Sydney’s Ashfield Council is looking for new ways to build bridges between Muslim and Christian cultures. In June it held a forum to look at ways to promote non violence as a way to grow peace and mutual understanding.
Four key Christian and Muslim speakers discussed various aspects of non violent behaviour from their respective religious traditions. Each speaker shared how their respective faith tradition promotes peace and non violence, resolves conflicts, and contributes to promoting peace and harmony in society by addressing social needs and building local community.
The event was followed by the final performance of Layla and Majnun by the Ashfield Youth Theatre. The production is based on an 11th century Islamic fairy tale and used giant puppets and live music to explore the universal theme of love.
The production was the culmination of five months work for a group of young actors under the leadership of director Frank Newman.
“Layla and Majnun is a grand love story comparable to Romeo and Juliet, but it predates it by at least 600 years. It originates from the Middle East and is told in many different countries with many different versions.”
“We decided to explore the similarities between people rather than focus on the differences. The choice of Layla and Majnun was to show that people, no matter where they are from, experience the same needs and desires and therefore create similar stories in response to these day to day realities.”
The show was a visual spectacular with an array of colour, sight and sound making an ideal backdrop to a range of life sized fairy tale puppets created by Clare Britton with assistance from Ashfield Council’s artist in resident, Bryony Anderson.
