AshehougAgency

Ørkenstormer

DESERT STORMS is the dramatic story of the crusader Richard Lionheart and the Muslim army commander Saladin, who fought over Jerusalem in the year 1191. The two never met face to face. In this play they do. The religious and political conflict they played such prominent parts is paralleled in Jerusalem and the world today. First and foremost the play is about the struggle between fundamentalist faith and human doubt.

The play is written by Tariq Ali and Thorvald Steen and contains both the Norwegian and English version of the text. DESERT STORMS premiered at Litteraturhuset in Oslo 5th March 2010, directed by Stein Winge.

Tariq Ali (b. 1943) is a writer, filmmaker, playwright, historian and political activist and commentator. He has written a number of novels, essay collections and books on politics and current affairs, and is also one of the editors of the New Left Review. He has received numerous awards for the novel suite THE ISLAMIC QUARTET, amongst others the Granadillo prize 2010 and the Instituto Rosario de Castro Prize for best novel translated into Spanish.

Praise for DESERT STORMS:

A small masterpiece … Here we find basic existential reflections for our times, magnanimous humour, literary pearls and a dramaturgic device that gives the play force and speed”
(Ny tid)

“The play sheds light on the story of a conflict no one yet knows the solution too in the short term. It is both a historical document and a powerful topical expression of opinion – an important contribution against our times’ diminishing consciousness of history.”
(Bistandsaktuelt)

First published: 2010, Forlaget Oktober
Thorvald Steen: Biography and bibliography