Love Omar

Theatro Technis Presents

Hannah Khalil's new play is a love letter to theatre

One hour until curtain up, and Omar Sharif isn’t happy. The show went well last night, but he feels aggrieved that he was upstaged by his fellow actor, again. He puts on his makeup and longs for a little moment of peace. But that isn't easy when he has to share a dressing room. It’s more than Omar can endure – he is the star, isn't he?

And then comes Mag, the assistant director, although Omar has hardly noticed her before. He thinks she's disturbing him to give feedback on last night's performance, but she has more important things to discuss. And Daphne, his dresser, has been given the task to find out whether Omar has dyed his moustache again. There have been complaints. These are escalating.

Being a successful actor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The play is set backstage at Chichester Festival Theatre in 1983, when Omar actually starred in Terrance Rattigan's The Sleeping Prince. Playwright Hannah Khalil has spoken to his real co-stars and former staff at the theatre to create a fictional piece inspired by this moment of theatre history.

Peppered with anecdotes from their interviews, as well as from Omar’s autobiography, the result is a comedy-drama that asks big questions about fame and power; and celebrates our love of theatre.

This show will reunite Hannah with director Chris White, following a successful collaboration on the sell-out, critically acclaimed ‘My English Persian Kitchen’ at the Traverse Theatre, Soho Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Pavilion Dun Laoghaire, Lyric Belfast, and the James Tait Black nominated ‘Scenes from 68* Years’ at the Arcola, London.

“If there is an art to telling a story, playwright Hannah Khalil possesses it” The Stage on Hakawatis at Shakespeare's Globe

“Chris White’s direction is bold and wonderfully fluid...a remarkable piece of writing made outstanding by a dynamic production” Exeunt Magazine on Scenes from 68* Years

ABOUT

Hannah Khalil (Playwright) is Writer in Residence at Bristol Old Vic (2025-2050). Recent work includes critically acclaimed My English Persian Kitchen which had a sell out run at the Traverse as part of the Edinburgh Festival in August 2024, then transferred to Soho Theatre, London. It returns to London in Autumn 2025 followed by a UK and Irish tour.

Hannah was the 2022 Resident Writer at Shakespeare’s Globe, while there the Globe produced three of her plays: Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights, Henry VIII and The Fir Tree (2021 and 2022). Hannah’s other stage plays include A Museum in Baghdad (Royal Shakespeare Company) which marked the first play by a woman of Arab heritage on a main stage at the RSC, Interference (National Theatre of Scotland) and the critically acclaimed Scenes from 68* Years - shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award (Arcola Theatre, London, 2016). Hannah was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is an Associate Artist of Shakespeare’s Globe.

Chris White (Director) is a dramaturg and director specialising in international collaborations, Shakespeare, new plays, and projects with young people. He is an Associate Dramaturg for Paines Plough and an Associate Learning Practitioner for The Royal Shakespeare Company, for whom he leads projects and performances across the UK and internationally; including The Wood of Words or In Every Leaf, which he co-wrote and directed for the 2023 RSC Playmaking Festival. His most recent production is My English Persian Kitchen by Hannah Khalil, which sold out at The Traverse Theatre as part of their Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024 programme, and will return this autumn to Soho Theatre before a short UK and Irish tour.

For Soho Theatre he co-led Writer’s Lab for ten years, developing plays by the UK's best emerging playwrights, as well as directing Soho Theatre Young Playwrights Festival. Other productions of new work in the UK include Chippy, Acorn Theatre, Penzance and Cornwall tour, The Lighthouse Keeper's Son, Beckett Archive, Reading University; Nothing in a Butterfly, Synergy Theatre/Omnibus; Gutted, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury and UK tour; Trouble and Wonder, RSC; Booby’s Bay, London/Bristol/Cornwall; bottled, Vault Festival; Scenes from 68* Years, Arcola Theatre; The Sale, Chapter Arts, Cardiff; The Water When it Burns, Hampstead Theatre,

International productions include The Truth, La Virgule, Lille; Fewer Emergencies, Teatro Litta, Milan, Hard Places, Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai and National Tour; The Suicide, Teatro Della Contraddizione, Milan, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, National Centre for Performing Arts, Beijing, currently touring across China. His production of Trouf, co-directed in Tunisia in 2019 for Nabeul Performing Arts Centre, premiered in the UK as part of the 2023 Shubbak Festival.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Estimated running time

90 minutes

Performance times

3pm, 6:30pm & 7:30pm

Ticket prices

From £13.50 plus booking fee

Concession

Full-time students, those aged under 16, senior citizens, the unwaged, members of Equity and BECTU

Access

Theatro Technis is fully wheelchair accessible. Guide dogs and hearing dogs are welcome in the auditorium. There is a Loop system fitted in the main auditorium. If you have any questions or specific requests, please email boxoffice@theatrotechnis.com.

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