A quirk of the human psyche is that sometimes we find it easier to gain a purchase on the biggest issues via the tiniest details.
A new drama by Rashid Razaq, based on an award-winning short story by Baghdad-born Hassan Blasim, gives us an insight into the daily devastation wrought by sectarian conflict in post-Saddam Iraq via the simple expedient of telling us one man’s story of flight and struggle.
Razaq is, uncannily, a news reporter for this very paper and it is a delight — not to mention a relief — to declare that his writing for the stage is similarly crisp and informative.
It is witty too, as he tantalises us with the pieces of a time-hopping puzzle in a narrative that skips about between March 2006 and May 2011.
The tale ends, as all good non-chronological stories should, somewhere around the late-middle. Carlos Fuentes (Nabil Elouahabi) used to be Salim Abdul Husain, but adopts his new name after seeking asylum in the UK, leaving his wife and daughter in Baghdad.
His idiosyncratic English and friendly smile attract the attention of businesswoman Lydia (Caroline Langrishe) and soon he is studying for his citizenship test while the couple enjoy a dirty weekend away.
In a grim irony we first see handcuffs used for pleasure but later for other reasons entirely.
Nicolas Kent oversees a gripping 85-minute play in which captions dating each new section jostle for position with footage of Blair and Bush telling us what a necessary job they undertook in Iraq.
Until Aug 16 (020 7503 1646, arcolatheatre.com)
Latest theatre reviews
