By: Amira Elhamy
With unprecedented success, El Salam theatre, in Kasr El Eini, hosted the play, inspired from the novel The Forty Rules of Love, written by Elif Shafak. The play is the first play to be hosted by El Salam Theater, after witnessing several renovational procedures. The play is directed by Adel Hasan; starred by Baha Tharwat, Ezzat Zein, Dina Ahmed, Hany Abdel Hay, Mohamed Abdel Rashid, Ihab Bakir, and Hesham Aly. The theatrical show also presents musicals, performed by Amira Abou Zeid and the singer Samir Azmi. A special writing workshop, headed by Rasha Abdel Moneim, wrote the play script.
Nermine Said, costume designer explains to MEO that the theatrical show is an exceptional one, as it presents a well written script that respects the mentalities of the audience; “The show does not include any disrespectful words or improvisations; on the contrary, it is very well written and it respects guests’ intellect, says Nermine.”
Said went on to explain: “ The show does not copy exactly what the book of Elif Shafak presents; however using the exact name of the book was a very smart step and it brought more success to the show. The costumes are well designed; I would say that the costume designer used a good color palette that did entertain the eyes of the audience during the show; the lighting also was very well used during the various scenes; however my only comment would be about the pace of the show; it was a bit slow, and the sound during some scenes was not clear as the music volume was a bit high.”
According to El youm El Saba “El Beit El fani”, supervised by the Ministry of Culture, is currently presenting four plays on the stages that are supervised by the Ministry; one of them is the Forty Rules of Love; until now The Forty Rules of Love, occupies the first rank regarding revenues; its average revenues achieved 10 thousands per show.
It is to be noted that The Forty Rules of Love, discusses the idea of eternal love, through presenting the relationship between two religious scholars, Shams Tabrizi and Galal Al Din Al Rumi.