Two British-Iranian brothers warily circle each other in this compact, confident first play from award-winning director Bijan Sheibani. The elder, Tom (wolfish Scott Karim) was given up for adoption: Samad (nervy Irfan Shamji) and a younger sister were not.
Interestingly, Sheibani does not dwell on issues of deracination or nature versus nurture. Instead he’s interested in what happens when siblings meet for the first time and try to form a bond in their 30s.
He stages the play very simply on a revolve stage, which emphasises the shifting power dynamic between the two. Both men initially seem a little rootless, and similarly unable to sustain romantic relationships with the women they discuss.
In the early scenes, Tom is in the more forceful personality, trying to get his slobbier brother to shape up, and making all the moves towards greater intimacy. Gradually though, Samad’s greater sense of security – his cultural and familial bedrock – asserts itself.
It’s a physically expressive piece: as well as tussling occasionally, the two men cycle and jog around the revolve. With no set to speak of, bursts of music are used to ramp up emotion. The performances are impressive, with Karim in particular expressing a twitchy sense of wariness, as if he’s always slightly off balance.
At 70 minutes the economy of the story shades into slightness and there’s a certain lack of resolution at the end. But this marks an impressive writing debut from one of our leading young directors. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
Until 18 Jan (020 8743 5050, bushtheatre.co.uk)
