Written by Nassim Soleimanpour – Directed by Omar Elerian
Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, July 24 – 26th
Opening night performance on 24th July reviewed
by BILL STEPHENS.
Given the mystery surrounding the contents in the
pre-publicity, it is difficult to write about this production without spoiling
the experience for those yet to experience it.
However, as every
performance is deliberately different, depending on the actor involved, you would
not be reading this unless you had been intrigued enough to be considering undertaking
the experience.
The writer describes the play as a long-distance magic show
with lots of elements of his personal life. That is certainly an apt
description. The writer of course is Nassim Soleimanpour an Iranian playwright,
best known for his 2010 play White Rabbit Red Rabbit, which has already
been seen in Canberra.
ECHO (Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen) has a similar conceit in
that each performance has a different actor who is expected to turn up at the
performance having not read the play, nor seen a performance of it.
The four accomplished actors for the Canberra performances are
Benjamin Law, Nathalie Morris, Fayssal Bazzi and Paula Arundel.
 |
| Fayssal Bazzi |
Award-winning Lebanese/Australian actor, Fayssal Bazzi, had
the honour of being the first cab off the rank for the Canberra season. He arrived
on stage sans script and comfortably dressed in slacks and T-shirt.
Doing his best to look calm and unfazed, Bazzi nevertheless
admitted to some nervousness when questioned by Soleimanpour, whose image
appeared magically on a large television screen behind Bazzi to guide him
through the play.
Although the success of each performance is reliant on the
actor being able to improvise their performance without having read, rehearsed
or even seen the script, there is certainly nothing left to chance relating to
the sound and visual technology that propels it.
At no time during the tight 90 minutes duration did Bazzi chase
laughs to entertain, even though there were certainly laughs to be had. Instead,
he responded warmly and sincerely to the prompts and instructions in the
process revealing himself as an actor of considerable charm, depth and elegance.
Soleimanpour, for his part has devised a remarkable piece of theatre that intrigues, challenges, excites and entertains while exploring aspects of humanity through the magic of communication, beautiful language, and lots of surprises. Should you see it? Of course you should. In fact, you shouldn’t miss it. You’ll find out what it's about and learn lots about Persian carpets along the way.
Photos supplied
This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au
