Type and hit ENTER

Commonly used tags...

Brighton Festival Brighton Fringe Brighton Pride British Sea Power Cinecity Lewes Psychedelic Festival Locally Sourced Lost & Found Love Supreme Festival Nick Cave Poets Vs MCs Politics Rag'n'Bone Man Record Store Day Save Our Venues Six Of The Best Source Virgins Streets Of Brighton Street Source Tattoos The Great Escape Tru Thoughts Unsung Heroes
  • Home
  • News
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Food
  • Tickets
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Advertise
  • Home
  • News
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Food
  • Tickets
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Advertise
My Father Held a Gun co
Reviews

Brighton Fringe Review: My Father Held a Gun

May 24, 2018
-
Posted by Mike Aiken

Now don’t tell me stories! That’s the accusation parents make to a child suspected of not telling the truth. But what if, as adults, we don’t know when our own stories are true, false or a bit of both? More seriously, what if we don’t even know where they start or finish?

These are some of the puzzles ‘My Father…’ taunts and delights us with in a sixty-minute cornucopia of contrasting tales. Sahand Sahebdivani and Raphael Rodan are two storytellers who live in Amsterdam. It’s not quaint. One of them comes from Iran and the other from Israel. Their fathers might have killed each other.

They shuffle onto a bare stage, conversational, as if they have forgotten the script. Already they are deceiving us! We are about to enter a fiendishly clever labyrinth. Their very modern tales are dramatised with that imperceptible shift from the ordinary to the magical that is the storytellers’ gift.

These are not tales for children. Assassinations at the kindergarten won’t appeal. The torture of dissidents for writing polite letters to heads of state isn’t cute.

But the narratives are multi-dimensional. In World War I, the act of mercy by a German soldier to a wounded man between the trenches is reciprocated by the refusal of a French soldier to fire. It’s Christmas and they all end up playing football and saying “frohe Weihnachten” and “mais oui”.

“Yes, love and peace is all we need,” Says one of our protagonists. We are feeling sentimental. His mother escaped a dictator by walking over a mountain. “But peace and justice is important,” says the other. His father was an activist who wanted to fight for the Palestinians. And we are off again as our two protagonists argue furiously with each other.

The play is punctuated by very different tales. There are the dangers of love at first sight, nearly wrecked by 38 phone calls in a day. It’s amazing the trouble a single rose can cause.

The atmosphere is enhanced, without ever being upstaged, by Guillermo Celano’s guitar and effects, and Iman Spaargaren’s sax and clarinet. The ‘Lili Marleen’ song is beautifully crafted alongside mostly abstract sounds.

The stories are neither linear nor sequential. Instead, we are taken back and forth between tales with consummate skill. It takes us to the core of modern disputes in which all narratives can appear provisional. In this performance, as with all good storytelling, there are multiple endings and meanings. It’s massively compelling.

Sweet Werks 1 (Middle St), Monday 21st May 2018
Returns 24th – 27th May

Brighton Fringe
May 24, 2018
Email
Mike Aiken
Mike lives in Brighton. This is a full time occupation. He's also a researcher, writer and activist. Any time left over he spends hanging around cafes and pubs listening to people on their phones. He loves theatre that pokes into difficult places. You won't find him on Facebook.
← PREVIOUS POST
The Great Escape 2018 Review (Thur)
NEXT POST →
Brighton Festival Review: The String Quartet’s Guide to Sex and Anxiety
Mailing List

Recent Posts
  • Two Decades Of Funk Fire With Jalapeno Records
    Jan 18, 2021

    A new compilation celebrates 20 years of funk and soul from world-renowned Brighton label Jalapeno Records.

  • Hansel and Gretel? | Brighton Source
    Hansel and Gretel? Review
    Dec 18, 2020

    A postmodern pantomime with an unrelaible narrator. Outdoors with comedy, dance, camp actors, plenty of fun. On two levels: laughs for kids and jokes for adults

  • Artists Open Houses 2020
    Dec 5, 2020

    After cancelling the May edition, Artists Open Houses tell us what it's like to be back with a December festival that is open to visitors in person for eight days.

  • Cinecity 2020 previewed by Brighton Source
    Cinecity 2020
    Nov 17, 2020

    From the North Laine to Mongolia, Cinecity's lineup is typically eclectic and original this year - catch it before the city's key film festival ends.

  • Macbeth Review
    Nov 2, 2020

    Macbeth in Brighton. One-act play with Scottish Gaelic sounds by This Is My Theatre. Power, ambition, murder, blood. The woods are moving.

  • Lost & Found: Poison Girls
    Nov 2, 2020

    As part of our retrospective series on local bands we look back at the hugely influential and ever-challenging anarcho-punk collective Poison Girls.

  • The Rose Hill | Brighton Source
    Save Our Venues – The Rose Hill
    Oct 26, 2020

    We spoke to the team at the Rose Hill to find out how a series of new creative projects is helping this unique Brighton venue to cope with the current crisis.

  • Spillage! Review
    Oct 19, 2020

    This one-person, one-act play is giddy, funny and seriously entertaining. An odyssey through the madness of corporate pressure on our mental health.

Website developed in Brighton by Infobo
Copyright © Brighton Source 2009-2020
Brighton Fringe Review: My Father Held a Gun - Brighton Source