A few years back, Anglo-Kuwati director and writer Sulayman Al-Bassam scored a hit with The Al-Hamlet Summit, an intriguing Middle Eastern take on Hamlet. This latest piece is probably best described as a heroic failure. Its final 20 minutes are extraordinary, as every aspect of the production comes together in a strange, almost hallucinatory sequence of theatrical power and beauty. But the wait for this is long.
For most of the evening I felt as if I were fighting my way through an impenetrable forest where all the signposts are in a code I couldn't crack. Even with the help of a two-page synopsis, I kept getting lost. Inspired by the fables of the Persian-born writer Ibn Al-Muqaffa, one of the great works of classical Arabic literature, this piece focuses on the creation of the stories in Iraq circa 750AD, which as now was an era of unrest and revolution.
The self-deprecating writer finds himself caught in the conflicts between revolution and reform, and kings and courtiers, only gradually becoming fully aware that the pen can be mightier than the sword. "I sharpen it every morning," he tells the woman he loves. In the end, the only way he can be silenced is by death. The image of a man walled up in a graffiti-strewn glass box is one of the great moments of the evening, and speaks eloquently of writers who are censored and silenced everywhere. But for too long you are trapped between an indifferently acted and plodding historical drama and a multi-layered story laden with signs and symbols.
Still, at its climax, the show finds its voice in swirling images, a brilliant mix of video and eerie soundscape, and a use of the space that makes it feel as if the whole production is bleeding at the edges.
· Until May 27. Box office: 0845 120 7500.
