If Love Dies, I Will Die Too

Whoever lives without love is lost to the core, / Dead a hundred times – loveless – forlorn.  / Nizami

For centuries a whole series of Islamic poets and mystics have returned to the ancient legend of the two lovers Layla and Majnun in order to reflect on their own loves and willingness to make sacrifices for God.

Their ability to remain one despite enforced separation transforms them both to such an extent that – in the complete fulfilment of their absolute devotion – they each develop a deep sensitivity to the secret messages of the other, sighs which only they can hear among the desert wind and the singing of the birds reaching them across vast distances. An enchantment – and madness – to be aspired to, for the Majnuns of this world experience a deeper reality than mere mortals. True lovers aspire to a different universe.

A matinee on the subjects of love, madness and poetry – for the Persian poet Nizami mutually-dependent aspects of an inseparable whole – and their reconfiguration into a piece of contemporary narrative theatre.

Produced by the Ruhrtriennale.