SILVER BIRCH HOUSE. To 9 June.
London
SILVER BIRCH HOUSE
by Leyla Nazli
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 9 June 2007
Mon-Sat 8pm
Post-show discussion 31 May
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 May
Opens up a part of the world other London plays don’t reach.
For this production, the Arcola has an earth-strewn floor surrounding a silver birch forest, sharing the stage with the home Haydar’s built his family. He believes the ground in this remote place is solid, though a grimmer reason later emerges for building here. As it does for his rage at friend Cemil’s axing a particular tree, its significance locked intro Haydar’s knowledge of past events in this area of Eastern Turkey.
There are enough domestic tensions to fuel the action. Haydar holds traditional attitudes on men’s and women’s roles. But, though he wishes to leave politics alone, politics will not leave him alone. And, during the unstable 1970s when the action’s set, politics are murderous. Communist guerrillas have death-lists while government forces torture and kill.
Leyla Nazli (with director Mehmet Ergen the Arcola’s co-founder) explores the situation’s complexities, with mixed Muslim branches and ethnicities including Turks, Kurds and Zaza, a persecuted group (mostly since dispersed) of undetermined number.
Her plotting reveals key information at moments where it deepens understanding of motives and behaviour. Dialogue, however, tends to the explicit. Ergen’s production responds with performances which often announce points in a manner once familiar from Brechtian workers and peasants.
A degree of faux-naivete results, though Brid Brennan is forceful as Haydar’s wife, while Peter Polycarpou creates an entirely convincing, unreflective character, lashing out in anger when annoyed, defied or faced with anything he doesn’t understand, defiant of guerrillas except when one has a rifle at his throat.
Beatriz Romilly, Rebecca Calder and Marianna Neofitou bring youthful freshness as sisters, the oldest Feride becoming involved in political action, 15-year old Serap beginning to find the world of adult politics and 12-year old Filiz still mostly concerned with family relationships.
To someone unaware of the region’s history the voyage of discovery excuses any rawness. And there’s an audience within walking distance of the Arcola who could debate the play and its politics more authoritatively. But the women’s final move to town (a space created between their old house and the trees) where Hayder is a visitor, seems universal in its calmer, happier mood.
Cemil: George Antoni
Tamer: Philip Arditti
Sebe: Brid Brennan
Serap: Rebecca Calder
Filiz: Marianna Neofitou
Communist: Mehmet Ali Nuroglu
Haydar: Peter Polycarpou
Feride: Beatriz Romilly
Nare: Bita Taghavi
Director: Mehmet Ergen
Designer: Neil Irish
Lighting: Colin Grenfell
Sound: Adrienne Quartly
Assistant director: Kate Moyse
2007-05-16 08:40:14