Shams by Rumi

I am by no means an expert on the relationship between Rumi and Shams, but I’m familiar enough with them to know that they are one of the great tragic homoromantic/homoplatonic love stories, up there with Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Achilles and Patroclus, and Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad. So I was a bit surprised and disappointed to see that our modern Shams and Rumi are a young heterosexual couple. The play explores the lives of these people in various possible universes, in various places. They even reference the original Shams and Rumi as they speculate what their lives could’ve been. They don’t shy away from mentioning that the two of them, old male Persian poets, were in love. So why shy away from it in writing and casting this show? I think this would’ve been a lot more interesting and challenging as a play with two male actors, or two female actors, or any other combination that was more subersive than what we got on stage.

That being said, there were several things here that I enjoyed. Scenes jumping frenetically between settings with continuous dialogue, cheeky transitions between scenes, and moving poetic monologues are some of the highlights. More importantly, the performances of the two leads is very impressive. I’m only familiar with Rumi’s actor, who I had previously watched in “Splattered” at NextFest this year in which he was a standout talent. I’ve never seen Shams’ actor before, but I am keen to see her in another play soon as she likewise matched her counterpart’s performance beat for beat.

In terms of writing, the dialogue felt a bit cliche or wooden at times. Or perhaps this was because one can’t help but compare the written dialogue in this to Rumi’s own poetry, which remains some of the best in the world even when translated into English. The show also felt quite long, as I wondered if some lines could’ve been cut or the pace tightened up.

My last small gripe is that these modern iterations of Shams and Rumi meet in a conventional way. Given how iconic the real Shams and Rumi’s meeting was, that was a disappointment.

I’m glad I got to see this play. I want more thoughtful theatre like this with an all-racialized creative team. I appreciate that there is very little translation or pandering to Whiteness in this work, and the cultural elements feel authentic and lived in. This playwright is certainly one to watch.

Went with almost no expectations but left with good laughs, great acting, some warm feeling of nostalgia, subtle nuances commentary through the dialogues and the value of friendship and finding yourself. Really enjoyed the story telling style, the humor and the touch of different interconnected yet so different traditions. The only thing that could improve the play is the integration of the poetic pieces. While the first recitation of poetry was smooth, the others felt more abrupt, and felt a little detached from the overall story. The tense moments, while serve the bigger story, could use smoother transition perhaps. Thoroughly enjoyed the show regardless!

Loved this show! Great story with a simple but effective premise: What would be different about your life if you changed where it happened?

The acting, technical design, and direction of this show all come together to build a world that is rich with the culture of every location it takes place in. I love how they used the design to immerse you in the nitty-gritty details of the story locations.

cleaver plot, but i lack the needed background knowledge of the culture

Shams by Rumi is sweet, different, but it needs some polishing.

With solid performances from the cast and wonderful cultural elements from the Middle-East (including dialogue in Arabic and Farsi), there's a lot to enjoy about the story that is quite unfamiliar to an Albertan audience.

However, the show is long. The script could be trimmed down and dialogue tightened to keep the pace up. Paired with a few too many long scene transitions and cues not quite on their mark, the production as a whole could have benefited from a little bit more rehearsal.

Admittedly, I am not familiar with the poets for whom this show is based upon and I found myself longing for more of that "artsy" element you can only find on a stage. To me, this show as a whole felt like it could have been a film.

Congratulations to the playwrite and performers for creating something unexpected, using a playful sweep of locations (Cairo! Tehran! Edmonton!) and some delightful tiny walk-ons to keep the story moving.

“Welcome to Egypt!”

A reimagining of the lives of ancient poets Jalal al-din Rumi and Shams Tabrizi, but instead of being two old Persian men, they are instead modern-day woman and man, meeting for the first time on Bumble. This play by Moemen Gaafar strings along a story of love from Cairo to Alexandria to Tehran to Edmonton to Persia in the 13th century. The story itself is beautifully entertaining, following Galal and Shams as their relationship slowly develops over the course of a weekend. The two leads, Brijesh Nagarathinam and Fatemeh Jelveh-Garan (playing Galal and Shams respectively) had excellent chemistry and character, balancing disagreement and admiration in a way that truly felt real.

For technical aspects of the show, there wasn’t much that really stood out, with simple lighting, simple set, and slightly too-loud microphones. What did stand out, though, was the projections. The stage featured three white screens, projected with images to show each location the characters existed in at the time. Unfortunately, some of the images were difficult to see based on how brightly the fabrics were lit, as the pictures sometimes faded into the white, but the concept itself, and the images chosen, were a great way to provide more to the world with minimal movement-heavy scene transitions.

In the end, “Shams by Rumi” is a show that explores what unites all of us as a species, not language, not religion, not a specific location – but art, food, poetry, dance, sunrises, and ultimately, love.