Former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein is known to the world for his numerous human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, and for the erroneous allegations of possessions of weapons of mass destruction which resulted in the controversial 2003 Invasion of Iraq and the end of his regime.
He is less known for his purported commissioning of a Qur’an written in his own blood ‒ the validity of this rumour and the reality of the Blood Qur’an is yet to be authenticated; however, taking inspiration from this macabre tale, Abraham Alsalihi has composed The Calligrapher a play asking numerous salient philosophical questions.
Joining Abraham, director Lise Delmarre sat down for an interview. The Indiependent had a chance to speak with the erudite pair about their inspirations, intentions, experiences performing the thought-provoking play at the Edinburgh Fringe, and plans moving forward.
The Indiependent: What is the concept of The Calligrapher and why did you decide it was important to create it?
Abraham: The Calligrapher follows the story of the Blood Qur’an which is a Qur’an written entirely in Saddam’s blood allegedly. It is a really important story because it shows the megalomania that was leading the country at the time, but on a deeper level, it shows this paradox where the Blood Qur’an is an artefact that is itself a sin but also cannot be destroyed because that would also be a sin. So it is sort of this paradox where we have artefacts, we don’t know what to do with ‒ do we keep them, do we destroy them, do we hide them away? What is done with the Blood Qur’an is we just hide it in a basement somewhere. There are many parallels with things we see in society today, for example, what came to mind immediately when I was reading the story was the statues we have to historical figures mired in controversy.
It also parallels quite deeply with the way diaspora connect with their experiences of their homeland or their parent’s homeland ‒ where they’re not truly from there but they’re not truly from where they are. I think all these parallels are so beautifully demonstrated by this artefact [The Blood Qur’an], so I wanted to write a play that brings this all together.
The Calligrapher follows the man who wrote the Qur’an, and he is haunted by this walking talking Qur’an that constantly nags him, and reminds him of his mistakes. I think it shows how people cope with history and their own personal artefacts as well as artefacts from history. It also touches on related themes like legacy, generation trauma, and parenting and how these feelings come together in the diaspora like myself.
What do you hope the audience will take away from your show?
Abraham: I suppose the most important theme is legacy. I used to view art as a way of gaining immortality in the physical world and one of the things that this play discusses is how art can’t do that. One of the things we look at in the play is a painting by Caravaggio and there is a constant narrative where the protagonist wants the painting to last forever, however, inevitably, it will naturally fade through the elements. One of the concrete themes is that legacy isn’t infinite and that you can’t live through your art. This also applies to parenting; parents can’t live through their children.
Lise: I also wanted to add from a performance perspective a surprising topic that emerged when we were preparing for our Corpus run in Cambridge, that being gender. Whilst not written into the script, our lead is actually a woman playing a man. A difficult question we had to add to ourselves was if this choice would affect the meaning of the play or take away from the story, this was one of the most interesting things to me as a director.
The Indiependent: How did you find the creative process? Was it an easy production for you to create or did you encounter difficulties?
Lise: Covid. I think Covid was responsible for a lot of the disturbances we encountered, we were supposed to go to the Fringe last year but a week or two before we were set to leave, we were told we couldn’t. After this happened a lot of cast members left so we had to audition a new cast and had to do most of our rehearsals online. I can’t complain though, we had resources and the cast were all motivated.
What sets the experience of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival apart from other venues?
Lise: We were originally expecting a two-hour slot, but we could only get one-hour slots, so we had to cut about half of the script. It changed the structure of the play. I have been asked before which version do I prefer but they are just entirely different in the effect they create.
Abraham: I think the Fringe production of the play is much punchier, it is much faster paced, and I think the way that it jumps from theme to theme can be much more challenging for an audience. I have had feedback that people prefer the Fringe version and I have had people tell me they prefer the longer version.
Are you planning on touring The Calligrapher and if not, what projects do you have moving forward?
Lise: Yeah! We are definitely touring the UK. We are in the process of making arrangements with venues in Manchester and London and were hoping to go to different Fringes next year. We each have different things going on, I know Abe is writing something else. I am also involved in acting and have a feature film coming up and a play. Abe, do you want to say what you have going on?
Abraham: [Laughs] I am trying my hand at writing a musical, which is taking a lot of energy and a lot of time; It is a very different process from writing a play. In terms of The Calligrapher, it is a process of losing my grip and letting it fly. I am from Manchester and my biggest personal goal is to get it to Manchester. I know Lise has big plans and wants to take it across the country.
Words by Luke Horwitz
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