“tender moments … paired with moments of real introspection”: Desert Thirsts and Jerusalem Winds Review
The play, on for 2 more nights at Corpus Playroom at 9.30pm, looks at Muhammad Aslam’s (born Leopold Weiss) journey to Islam.
Junayd UI Islam not only masterfully embodies several characters in Desert Thirsts and Jerusalem Winds but is also the author of this thought evoking and significant play that first took stage at Edinburgh Fringe 2024.
Pictured Jacob Coughlan (Playing Leopold Weiss) and Lucy White (Playing Elsa) in rehearsals, taken by Christopher Lorde
The play follows the real-life story of Muhammad Asad, based on his autobiography ‘The Road to Mecca’, which highlights his journey to becoming a Muslim. The play also covers his work as a young journalist questioning the likes of Chaim Weizmann. At one point we hear the voice of this Zionist leader, bellowing through a speaker, as Leopold is part of a gaggle of journalists. This clever direction and sound design, by Tally Arundell and Connor Nainthy, is only one of several moments that immerse the audience completely.
Leopold Weiss is characterised convincingly by Jacob Coughlan. Playing a young and somewhat naïve man, passionate in his journalistic pursuits, eventually, we see these passions subside. The fact that his articles are reprinted 30 times or that he has multiple books published under his name, is of no particular importance. He has felt and been seen by the irrevocable presence of Islam and although he struggles with this at first, unsure of how to navigate being told “You are a Muslim”, we see how both he and his wife, Elsa (elegantly portrayed by Lucy White), come to embrace the faith.
“Beautiful tender moments are paired with moments of real introspection. As an audience member, one cannot help but think, what does life truly mean?”
Beautiful tender moments are paired with moments of real introspection. As an audience member one cannot help but think, what does life truly mean? As Elsa and Leopold sit in a busy subway in Berlin they perceive a lack of life in the faces around them, something elusive and impossible to characterise, yet something that incites fear all the same. Cleverly, the audience themselves make up the subway passengers and as the couple come together to realise how an ever-competitive, materialistic Western society is embroiled in nothingness, onlookers are forced to question the stuff of their own lives. To ask themselves: what and who do we stand for? I feel this is a question that is perhaps of particular consequence in student cities like Edinburgh and Cambridge, where we are on the precipice of either being consumed by the accolades and prestige of the institutions we attend or we are willing to reject it for something sustainable, life affirming and intangible.
The simple yet careful costume choices by Amira Mumin and Sitaram Thirukumar serve the characters well, distinguishing the transformation of Leopold being a Westerner disillusioned by religion to Muhammad who is freed by Islam.
From the privileged seats of Corpus Playroom, we are transported to the 1920s - and yet, it remains impossible to miss the glaring similarities given that our present day sees a frantic ceasefire and release of prisoners. Desert Thirsts and Jerusalem Winds speak to a number of facets of life, whether it be religion and its ability to inspire self actualisation or the devastating realities that Palestinians have faced far longer than Western society would like to admit.
Pictured Junayd UI Islam (Playing Asad) in rehearsals, taken by Christopher Lorde
The four-people cast orchestrates a play that is nothing short of moving. As your eyes dart across the stage following Leopold as he becomes Muhammad, you leave in deep contemplation questioning your place in the performance of life, which perhaps for any art form is the ultimate aim.