{"id":634270,"date":"2026-04-27T14:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634270\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:55:09","slug":"omar-what-the-hell-are-you-doing-in-chichester-when-doctor-zhivago-star-sharif-came-to-sussex-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634270\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Omar, what the hell are you doing in Chichester?\u2019: when Doctor Zhivago star Sharif came to Sussex | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago the playwright Hannah Khalil was queuing for the loos at Chichester Festival theatre<\/a> when she spotted Omar Sharif, in a prince\u2019s costume, on the wall. The photograph was part of a gallery showing stars who had graced the Chichester stage. \u201cI was like: \u2018Omar, what the hell are you doing in Chichester?\u2019\u201d says Khalil. \u201cI really wanted to know more.\u201d<\/p>\n

You could call that moment a bolt out of the loo: instantly, it set her on the trail of her latest play, Love Omar. When had the Egyptian actor visited Sussex and what had local audiences made of him? Khalil\u2019s director husband, Chris White, hails from Chichester. \u201cI began asking his parents because they have lived there for a long time,\u201d she says. \u201cThey vaguely remembered him coming to do the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharif had gone to Chichester in 1983 to play the lead role in Terence Rattigan\u2019s 1953 drama The Sleeping Prince, which transferred to the West End. Love Omar features Sharif in his dressing room, preparing to take to the stage, and Khalil shows him to be a complicated character, by turns vain, alluring, insecure and charming. His reported gambling habit is referenced (from bridge to horse-racing) as well as his \u201cheartthrob\u201d status and his famed generosity.<\/p>\n

It was an early case of celebrity casting, thinks Khalil. The theatre had just lost its sponsor (Martini) and needed money. \u201cWhen he arrived, the massive car park outside the theatre was full of people \u2013 excited fans, women \u2013 waiting for him.\u201d There are also stories about the bags of international fanmail and \u201ccomplaints from the post office because they weren\u2019t used to having to deal with so much\u201d.<\/p>\n

A love letter to theatre \u2026 Director Chris White and playwright Hannah Khalil in rehearsals for Love Omar. Photograph: Nefeli Kentoni<\/p>\n

Most of the anecdotes in the script are real, says Khalil, who spent years researching this Sussex juncture in Sharif\u2019s life. \u201cI really love getting into an archive and interviewing people,\u201d she says. Debbie Arnold, Sharif\u2019s co-star, was among them. \u201cShe told me they got on well until the first night performance when no one knew that he had dyed \u2013 or put something on \u2013 his moustache to make it darker. There\u2019s a moment when they kiss and she breaks away and the audience just laughed. She didn\u2019t know why but it was because she had this black mark on her face \u2026 There was some tension between them because she wanted him to stop dyeing it, but he denied doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khalil\u2019s other interviewees included John Gale, the late artistic director of the theatre<\/a>, and John Challis (famed for his TV role as Boycie in Only Fools and Horses), who was married to Arnold at the time. Serendipitously, the actor Ishia Bennison<\/a>, who plays Sharif\u2019s dresser, Daphne, had been one of Arnold\u2019s neighbours. \u201cShe went to the opening night party where Omar kissed her hand and told her she was beautiful,\u201d says Khalil who also found out that Frances Ruffelle had played a small part in The Sleeping Prince, and \u201chad spent many enjoyable hours in the green room being taught how to play backgammon by Omar\u201d.<\/p>\n

In spirit, Khalil reflects, her play \u2013 directed by White \u2013 is a love letter to theatre itself. Born in the UK to an Irish mother and Palestinian father, Khalil grew up in Dubai, returning as a teenager to study. \u201cI hadn\u2019t had much access to theatre until then but when I went it totally captured my imagination. I\u2019m interested in anything related to backstage. It\u2019s part of the reason I got into theatre, because I love that idea of the artifice \u2013 the putting on of the makeup and the costume, and how grubby backstage is compared with the gorgeous auditorium. Everything is safe and wonderful round the front and then you go round the back and see the inner workings. I\u2019ve always found that so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heartthrob \u2026 Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago. Photograph: MGM\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar<\/p>\n

It is partly a homage to Ronald Harwood\u2019s The Dresser<\/a>, too, \u201cpulling back the curtain of what it is to be a star on stage and off\u201d. But Khalil is exploring something more personal at the same time. \u201cMy mum came to the UK at 16 to do nursing training. She was from a farm in very rural Ireland and she\u2019d never met anyone non-white before.\u201d When the film Doctor Zhivago was released, \u201cshe saw it so many times and obviously fell in love with Omar Sharif\u201d. Khalil\u2019s parents met at a party. \u201cHe was working as a porter in a hotel. He had been kicked out of his digs in Bayswater for some reason and he was saying to people \u2018Is there anywhere you know I can stay?\u2019 My mum said \u2018oh I think the room upstairs from us is free\u2019.\u201d Importantly, he bore \u201cmore than a passing resemblance to Omar Sharif\u201d, says Khalil.<\/p>\n

In her play, a mixed-heritage character, Mag, is looking for someone who can help her navigate her identity. She represents Khalil, to some extent. \u201cA big part of the play is what it is to be mixed-heritage in the UK, and how you honour your heritage. That\u2019s something I struggle with. I\u2019m Palestinian Irish but I\u2019m constantly being challenged: \u2018No you\u2019re not an Arab or Palestinian, you can\u2019t be Irish \u2026\u2019\u201d Love Omar, she reflects, \u201cended up, in many ways, becoming about me and my dad\u201d.<\/p>\n

Love Omar is at Theatro Technis, London<\/a>, 7 May-6 June<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few years ago the playwright Hannah Khalil was queuing for the loos at Chichester Festival theatre when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-634270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}