‘Love Omar’ – new Omar Sharif play explores 1970s movie star time on world renowned Sussex stage

This global movie heartthrob was so adored that women waited in the Chichester Festival Theatre car park to get a glimpse…

By Suman Bhuchar

FOR MILLIONS of fans worldwide the name of film-star Omar Sharif is synonymous as Dr Zhivago in the eponymous 1965 epic romantic film of the same name – set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution (1919). 

It was directed by the legend that is David Lean and Sharif played the handsome doctor Yuri Zhivago, the love interest of Lara Antipova (played by Julie Christie).  

Actor Omar Sharif is considered to be the first Egyptian and Arab actor to conquer Hollywood and came to world’s attention when he appeared in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (a 1962 film directed also by David Lean). 

Indian film lovers  will be interested to know that this role of Sherif Ali was originally offered to actor, Dilip Kumar, who reputedly turned it down.  

Omar Sharif appeared in many films during the 1970s and 1980s and was so famous globally that he was invited to appear in a stage play, ‘The Sleeping Prince’ by Terrence Rattigan at Chichester Festival Theatre in 1983.

This story is now the premise of a new play, ‘Love Omar’ written by Hannah Khalil and it’s a world premiere on a short run at a London theatre.  

“I think because of my Arab heritage, he was such an Iconic presence. When I was growing up there weren’t many Arabs who were famous in the West and my mum just adores his films particularly ‘Dr Zhivago’.” 

Khalil who has Irish and Palestinian roots told www.asianculturevulture.com that she came across the story quite accidently when she was attending Chichester Festival Theatre (CFT), waiting in a queue to use the ladies loo, during an interval of a show and saw and exhibition of images from productions that had been on at the venue.  

Among those was one of Omar Sharif and she discovered he had performed at the Theatre in 1983.  

It had caused quite a stir, as the car park of the venue was always full of women waiting to see him.  

“So, I went and started to do some research and ended up writing this backstage play,”  she told us.  

Khalil interviewed some of the people who were involved in the show at that time and other staff at the theatre to create a fictional piece inspired by that episode.  

Among theses were actors, Debbie Arnold (who played Mary Morgan) and Frances Ruffelle (for whom it was her first job and she was Princess Louisa) and Jeremy Swift was a footman. 

The mother of playwright, Tamsin Oglesby had a box of photos and the picture of the show flyer has come from that box.  

She also spoke to John Gale who was an executive producer at CFT at the time. (He later became the Artistic Director).  

There is a story John Gale told me about one of the female stage managers who turned 21, during the show and Omar took his week’s wages and signed on the front  ‘Love Omar’ and gave them to her as a birthday present. 
 
But of course, he was earning a lot more than anyone else and it was not public knowledge.   

“It was £750 – which at the time was an extraordinary amount of money. He gave it all to her. This is all in the play,”  she revealed.  

Sharif was an incredibly generous man but this did not go down well with Gale.   

The theatre was in a difficult position, as they were about to lose their main sponsor which was the drinks brand Martini – and Sharif had been brought in to help fill the coffers as he was a star.  

Described as a love letter to theatre, ‘Love Omar’, the play is peppered with many theatrical anecdotes but it is essentially a work of the imagination – a “backstage play” Khalil described it.  

It is set an hour before Sharif is due to go on stage for ‘The Sleeping Prince’ and the assistant director, Mag wants to talk to him about something.  

The play has a cast of three with Al Nedjari as Omar, Lara Sawalha plays Mag and Ishia Bennison is Daphne. 
 
The show is directed by Chris White, who is Khalili’s long-time partner and they have worked together on many other productions including, ‘My English Persian Kitchen’ by Khalil and which was at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 and Soho, London in 2025.  

Omar is obviously a real person, but the other two characters in the play are completely fictional. So, it is fiction. We are using that set up to explore the feelings that I am really interested in exploring, she shared with acv.   

“Our actors are amazing, there is this backstage story going on and the magic of theatre but there is also another theme which is what it is to be mixed heritage in the UK and who do we look to for our cultural heritage,” she continued.   

Khalil is a dual heritage artist, her mother is Irish, and her father is Palestinian from the West Bank. She grew up in Dubai but came back to London as a teenager after her parents divorced. 
 
“Who are our guides if we don’t have access to the country that is part of our heritage?  

“And we have a character who wants something from Omar and we don’t know what that is.  “It’s a little bit of my an exploration of my relationship with my dad,” she suggested.  

All pictures except where indicated: ©Ellie Kurtz

Listing
 
‘Love Omar’ by Hannah Khalil from (May 7) to June 6 at  Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Road, Camden, London NW1 1TT 

https://www.theatrotechnis.com/whatson/love-omar 
  
1 hour 40 minutes no interval