QUARTET: A JOURNEY NORTH. To 6 December.

London.

QUARTET: A JOURNEY NORTH
by Amir Reza Koohestani and Mahin Sadri.

Barbican Theatre (The Pit) To 6 December 2008.
Tue-Say 7.45pm.
Post-show Talk 3 Dec.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.

TICKETS: 0845 120 7554.
www.barbican.org.uk/bite
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 December.

Sit-down theatre quietly reveals the facts.
At first, both the legs and the landscape suggest England rather than Iran. For the screened image of a running youth comes from the opening of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, the 1962 film of Alan Sillitoe’s short story.

It’s an ironic reference for Mehr Theatre Group's physically static show, visiting from Tehran. Less theatre-in-the-round than in-the-square, it places the audience at a distance (even in The Pit) from the four performers sitting at desks, each facing one side and speaking in intercut monologues.

Above and behind each is a screen on which their face is projected as they speak, showing the speaker to the three sides of audience who cannot see him or her, while their own screen shows images of travel. Brief interludes punctuate the speeches with plangent music and landscapes from Iran.

Though they’re supposedly giving their accounts to police, the two male and two female characters sit in pools of light amid surrounding dark, as if outside a cell. Their stories tell of killing or witnessing a murder. It’s a strangely distancing experience listening to the calm of recollection – the opposite of Hollywood’s emotive heroics in such matters.

Amir Reza Koohestani has based his script on recent killings in Iran. But there’s a difficulty in these London performances, following a piece without overt action (only at the end do the four speakers stand and slowly leave). With speech necessarily carrying more than usual impact, it’s hard to dig below the narrative surface using sub (or super) titles. There may be great detail within the overall calm, grave delivery, that's lost in written translation.

Yet the Barbican’s right to include such work in its international theatre programme. Though the overall experience might not “translate” as well as the written script, it’s a reminder that foreign language theatre isn’t all flashes and bangs. This piece demands quiet concentration from audience as well as actors. The actors certainly provide all they can and the stories, for those who hold their separate strands together, explore the chances and emotions that cause murder, and that murder can cause.

Performers: Attila Pessyani, Mohammad Hassan Madjooni, Baran Kosari, Mahin Sadri.

Director/Designer/Lighting/Costume: Amir Reza Koohestani.
Sound: Ankido Darash.

2008-12-03 12:57:34