“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.