A story told with unmistakable passion and urgency, tracing one man’s spiritual awakening against the noise of history.
Desert Thirsts and Jerusalem Winds is based on the real-life story of Muhammad Asad, born Leopold Weiss, an Austrian Jewish journalist who travelled across the Arab world in the 1920s, who interrogated the early Zionist movement, converted to Islam, and later became one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century. The play marks the first theatrical dramatisation of his autobiography The Road to Mecca, a text that blends political reportage, spiritual autobiography and philosophical reflection. That ambition, to hold Judaism, Islam, Zionism, and Western modernity in the same frame, is clearly what draws this production forward, even when its execution occasionally falters.
Directed with pace and clarity, the play leans into Asad’s restless curiosity. The set is deliberately spare but effective: an elevated central platform, sometimes used as a perch at its edge, brings the actors physically closer to the audience, who sit on rows of chairs directly in front. Two staircases flank the front of the stage, allowing the protagonist to move up and down, mirroring the sense of travel, urgency and intellectual momentum that defines Weiss’s life. At one point, Junayd of Islam, who plays Muhammad Asad, moves through the audience while Elsa remains on stage, creating a moment of communion that is immersive, if a little self-consciously reverent.
First developed as a solo performance, the play now takes shape as a four-hander with a fresh cast for its Hoxton Theatre run. That origin still show – Junayd, a writer, activist and clearly passionate custodian of Asad’s legacy, dominates the stage. His commitment is undeniable: he acts, sings and prays in multiple languages, carrying the narrative with earnest intensity although at times, the portrayal veers into hagiography.
The supporting characters, by contrast, are more lightly sketched. Ehsan Khan appears in three roles, Zayd, Haji, and Hakim, successfully shifting his physicality and tone to suggest, respectively, youthful idealism, grounded pragmatism and philosophical authority. Maeve-Anne Allen delivers a nuanced and convincing portrayal of Elsa Schiemann, lending emotional maturity and quiet authority to a character canonically over twenty years older than Asad. James Sampson’s Dr Simon injects moments of levity, his cheerful encouragement punctuating the play at useful intervals. Casting associate Elleanne Green has clearly prioritised emerging actors who can handle both ideological weight and stylistic flexibility.
Zareen Taj’s costume design is simple and purposeful, relying on restrained black-and-white garments and signal transitions between East and West, Leopold and Muhammad. Lighting, by contrast, is more adventurous: lasers and sharp shifts in tone distinguish dream from reality, internal reflection from public discourse, and help maintain momentum in a text dense with ideas.
Where the play stumbles is in its tendency to over-explain. In its eagerness to communicate its political and moral messages, it sometimes underestimates its audience, smoothing complexity into clarity and subtlety into declaration. The result can feel on-the-nose, even faintly pretentious, when the material might benefit from greater ambiguity and trust.Still, Desert Thirsts and Jerusalem Winds remains a striking and timely work. In an era shaped by renewed violence, ceasefires and contested histories, its insistence on spiritual and political reckoning feels urgent. If it occasionally mistakes passion for depth, it nonetheless invites reflection, and that, in today’s climate, is no small achievement.
