This new musical is about love – of woman and of country. It’s adapted from Kahlil Gibran’s biographical novel, which the Lebanese writer wrote some time before his hugely popular 1923 work, The Prophet. Set in Beirut, it’s the story of a man who, having immigrated to the US, returns home and falls madly in love; 18 years old in love; “I saw the angels of heaven through the eyes of women” in love; very young, very naive, ever so slightly silly in love.
Written by and starring Nadim Naaman, Broken Wings received a semi-staged performance at the Haymarket theatre in 2018. Director Bronagh Lagan then toured the show and now it returns to London, with some of the original cast and a rotating stage. Perhaps intended to inject dynamism into a fairly static production, the rotating feature actually has a strangely stultifying effect (the cast spend a lot of time lining up in rows) and looks a little tired.
