The book presents a special garrison of Muslim soldiers who are promised heaven by their deceitful leader if they die in the line of duty. One of their members discovers the ruse and turns on his leader. That is the story in a nutshell, but it is far more exciting under the direction of Sebastijan Horvat, who took the prize for best young director in Salzburg in 2005, beating Hungary's Árpád Schilling, director of the Krétakör troupe.
Horvat's production affects one, at the same time, emotionally and intellectually. The forceful images, the startling sound effects, the actors' movements (which test their physical limits), the irony and the entire theatrical effect are just one level of the performance. The secret of the rendering is making the picture the novel presents familiar to contemporary audiences.
The troupe's second production, Marlowe's Edward II, showed the same level of cynicism and deceit as Alamut.
