Following performances of Disgraced on the 10 and 17 June we will be holding post show discussions in our auditorium to explore various themes and ideas presented in the play.
10 June
Writing Against the Nation
How is the “state of the nation” play being affected – and unsettled – by views that are complementary, or alternative, to the dominant cultural narratives?
Speakers:
Luqman Ali – Artistic Director of Khayaal Theatre Company
Hassan Mahamdallie – writer on the history of Muslims in Britain, researcher and co-developer of the Arts Council England Arts and Islam website
Omar El Khairy – Bush Theatre Leverhulme Associate playwright
17 June
The post 9/ 11 Cultural Landscape
Exploring the stubborn logic of the “Clash of Civilisations”, the notion of the “other” in society and the danger of “culture talk”.
Speakers:
Professor Ziadduin Sardar– writer, broadcaster and Professor of Law and Society at Middlesex University
Dr Faisal Devji – Reader in History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St. Antony’s College
Omar El Khairy – Bush Theatre Leverhulme Associate playwright
For speakers’ full biogs please click on the links above right.
Hassan Mahamdallie has a background in theatre, journalism and activism. His political biography of Victorian artist William Morris, Crossing the River of Fire, was published in 2008. He is presently researching for a forthcoming book on the history of the Anti Nazi League and Rock Against Racism. Hassan is a founding member of Unite Against Fascism.
Luqman initially trained in the sciences of Islam and the languages (Arabic, Persian and Urdu) and cultures of the Middle East and the Sub-continent and spent a decade working for publishing houses in the USA and the UK.
In 1997, Luqman co-founded Khayaal, the first professional theatre company of its kind offering audiences a fascinating experience of classic Muslim world culture through contemporary stagecraft. He adapted, co-directed and produced Khayaal’s award-winning debut production, Conference of the Birds, in 1998 which was described by Time Out as ‘a pleasure’ and ‘a refreshing burst of visual creativity’. He went on to pioneer the theatrical interpretation of the tales of Jalaluddin Rumi and Fariduddin Attar producing numerous theatrical shorts including Four Mystics and a Merchant, Bad Beard Day, Between the Devil & Me and Tattoos in Qazvin. In 2004, he broadened the scope of his work adapting traditional tales from right across the Muslim world in Tales from Muslim Lands which included Peony Garden on Nanshan Mountain, Bling Bling Blind, Incey Witty Spider and Man Take Thy Flight.
Luqman’s latest works are Sun & Wind, a spiritual reflection on extremism and Hearts & Minds, a theatre-in-education play for young people exploring issues of identity, citizenship and extremism. Since 2008, Hearts & Minds has reached over 20,000 mainly young people in schools and colleges across England and has also been performed in the USA. Luqman is currently writing a play exploring the intersection of Britain and Islam in the story of coffee.
Ziauddin Sardar, writer, broadcaster and cultural critic, is Professor of Law and Society at Middlesex University. Considered a pioneering writer on Islam and contemporary cultural issues, he is author of over fifty books, including two volumes of autobiography Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim and Balti Britain: A Provocative Journey Through Asian Britain, and, his latest, Reading the Qur’an.
Professor Sardar has worked as a science journalist for Nature and New Scientist, as reporter for London Weekend Television and Channel 4 and has made numerous television and radio programmes, including ‘Battle for Islam’, a 90-minute documentary for the BBC. Most recently, he wrote the three part BBC series ‘Life of Mohammad’. He has served as a Commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission from 2006 to 2009 and as a member of the National Security Forum from 2008 to 2010. A former columnist on the New Statesman, he is co-editor of Critical Muslim, a quarterly magazine of new thinking on Islam.
Professor Sardar, the Chair of the Muslim Institute, London, is widely known as a public intellectual and appears frequently on radio and television.
Omar El-Khairy is a writer for stage and screen. He is a graduate of both the Royal Court and the Soho Young Writers' Programmes, a fellow of the Old Vic New Voices T. S. Eliot UK/US Exchange and the Leverhulme Associate Playwright for 2013 at the Bush Theatre. He is also co-founder of the international theatre and film collective Paper Tiger. His first play Given the Times was commissioned for a rehearsed reading at the Finborough Theatre as part of Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights while his last play Sour Lips was commissioned as part of the Counter-Culture season at Ovalhouse and co-produced with Paper Tiger. He is currently developing a new play A Soldier Dreams of White Tulips as part of Paper Tiger's residency as Associate Artists at Ovalhouse. Other collaborations include Theatre 503, the Arcola, the Lyric, the Unicorn, the Orange Tree and Hoxton Hall.
For screen, his short Tunnels is in post-production with Idioms Film in the West Bank, and he is now developing his first feature length screenplay, Sheikh.
He is also a contributing editor of Mute Magazine, blogger for The Disorder of Things, and holds a PhD in Political Sociology from the LSE.
Dr. Faisal Devji is Reader in History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St. Antony's College. He is the author of three books, Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity, The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics and The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence. His forthcoming book is Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea.
