The Incongruent: Behind the Curtain with Alex Broun and Osman Aboubakr

The curtain rises on an enthralling discussion about theatre and acting in the UAE. With a special collab with Redbeat MDX and the arrival of Desiree Barreto to our team,  we gain a deep insight into the creative minds of playwright Alex Broun and actor/producer Osman Aboubakr.

Alex Broun: https://alexbroun.com/
Osman AbubakrL https://www.osmanaboubakr.com/
Redbeat MDX: https://www.instagram.com/redbeatmagazinemdx/

Venturing into the heart of the UAE's theater scene, we cast a spotlight on the collaborative spirit that breathes life into the stage with a focus on their new play Torn which is presenting at The Junction in Al Serkal and at the QE2.

Written and directed by ALEX BROUN, often referred to as the Shakespeare of short plays, "Torn" promises audiences an unforgettable 90 minutes of theatrical experience that will challenge perceptions and stir emotions. Featuring a talented ensemble cast, the production offers a poignant reflection on the ever-shifting landscape of love in a modern world where choices are plenty, yet nothing is guaranteed.

Tickets: https://dubai.platinumlist.net/event-tickets/91283/torn
Torn Play: https://www.instagram.com/torn_play

Many tips for would-be playwrights, producers and actors, and a prize giveaway towards the end.

Also check:

Instagram: torn_play
Instagram: zstarsproductions

Chapters

• 3:07 What is TORN?
• 13:07 Acting or producing as a career
• 18:41 Creative writing as a career
• 26:08 Trends in writing for the stage
• 28:59 What to learn in college if you want to be a playwright
• 37:33 Win a ticket to see Torn!

Transcript

Stephen King: So welcome everyone to a new episode of the Incongruent and I am so delighted today to be joined by Desiree Barreto Desiree say hello.

Desiree Barreto: Hi

Stephen King: She's joining the crew because everybody else who used to be on my team has deserted me through their graduation We're starting a new series.

Hopefully

Desiree Barreto: don't make it sound like I'm a replacement Steve

Stephen King: Substitute

Desiree Barreto: that's Worse!

Stephen King:  There were six of them and there's one of you. So that's just shows your value. So well done.

Desiree Barreto: Sure. Yeah, that makes it better.

Stephen King: So today we have two wonderful guests coming to join us.

They're producing a fantastic play. Our first guest is Mr. Alex Broun, who is known as the Shakespeare of short plays. He's an award winning Australian playwright and screenwriter who's had a couple of plays produced here in Dubai. 2013, 2016, he's even won the UAE Theatre Award. The best script at a UAE Theatre Awards in 2016.

The current play is called Torn. It's going to be at the Junction in Al Serkal Avenue and QE2. We're also going to be joined with the co producer and co star, Mr. Osman Aboubakr a Canadian actor, but he's got Egyptian heritage and he made his feature film debut in 2018 and has starred in a number of other movies .

So we're really looking forward to meet both these two gentlemen Desiree, what do you think? Is it going to be exciting?

Desiree Barreto: Yeah, I'm super excited. Yay. I don't know how to emote.

Stephen King: All right. Emote. That's very good. That's, I like it. Let's go.

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Desiree Barreto:Hello, good afternoon, gentlemen. I'd like to welcome Alex Broun and Osman Abu Bakr here with us today to promote or talk about their new play Torn, that is currently presenting or going to be presented at Al Serkal The Junction beginning from April 19th.

So I guess we can kick this off by going over the structure of the podcast episode. We'll talk a little bit about what the play is where people can watch it, and then we'll talk a little bit more about pursuing a career within theater and how students can pursue this career if they wanted to later on in their life .

Stephen King: I'm very excited. We also heard that you're at the QE2 as well on the 26th. And I have just booked. For me and my wife, we're going to be, we're going to be there at the QE2. We do like the theater at the QE2, it's wonderful.

But she doesn't know. So Alex or Osman how do I pitch it? Say, Hey we're going to see this play. What are we going to see?

Alex Broun: Listen, I would listen, it's contemporary. It's very current. It's about modern relationships set in New York now.

I think that there's a lot of things that people can identify with and and relate to in the play. It's sexy. It's funny. It's a bit brutal at times. I think it's revealing and it's insightful and also, hopefully, moving. But hopefully, it's like a show that is current and that people can relate to.

There's four wonderful actors. I'm very grateful to have Osman himself in the play of course. We have a lady called Nadine Basiony who plays Susan, who's fantastic. Lis Pinilla playing Danielle, who's a major talent, absolutely wonderful, and a really talented young actor called Elie Choufani. So it's a very good looking cast as well and it's a fast paced, fast moving, 80 minute play about modern relationships.

So hopefully she will enjoy it.

Stephen King: I think the cast are playing Roles very close to my heart. One of them is going to be an advertising Person and there's a voiceover actor as well two things which we do within our university they're obviously the heroes of the story

Stephen King:  I'm playing the the advertising executive.  I just want to say thank you very much for having us on it's a great pleasure to talk about what we've been putting together and it's very nice to Be able to talk to you and your audience about what we're doing. One thing I wanted to add to what Alex was saying about convincing about the play is that it's also it's really in my opinion, very voyeuristic we're, playing real people That you may meet every day clashing having relationships with one another.

So it's really a a window into real people having real issues, relationship issues and I dare say could offer an insight into Some relationship issues, mainly what not to do in relationships and how to fix them. There's an aspect to it of that. Very well written play by Alex.

A real study of human behavior and human nature. Yeah. Glad to hear that you're coming.

Desiree Barreto: Yeah, so I really like how you mentioned how it's very contemporary and it's related to a lot of human nature and whatnot. So would you perhaps shed a bit of light on how these characters personal dilemmas mirror the broader societal trends and issues that currently exist right now?

Because I think we're in an age in the internet where every form of art has to have this greater meaning behind it or ultimate purpose. So what would you say about the characters and what they portray about human nature and. The way that they go about relationships.

Alex Broun: Listen, yeah, I'll jump in there.

I think relationships are very complex especially in the modern day and especially say in a place like Dubai, especially, and I think all this play is set in New York, it could easily have been set in Dubai. Because relationships are tricky. Dubai is, it's a transient place.

People are coming and going and people are looking for different things. And I think that's what the play is really about. It's about what people are looking for at specific points in their life. And it's the place about damage and emotional baggage and what people carry into a relationship.

And I've been, I'll get in trouble here, but I've been having this argument with my wife just recently about we're talking about issues that happened in 2017. It's seven years ago, but that's emotional baggage that we carry and that is affecting the current time. It's about the levels of damage that people have and people experience and people go through and how those levels of damage affect their current interactions with people and how they can destroy relationships or affect relationships due to things that may have happened in the past or the emotional baggage that they carry.

So to me, that's the really important aspect of the play that I think is very current and I think a lot of people can relate and identify with. That's brilliant. So we have a little bit of inspiration from real life, but we've also heard that the play also draws a few parallels with Patrick Marber's play Closer.

Desiree Barreto: and the way that it explores love's complexity. So how would you say that as a writer, you're able to navigate this challenge of maintaining your own unique narrative while also playing homage to a renowned play like that, or just drawing inspiration in general?

Alex Broun: Yeah, it's really interesting Desiree, because, and I'm not making this up, you can go to my website at alexbruoun.com and you can check this out, or you can just Google Desire by Alex Broun. I wrote a play which was a four hander about relationships long before Closer came out. I think it was after Patrick Marber wrote Dealer's Choice, it was around about that time, I wrote this play called Desire, which was about, which is like a younger version of Closer.

Torn in a way. It's four characters in their twenties, whereas Torn is four characters in probably their thirties. Desire I put on at the Crossroads Theatre in Sydney, Australia back in, God, 1994. And it was very successful back then. So although Torn is certainly has inspirational links with Closer, it's not that I'm ripping Patrick Marber off or his structure off because I'd already done it in Desire.

10 years earlier. There are similarities between the two plays and I do think Closer is the fantastic play. And it's interesting.

I'm not sure what Patrick Marber is up to these days. He's a tremendously talented writer and I think his writing is very accessible. To me it's independent of that work. And if I would say, how is it different to Closer? It's about relationships, and I guess Closer, in a way, is about damage as well, too, but I think it's a little bit more, I don't know I think that it looks at things slightly different to, to Closer, and I think the characters are a little bit more vulnerable than they are in Closer.

There's similarities, and I think if you enjoyed Closer, you will really enjoy Torn, and maybe if you enjoyed Torn, then you'll check out my earlier play, Desire, and you'll see the similarities with Torn.

Desiree Barreto: Okay, so I guess we got a little bit of an inside scoop there. I also want to pose this question to you, Alex.

So You've been likened as the quote unquote Shakespeare of short plays. So how would you say you've cultivated your distinct writing style and how has this helped to elevate your scripts, especially for Torn?

Alex Broun: Listen it's a good question. My, my father who's no longer with us, unfortunately, he wants I once talked about my writing with him and I said, Oh it's just realistic.

And he said, Oh, I think it's a bit more heightened than that. It's a bit more heightened than real life. And I think that's what I do. I think what I do is I take very realistic scenes or situations that I think we can all identify with and relate to in situations we may not even have. And may have even found ourselves in.

And I just look at ways that we can make it more interesting. So I guess I'm, when I'm writing, I'm always asking the question, how can I make this more interesting for the actor to act for the director to direct and for the audience to watch? How can I push it a little bit further? How can I raise the stakes a little bit further?

So that's the kind of game that I play. I take a very normal situation or everyday situation, but I elevated it a little bit more to try to make it a bit more dramatically interesting. And the writers that I admire, Tennessee Williams, you could say Tennessee Williams did that. Chekhov maybe did that, or maybe Chekhov was just putting real life on stage and the characters were so complex.

But the writers that I admire, Patrick Marber, certainly. David Mamet, in a way, though, I think Mamet is a bit sort of darker distillation of life. But this is what I try to do to look at real life, to hold the mirror up to nature as Shakespeare himself would have said, but to elevate it a little bit more and make it interesting for the audience to watch and the actors to act, because it can't just be real life on stage.

That's not going to, that's not going to hold. It's not going to be interesting enough for the audience to watch or the actors to act. Yeah, that's it. But that's just a little bit about my own approach to writing.

Desiree Barreto: That's quite insightful, the way that within your writing, you're thinking of a very holistic approach that involves not just the audience, but also the actors.

And I think this leads way to a question to Osman. I think the ensemble cast of Torn Group. brought, will bring a very interesting range of talents to the stage and helping to contribute to the richness of this production. So for any aspiring actors and actresses, what advice would you give them while they're navigating auditions and honing their skills in order to stand out in an industry that is as competitive as this one?

Osman Abubakr: Yeah that's Really tough question to answer in short form. I'll try. Acting, I think sometimes is under appreciated how difficult it is people will watch a good actor in a movie or in a play and it just looks easy when the actor is really good and, but to get there, it's a, there's a, it's a long road of dealing with rejection and a lot of training, hard work sacrifice.

I've had to, I've had to travel to Berlin, to New York, to LA, to learn how to act and go through a lot of setback auditioning. So so many no's and you have to have a tough exterior, a tough skin. And as you're constantly. Being vulnerable in order to do anything beautiful as an actor, you have to really be vulnerable and it's just it can get very difficult.

Number one, you need to realize that it is hard. A lot of hard work arriving at a process and arriving at the level of vulnerability to do good work. And then you need to find a team that you can work safely with a good acting coach or go to a good school to learn how to act. In the UAE I was lucky enough to find Zara stars who brought into, we brought into the process.

They're helping us with putting the production on and they have a great school there. They really understand how difficult it is to be what getting understanding the craft of acting is. And they offer great courses, great teachers, a lot of information about the business of acting.

And they have a great studio where one can learn. And then it's getting the opportunity. The UAE is great in that I've been able to do a lot of great plays here in the UAE, which I would not have been able to do in Toronto or in New York. Or in, in LA as I learned how to act.

So I've done red with Alex in 2017. I've done prisoner Second Avenue. I've done dangers liaisons, I've done Venus and Fur where I played lead roles, which I would never have been able to do anywhere else. So I got a chance here in the UAE to be able to make mistakes, learn and develop.

And then that's even before you get to the point of getting an agent and a manager and all of these things, so it's a long road, but Zara Stars is a great place to get started here in, in in UAE. That's great that you mentioned that, actually, because my next question was related to how you can get started in the theater industry and what advice you could offer to someone who was seeking a path like this in the UAE because I know that the both of you have started off in different parts of the world.

Desiree Barreto: So we've touched upon how that can happen for you in the UAE with acting, but what about writing or production? How would you say that you would be able to gear towards this path within the UAE if there's some insight that you can provide us with? 

Osman Abubakr: Yeah, I can talk a little bit about production writing.

I'll definitely leave to Alex. In terms of production, it's really there's no course on production. Production is really, you're drawing on your abilities from other, at least I did I'm drawing on my. My project management skills and my people skills the extent that I have any in those areas, I think it's arguable.

But it's really drawing on everything I've learned as an actor in my attempts at directing and I've produced a few plays with the team over at the junction with, they have a production company there called H72. And I've watched how they do things and I've learned from there and just piecing it together. And really it's trying to find a team that you can trust. Alex being a great writer, director to work with, the team of actors I don't think there are. For three other better actors in the UAE that I know of and it's just putting Anzar stars with their attitude towards developing art in the UAE.

It's really just finding a good team to work with and then letting it run.

Desiree Barreto: Thank you. What about Alex, I think you had something to say about writing.

Alex Broun: Yeah listen I think that there's certainly lots of amateur or non professional opportunities in Dubai. What I mean by that is, is where people don't get paid. So there's lots of opportunities where people don't get paid.

This is a very Professional standard production that we're working on at the moment. And I would say this is the most professional theater experience I've had since I've been in Dubai. And I've been in Dubai now for about 12 years all up because of the quality of the cars. And also because Eliane Eliane Jimenez, who's working as associate director on the show.

So it's a very high quality. I would say I've worked in professional theater in Australia, in New Zealand, in the uk, in the us, in Malaysia, in Singapore in so many places around the world. I've worked in professional theater, and I can say that this is safely the standard of professional theater, but un unfortunately there's no funding for the performing arts in the UAE and there is no professional theater company in the UAE, which is really sad.

In one of the major cities of the earth, we do not have a professional theatre company, which is really disappointing. What I would say to people to young people is use Dubai to develop your craft, because you can get a play on, you can have a play on Short and Sweet, you can even go and speak to the people at the junction, got some Goenka and maybe direct a play there or write a play and put it on there.

You're not going to get paid for it. But it is an ability and a chance to develop skills. I think Dubai is a great opportunity for you to develop those skills, and then take them to a place where there is a market, such as the U. S. or the U. K., or even if you speak Arabic, Saudi Arabia is very exciting at the moment, and what is happening in Saudi.

And also Bollywood as well. The people that I know who've been successful. Farzana Pathalingal, who Osman acted with in a play, Venus and Furs, a while ago, Dana Dajani those people who have been successful, Casey Shannon they have learnt their skills and developed their skills in Dubai, but then they have then, Use those skills elsewhere in the world where there actually is a market and there actually is an industry and there isn't any, isn't an industry in the UAE and I'm not sure that will change.

I've been here for 10 or 12 years and I'm not sure that will change you can develop skills. You can build up your resume. Silva, another actor who was based in Dubai is now working professionally in the States. You can go on to have a professional career. But that won't be here. So don't expect to earn a lot of money in working in the performing arts in, in, in the UAE, but develop your skills, develop your talent, and then take it to a place where there is an industry and where there is a market, which probably I'll speak for Osmond here too.

Osman and myself would both have probably done, but we're both married and have families. So we're we're here in the UAE.

Stephen King: I've been here since 2002 when there was one stage That was at the Crown Plaza on Sheikh Zayed Road opposite the Emirates Towers.

So it's the only theater style location the whole in the whole country I think it was at the time and then madinat theater came in 2004 for a short period since 2012 and I think your first play was 2013. There started to be a increasing interest in this, whether it was the community theater at Mall the Emirates and today where you have the Courtyard, you have obviously you mentioned the Junction, the Theater of Digital Arts, you've got Dubai Opera, the QE2 where you again, which you're performing on the 26th.

From an outsider's perspective, I'm actually quite surprised that there isn't more to the industry at this moment. Is it cooking? Is it beginning to cook? You have places to perform, but what is missing?

Osman Abubakr: That's a good question. It is quite expensive. We're talking about theater now, not about film. So in, in theater, it's quite expensive to get a good venue. And it'd be easier to put on a play with how costly it is to put on a play.

If the, you had access to a group of actors that were well known that could based on their star power, can bring in the audience and really it's it it's developing that and up to now the experience has mostly been to put on plays with large cast, And the large cast will bring in the audience as opposed to focusing production on a smaller number of actors.

Build the name. Build a reputation for the quality of the production. And that way you can start to say this play is being brought to you by those who did Torn or Red or whatever high quality play. And that would then create, would be marketing in and of itself.

You can start to fill the theaters, have a longer run over two or three weeks. And then as the money comes in, you can start to pay the actors. They can get better. You can pay the writers can start to make money. The directors can make money. Everybody starts to make money on the quality.

Then people start investing in their talent. And then it grows from there. Now that runway it just hasn't been there. And the only way to shorten that runway is if there was A place you could go get a grant to fund this art as opposed to relying on private investment, private sponsorships in basically people who are interested in encouraging art in the UAE, investing their own money.

Stephen King: I have a fun question. I love Terry Pratchett as a writer and I've seen some of his books turn into plays. We've seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child turn into a play and we're seeing there's a manga called Demon Slayer.

Yeah. Which has just got its second or third season on Netflix right now. And they turned that into this fantastic musical production. We're seeing like so many of these different movie, different cartoons turned into movies turned into theater. Is this a trend that someone who's new to the industry could pick up on and begin?

Finding a quick way in, or is it just a fad? Any opinions?

Alex Broun: Oh, listen, absolutely. You're always going to find books that are adapted to plays and and more to films, they lend themselves to films, but also to plays as well. I think it's I think it's absolutely something that's that's happening and it's going to continue to happen.

But there's always possibilities. Osmond, what are your, what is your take on this?

Osman Abubakr: Yeah, I think the entertainment industry, film, theater, it's driven by the writing. The writing is in the middle of everything. And it's where the writers are. And an interesting trend is exactly that. There's a lot of great writing in anime, there's a lot of great writing in video games, there's a lot of great writing in these new areas.

Because the traditional studio systems and the traditional TV media there, the saturated, and there's a lot of I would say. Desire to go towards cookie cutter concepts and a lot of structure to writing, which, which in these new mediums there's a lot of creativity and there's a lot of money to be made to and shared around.

So an example, I would say there's a a TV show based on a video game called last of us. I don't know if you if you're aware of it, if you haven't. You have to watch it. It is a phenomenal story about love set in a zombie style apocalypse.

Fantastically written, and it doesn't make a judgment on the quote unquote zombies. So you're left wondering whether who's worse, the zombies or the people who are being fed on by the zombies. Amazing script written for a video game. So I agree, there's a, there's definitely a trend and it's driven by where the writers are being compensated and allowed creativity.

Stephen King: So I'm going to take that. You are open for a casting for playing a romantic zombie in the future. That's brilliant.

Osman Abubakr: Actually, I might be one right now. I'm an absentee husband right now with this play going on. So I might actually be playing that role right now. If you were to ask my wife.

Stephen King: So final point as a teacher we're teaching our own creative writing course, what advice Alex, would you give to us for inspiring our students what should we be teaching?

We're doing the different tempos for heroes journey and for romance and for horror this is typical creative writing theory, but is this still relevant? What is really going to help? What knowledge could we really be sharing? Do you think?

Alex Broun: Listen, I think, yeah, I think it's all absolutely 100 percent relevant.

What I would say is just is the fact that you're teaching writing itself is a great thing and it doesn't matter what people write as long as they write that's the important thing. There's an incredible market for content now and producers out there, especially interested, are looking for young writers.

So I think the thing is if you're 18, 19, 20, or whatever the ages the students are, they're right, right as much as you can and get it out there, start knocking on doors, start knocking on doors right now. Because by the time you be 20s or early 30s, you might have broken down that door and you might be, you might have made a name for yourself.

So write whatever you want to write. I think that's the really important thing that people have to write what they want to write. And there is an audience for everything. There's an audience for everything. And every writer will face rejection. Look at J. K. Rowling, of course, how many times was Harry Potter knocked back?

John Grisham, I think his first novel was knocked back by 36 people. There's a new autobi there's a new biographical film about Samuel Beckett out at the moment called Dance First. Which shows how difficult his career was as a writer. There's a lot of struggles as a writer, and you are going to get rejections.

So get the rejections out of the way now. Start. Make a start. And honestly, to tell you the truth, in terms of being a writer myself, I can tell you this. In terms of producers, in terms of production companies, in terms of directors, The younger you are, the more interested they will be in your work. So get it out there as soon as you can.

Start to make contacts, take feedback, accept feedback, keep working, keep writing, and one day your chance will come. Dan

Desiree Barreto: This is just drawing on a lot of what was just touched upon. I think Osman mentioned about the cookie cutter ideas or just cash grabs and stuff like that.

And then Steve also talked about how at university were thought a lot of writing conventions plot beats and things like that. So as a creative, how does one sort of balance doing something that is. One, financially viable, and two maintains the conventions of the medium that they choose, but three, also being unique and distinctive or creative in some way.

How do you think that you guys combat this sort of dilemma that I think every creative has no matter what medium they pursue?

Alex Broun: I'll take that silence as a cue to jump in. Listen, I think that It's a very good question, Desiree. It's an excellent question. And it's the real question. It's the only question. I guess it comes down to how much you're ready to suffer if you look at Samuel Beckett again, Beckett was, It was living, it was working for the French resistance and living in in a sort of shack in rural France for a long time, and that was the inspiration for Waiting for Godot, so it depends on how much you're willing to suffer, and if you are willing to just suffer and write, then you can do that, but I would say the sensible thing to do is to have something else to fall back on, but it's interesting I was at the Red Sea Film Festival recently, And Michelle Rodriguez gave a very interesting talk and Michelle, as somebody said, and Halle Berry also was there too, and she said a very similar thing.

Someone said, oh, Halle what's the secret of your success? And Halle said, don't have a plan B. That was it. She had to be as successful as an actor, because there wasn't anything else. There wasn't anything else she could do. She had to do that and had to be successful in that. I think the thing is I'm a parent myself.

I have a six year old daughter and what would I say to her if she wanted to go into the performing arts or to be a writer? I would say, have a fallback. Have another skill or another talent that you can fall back on. And write early, try to establish yourself early so that when life gets complicated by wives, by children, by financial demands as you'll face later in your life you're already established in your career by then have a fallback, have something else that can bring in some money.

And that will enable you to write, but. Don't let that become or never forget what the whole thing is about. You're doing that job. So it gives you time to write. Don't get obsessed with that job. So you lose your passion or your ability to write. So focus on the writing. And the other thing I would say quite quickly is just know your market.

Know what people are looking for. There is no point at the start of your career, writing a 300 million movie. There's no point because no, one's going to make it. No, one's going to touch it. Write a low budget, something like Last of Us, as Osman said. Write a low budget film that could be made in Dubai, or could be made somewhere else.

Make something that can be made for a budget of 500, 000, write a clever, low budget, what they're looking for now, is they're looking for low budget dramas. And especially if you could write a low budget, romantic drama for characters 19 to 22, I reckon you've got a really good shot.

A really good shot. But keep it low budget. Think about your market. You are not going to be invited at this stage of your career to write the next Avengers movie. It ain't gonna happen. But if you start off with a good low budget 500, 000 film that can get made, then so many doors will open at you. And listen, the perfect example, the only thing you need to look at, the only thing you need to read about is everything, everywhere, all at once.

That's it. That's it. Look at those guys. Look at what they did. Okay? On a very small budget, they made this extraordinary film that has made them the biggest, the hottest filmmakers in the world right now. You know, look at the guys who wrote Saw, there were two young Australian students at the Melbourne Institute of Technology James Wan, and he wrote, and now he's directing it's arguably whether he's gone further in his career doing Apple man, but James has got a career now.

And that's where he started off. He started off with Saw, which was a very low budget film set in one room. So know your market, write something that can be made on a budget. Small to medium budget, get it made, and then I tell you from there, the doors will open for you.

Desiree Barreto: Thank you. I think that was brilliant. A lot of gems that were in that one answer. Do you have anything to add, Osman??

Osman Abubakr: I, the only thing I would add is just make sure I would stress the point of really figure out why you're doing it. You, it's either going to be, it's the only thing that you can do. There's nothing else that you can do. Or it's going you're going to have to love it for what it is.

Chasing fame or fortune. It's not really going to get you there. Cause there's a lot of sacrifices, so you have to really want to show for as an actor, you should, you really want to show up at rehearsal. Put in the hours, fit with the script, be a detective with the script, read voraciously, watch things voraciously.

That's really what you talk about day in, day out. It's something that you really love and you do it because you love it as opposed to you're doing it for some desire to be famous. That will come, and it's completely out of your hands. You're not going to become a star.

The audience is going to decide whether you're a star or not. So it's completely out of your hands. What is in your hands is whether you love it and how much effort you put into it.

Stephen King: That's amazing. Thank you, Alex Broun and Osman Abubakr that you have this wonderful production of Torn. It's going to be on for three nights eight shows between the 19th and 21st of April at the Junction down in Al Serkhal and also on the 26th. at the QE2 theater by QE2, which is where I will be. All tickets are available on platinum list.

Alex Broun: If I can also add Steven, I just wanna throw in that we actually do have a ticket giveaway. So if you've sound interested in the show now and you haven't, like Steven, who?

Steven. You, me and Osman both Love you to bits 'cause you've already bought your tickets. Absolutely. Love you. You are my number one person. But if you go to Torn Play on Instagram, that's torn underscore play on Instagram, you'll find the details for the contest. There's two pairs of tickets, which we're giving away for the play on April 19th.

All you've got to go is go to Instagram, go to torn underscore play. You need to follow Torn Play and Junction Dubai on Instagram. Share the post that you'll find there and tag a friend or partner and you'll be in with a shot. And I don't think we'll get that many entries for this competition. So if you want to win some free tickets to come along and see Torn and see Osman and the rest of the amazing cast on stage, then please go check out torn underscore play.

Stephen King: Wonderful stuff. Thank you very much, Alex. And great. Wonderful. Thank you very much. And that's the end of today's show. Thank you so very much.