Other Stage Plays

OUSAMA - A MOSLEM NOBLEMAN’S VIEW OF THE CRUSADES a one-man show, was written by Sara Salih, with music by Richard G. Mitchell, and directed by Corin Redgrave at the Brixton Shaw Theatre.

Ousama Ibn Munqith, warrior, poet diplomat, was born in 1059, four years before the conquest of Jerusalem by European forces. He followed a diplomatic career in the important capitals of the region, including Damascus, Jerusalem and Cairo. Ousama was befriended by Salah-al-Din, who installed him in a palace in Damascus, where he was an important literary figure, and it was here that he composed his memoirs.

He gives us vivid accounts of the battles he fought and the bloody conflicts he witnessed. He writes of the Franks with amusement rather than acrimony, in spite of the military threat that they posed, and his descriptions of bizarre Frankish behaviour reflect, ironically enough, those contemporary situations in which nations still confront one another with incomprehension what appears to be an impassable divide.