived ideas surrounding his life.”
While the score itself has been scaled back to bare piano arrangements, it nonetheless should be evocative. Composed by Al Fardan and Naaman, the music takes its cues from their classical and stage backgrounds respectively.
"We wrote the music mostly separately and organically," Al Fardan recalls. "We would have the basic storyline and because of my neo-classical music background, I would come up with the overture which is primarily instrumental. When it comes to Nadim's songs they are really influenced by musical theatre and they are more vocally driven and immediate. Putting our works together really created this esoteric atmosphere that complimented the overall theme of the production.”
Al Fardan hopes the eclectic score is expansive enough to accommodate audiences across various countries and settings. Staging the new version of Rumi: The Musical within the Etihad Museum also presents a cost-effective opportunity to tour internationally.
"It is a chance to break some of the traditional financial barriers that come with touring productions," she says. "By taking the show outside the traditional structure of theatre and moving around in museums or other interesting spaces is not only an important way of bringing them new audiences but really inspires them to listen to new stories from other parts of the world."
This is the ultimate aim of Al Fardan and Naaman’s latest work. It comes on the back of the play Broken Wings, based on the life of Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran, which also had its premiere in London in 2022.
"It could be seen that we are creating a series of works that focus on universal figures from the eastern world that entered the global consciousness," Al Fardan says. "I believe that this is our mandate. We want to bring these interesting stories from the East to the West that can be related to a modern audience."
