1001 NIGHTS NOW To 11 February.
Nottingham/Tour.
1001 NIGHTS NOW
devised by Alan Lyddiard from stories by Abas Amini, Maziar Bahari, Fadia Faqir, Johan Bergman Lindfors/Reza Parsa, Paul Mattar, Shazia Mirza, Murathan Mungan and Atiq Rahimi and an original concept by Betty Nansen Theatre, Copenhagen.
Nottingham Playhouse to 15th October then tour to 11 February 2006.
Runs 2hr 35 min. One interval.
TICKETS: 0115 9419419.
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Jen Mitchell 5th October 2005.
‘Sometimes we tell stories to survive’.
Set in a factory where a band of illegal Muslim workers rush to pack boxes of baubles and plastic Santa’s for a festival they don’t celebrate, we are reminded of the story of Sheherazade who told stories to her husband in order to save her own life.Here we have a group of people, each with their own story to tell. Each story standing on its own, sometimes told by one person, others acted by two or three of the team. There were some slightly amusing interludes told to us by the comedienne Shazia Mirza, of the plight of being a lesbian woman but it was humour with a hard edge, making one feel slightly uncomfortable for joining in the laughter.
Many of the tales were about the exploitation of women and their treatment in male dominated societies. We learnt of the woman who murdered her husband and chopped up his body, leaving the parts all over the city, following the discovery of her husband’s abuse of her daughter.
Perhaps the most contentious issue addressed is that of the suicide bomber recording his final testament for his daughter on video. Compulsive and disturbing to watch.
The whole piece is carefully choreographed, from the moving of the boxes to the packing of the baubles and in many ways highly stylised. Performers develop no relationships with each other and there is no development of character – indeed each one remains intentionally nameless and are referred to by the term ‘performer’ in the programme notes, perhaps to reflect the way these people remain nameless and faceless to us, marginalised by society.
No judgements are passed, no excuses or explanations given. There is no appeal to the audience for sympathy or pity. Things are just told as they are. It is left to the audience to decide how to feel.
Performers: Zolfa Afrazi, Francisco Alfonsin, Qaseem Ansari, Philip Arditti, Kourosh Asad, Reza Kianpour, Shazia Mirza, Badria Timimi.
Director: Alan Lyddiard.
Designer: Neil Murray.
Lighting: Mark Pritchard.
Sound: Paul Stear.
Choreographer: Joumana Mourad.
Dramaturgs: Duska Radosavljvic, Kitte Wagner.
2005-10-17 10:05:55