Soufie, Mon Amour - Performance

An afternoon performance by Actor Hassan El Jaï, with music provided by Haroun Teboul, took place before a packed audience at the French Institute's Dar Batha

Actor Hassan El Jaï was accompanied by Haroun Teboul on Ney, Oûd and Tambûr. We follow the journey of Shams Tabrizi, the famous wandering dervish of the 13th century, to the city of Konya. In the footsteps of the spiritual master of Rûmi, and through his encounters with various fascinating protagonists; the public is invited to walk an initiatory path, at the end of which love is revealed to be both the ultimate reason and purpose.

Sufi, My Love, is a theatrical adaptation of the bestseller by Elif Shafak, a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, academic, public speaker and women's rights activist.

Haroun Teboul

Hassan El Jaï is an actor, director, coach and teacher who cites among his sources of inspiration the great classical playwrights Shakespeare or Molière, but it is especially in Sufism and its great mystics that he finds his greatest inspiration. Among them are Al Ghazali, Al Junayd or Shams de Tabriz. "These great men have very clearly stated things that I already felt, a certain vision of authentic Sufism, far from today's, which is too often diluted and betrayed."

The novel, Sufi, My Love, which has sold more than half a million copies, introduced the world audience to the story of the Sufi Jalaluddîne Rûmi and his meeting with his spiritual master, Shams de Tabriz, and love correspondence between an American Jewish housewife and a modern Sufi living in Amsterdam.

Hassan El Jaï's mercurial switching between characters was impressive

But the plot did not please Hassan El Jaï, "For me, his background and the way in which the story was articulated are not consistent with what I knew about Sufism, Rûmi and Shams." Elif Shafak, as a writer, has fictionalised a lot of things, which are not consistent with this real story."

The actor had a desire to transmit to the public a more authentic vision. "I used part of the plot and some of the characters present, to rewrite the story and make it more faithful to the message of the 40 rules of love as reported by Rumi, as well as to the historical Sufism from which they emanate. I wanted to make this story a reminder that love, listening, compassion, gentleness, fraternity and light are at the heart of the message of Islam."

Hassan El Jaï has a strong stage presence and his mercurial switching between characters was impressive. One moment he was sweet, soft and almost feminine and the next he was demonic and aggressive. He is a master of his art and it takes little imagination to see him playing Hamlet or Othello. As a one-man-show it was a brilliant performance without a single false note. The musical accompaniment by Haroun Teboul provided a subtle background without ever intruding.

The View From Fez is an official Festival Media Partner

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