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A world premiere presented by Nabokov in association with The Bush Theatre ARTEFACTS
by Mike Bartlett Directed by James Grieve
Bush Theatre 20 February to 22 March, 2008 ta
A review by Marion Drew for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Set by turns in contemporary London and Baghdad, in this play a young teenage girl meets her father who left her mother before she was born to return to his native Iraq and his family. The play charts a period of time in their emerging and fractious relationship, and explores some of the consequences this meeting has for both families. The set (Lucy Osborne), tightly focused lighting (Hartley T A Kemp) and seating of the audience around the performance area created an intimate, self contained space, the latter beautifully evoked with soft lighting from a single table lamp, a few chairs, small cups of Arabic coffee, a clear invitation for us to bear witness to the lives of these five unusually related people. It is in these spaces and through seamless transitions in time and place throughout the play that the effects of the British-Iraqi relationship on the ‘little people’ of these countries plays itself out through one family, and Mike Bartlett tries to give us a more rounded, and perhaps more honest view than that presented in the media. The play is billed as an ‘epic and dangerous journey’ for the young Kelly, but what felt at least as central for me was her father’s psychological journey over this time. This may have been a response to the beautifully crafted, thoughtful and intelligently played role of Ibrahim by Peter Polycarpou. He was totally engrossing throughout. Silence was very skilfully used in this play, but I felt less positive about the use of Arabic. While I loved the eloquent and lyrical way Faiza (Mouna Albakry) told the story of the Pied Piper in this beautiful language, there were times when having some form of translation would have helped deepen an understanding of the dynamics between the central characters. Reading the play afterwards, the text of which formed the bulk of the programme and where a translation was offered, I felt that certain important information had been lost to the English speakers in the audience, especially during one or two of the play’s pivotal scenes. This production did, however provide some food for thought, presenting another, less exposed side to the contemporary Iraqi story, but there were times when it felt a little forced, as in Kelly’s Wikipedia speech, the comment on ‘British glue’ and the retelling of the story of the Pied Piper by Raya (Amy Hamdoon). It seemed that there would have been space within other parts of the play to give us this information in more subtle ways. Sensitive direction from James Grieve, however, made sure that this was not the lingering tone. The political waters of the story were for me a little muddy at times, but although I didn’t always have a clear idea of where the playwright was coming from, I did at least leave thinking perhaps more broadly about the issues that were thrown up than I had done before I went in.
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