Review: Baghdad Wedding

Baghdad Wedding by Hassan Abdulrazzak
Company B
Belvoir Street Theatre

Herbal Cigarette Warning: This is another production which uses HERBAL CIGARETTES .

Following the lives of three young Iraqi students, Baghdad Wedding is a play straddled between the worlds of London and Baghdad from the period of the first American attack on Iraq in the 1990's to around 2005 when the three young émigrés return to their homelands.

It is one of those new pieces of writing taken from the point of view of an expatriate reflecting on their homeland from afar - a story of an educated middle class. It's becoming a common method of telling personal semi-autobiographical émigré stories which use more creative license than the transcript driven verbatim theatre style.

In one sense, the new wave of autobiographical theatre is the next step in the verbatim style of theatre which is currently so popular in English speaking countries. Both styles share many similarities with a heavy social conscience, a challenge of stereotypes and a didactic intent. In fact, one could almost say that verbatim theatre and autobiographic theatre are two sides of the same coin.

In an interview with the Guardian, stem-cell biologist Hassan Abdulrazzak, explains he wrote Baghdad Wedding "to show authentic Arabs, the kind of people I know and grew up with, who are interested in the arts, who drink and smoke, and whose social relationships are not governed by taboos. I hope in the future we'll hear more of this kind of Arab voice." It’s a shame the UK doesn’t have an SBS TV equivalent.

The play’s protagonist is the charismatic novelist Salim (Benjamin Winspear), a man you quickly learn has already died. We find him in Baghdad on the eve of his wedding, as he goes out on the town celebrating his last night of bachelorhood. With him is his old friend and narrator of the story Marwan (Yalin Ozucelik).

They are nostalgic of the old times, days when they would have big fiestas with women, marijuana, Johnnie Walker and the occasional bit of bisexuality.

In the mix is also the young, beautiful and feisty medical student Luma (Melanie Vallejo) who captures the hearts of both Salim and Marwan.

But it is not just a love story and the three of them are thrown into the real world when their country captures the attention of the international community. For better or worse the three of them and the play moves from the relatively safe confines of student dormitories and London life to a war zone.

What is most beautiful about this play is the intimacy of the language and the close encounters between the main characters. Whether it is the overtures of love in a London park or the hair rasing interrogation scenes with American soldier, this play is all about the dialogue which is quick, clever and moving.

This is one reason why it doesn’t work in the large upstairs Belvoir St theatre space. Coming out of the play I felt the structure of it was lost somehow and the ending came on far too quickly. Reading the notes, I suddenly realised why.

Baghdad Wedding first premiered in a very intimate 140-seat theatre in the Soho part of London. One of the qualities that is clear from its creation in that small space is the way it alludes to, but doesn’t show, the upheaval of a country on the edge of destruction. Moments of violence are explained, not recreated and this is where Geordie Brookman’s production trips up as it tried to fill the space with a play designed to be performed on a small stage.

In many instance, a lot of conversations are stuck up in the back corner of the space unable to reach out and achieve the closeness that would have been experienced at the Soho Theatre. So many of these conversations are about love or the need for love or the regrets of love - whether romantic or platonic. They are small, eaves-dropping pieces of dialogue. But next to a massive wall (what is it with plays set in the Middle East and big walls – Scorched, Serpent’s Teeth and now this???) and in such a large space so much of the action is totally dwarfed.

Despite this, the performances from most actors are excellent, particularly Winspear, Ozucelik and the always brilliant Arky Michael - who is one of the best physical performers on our stages. The lighting and costume design is also inspired moving eloquently between space, mood and time.

Baghdad Wedding is a beautiful journey with a heart and a touching finale. But it’s no Scorched, which was awe-inspiring for its epic scale. In a word, Baghdad Wedding should have been staged in the Downstairs theatre.


Baghdad Wedding
Belvoir St Theatre
Until 22 March
Bookings 02 9699 3444 or belvoir.com