A play by Thorvald Steen and Tariq Ali. With Bjørn Sundquist (Saladin) og Christian Skolmen (Richard Løvehjerte), Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Pia Tjelta, Monna Tandberg, Stein Grønli. Direction: Stein Winge.

– Go and take Jerusalem! Thus begins Thorvald Steen and Tariq Ali’s play about the struggle between the Crusader Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, Arabic Sultan. It is a meeting between cultures with striking parallels to today’s war on terror, to the fight for Jerusalem and Palestine, and to the issue of faith. First and foremost, however, it is a play about people being torn between fundamentalist faith and human doubt. Desert Storms was commissioned by the House of Literature, and written by the Norwegian author Thorvald Steen and the British Pakistani historian and writer Tariq Ali. With their different backgrounds from Christian and Islamic culture, the two are uniquely qualified to render the differences in the mindsets of the two cultures.

Desert Storms is produced by the House of Literature in cooperation with the Norwegian National Theatre and the touring theatre Riksteatret, with financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.