THEATRE REVIEW: The Persian Revolution
- Posted on November 9, 2007 2:31 PM
- 1 comment
The Persian Revolution
Oval House, London
Review by Holly Groom
Mehrdad Seyf's The Persian Revolution is a whistle-stop rampage through the Iranian constitutional revolution. The cast of five - decked out in identical purple suits - shouted and stormed around a minimalist set, racing from 1905 through to 1911 in just over an hour. The play is sinister and violent and yet unexpectedly humorous at times. Unfortunately, this made for an overall feeling of confused hysteria with subtlety frequently thrown aside in favour of noisy shrieks and bangs and knees in the bollocks.
The relentless pace of the play did, at times, add something to the delivery of the dialogue rather than detracting from it. Jokes were not dwelt on but rather skipped over and finished with in quite a tidy manner. The show often looked physically messy with too much pointless charging and leaping around and the taut, clean dialogue went some way towards counterbalancing that.
Impressive work was done by the actors to create scene changes as they moved about the set but it was rarely immediately apparent which actor was portraying which character as they could all too often drop to the floor a murdered Shah and then spring to their feet a doctor or a revolutionary or a Christian missionary. On top of this the play's intentions never quite became clear. It seemed to be trying to say way too much about a complex subject far too quickly. Seyf should be commended for never attempting to trivialise the political conflict he details, but even those with a reasonably clear knowledge of the history of Iran could get a little lost in this speedy, polymorphic depiction of events.
Read on for full UK listings.
TOUR LISTINGS
The Persian Revolution by Mehrdad Seyf
UK TOUR 2007
23 - 24 October
Tickets £10.50 WARWICK ARTS CENTRE
Box Office 024 7652 4524 www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
25 October LEICESTER PHOENIX ARTS
8pm Box Office 0116 255 4854
www.phoenixarts.org
1 November UNITY THEATRE LIVERPOOL
8pm Box Office 0151 709 4988
www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk
5 - 10 November ** OVAL HOUSE LONDON
7.45pm Tickets £12 Box Office 0207 582 7680
www.ovalhouse.com
** IRANIAN EVENING WITH PANEL DEBATE - Friday 9 Nov
16 November THE JUNCTION2 CAMBRIDGE
8pm Tickets £10 Box Office 01223 511511
www.junction.co.uk
21 - 24 November** TRAVERSE THEATRE EDINBURGH
8pm Tickets £13 Box Office 0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
** MEET THE COMPANY - Wednesday 21 November
29 November THE HAWTH CRAWLEY
7.45pm Tickets £10.50 Box Office 01293 553636
www.hawth.co.uk
** MEET THE COMPANY - Thursday 29 November
7 - 8 December ** BIRMINGHAM REP
7.45pm Tickets £10 Box Office 0121 228 1404
www.birmingham-rep.co.uk
** MEET THE COMPANY
Friday 7 December
For more theatre tickets and listings, check out Seatwave's theatre tickets.
Comments (1)
Richard
This play was a mess. It seemed confused about what it wanted to be and I was unsure what it was trying to say about current events in the middle east. The deaths were often unintentionally comical and the actors moved from one side of the stage to the other with no apparant purpose. The set was great but again there appeared to be no reason for it other than to change the levels. The satire could be seen coming a mile off and the jokes died more awkwardly than some of the characters. This was a great opportunity missed. I saw Geckos 'The Arab and the Jew' a few weeks ago and though it has very few spoken words in it, it still managed to say more about the situation in the middle east in it's first five minutes than this managed in an hour. If you are looking for an entertaining show with laughs, politics and intelligence go and see that instead.
Posted on November 17, 2007 3:39 PM
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