IsoProductions presents
Isfahan Calling
by Philip de Gouveia
Old Red Lion Theatre, London – 24th February-14th March
Press performance Thursday 26th February at 7.30pm
Director Kelly Wilkinson
Designer Becky Gunstone
Lighting Mark Jones
Sound Nick Gill
Cast includes Zahra Ahmadi, Matthew Ashforde, Richard Ings, Rebecca Keatley, Paul McEwan, Avi Nassa
Isfahan Calling tells the story of a team of British journalists broadcasting covert radio propaganda into contemporary Iran; their mission is to discredit the regime in Tehran and demoralise Iranian army units across the border. An eruption of international tensions coincides with the arrival of Zahra, an idealistic young recruit seeking revenge for the exile of her parents during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. As coalition forces launch a pre-emptive attack against Iranian nuclear facilities, Zahra enthusiastically throws herself behind the war effort. Victory seems inevitable until Roy, Zahra´s new boss, makes a devastatingly ill-judged broadcast. Suddenly the rigid certainties to which Zahra and her colleagues have clung so hard - justice and the moral high ground - begin to melt away.
Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the 1979 revolution and proposed new efforts by the Obama White House to engage with the Islamic world, Isfahan Calling explores the dark realities of psychological warfare, cultural exile and the challenge of choosing sides in a war of ideas.
Praise for Philip de Gouveia’s debut play, The Six Wives of Timothy Leary:
´Drop in, stay tuned, be impressed... wittily accomplished.´ The Independent
´Excellent ... an insightful piece of writing.´ Time Out (Time Out Critics´Choice)
The cast includes Zahra Ahmadi (EastEnders, Britz) and Paul McEwan (Emmerdale).
For further information, images and reviewing tickets, please contact Roisin Caffrey on 07742 535 629 or isoproductions@googlemail.com .
NOTES
Listings information:
Old Red Lion Theatre
418 St John Street, London EC1V 4NJ
www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk
Box office 020 7837 7816 or www.ticketweb.co.uk
Nearest London Underground station: Angel (Northern Line)
Tuesday 24th February – Saturday 14th March
Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm
Sundays at 6pm
Tickets £13 (£10 concessions)
Biographies:
Writer - Philip de Gouveia
Philip de Gouveia’s debut play, The Six Wives of Timothy Leary, was described by The Stage as ‘a remarkable first achievement’ and by Time Out as ‘an insightful piece of writing … a gift to the actors’ (Time Out Critics’ Choice, December 2007). Aside from writing for theatre, Philip is a freelance policy researcher and award-winning journalist. He is a senior research associate, and former director, of the Public Diplomacy research programme at the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC). As a journalist (1998-2003), Philip specialised in trans-national crime issues, reporting for the BBC World Service from the Balkans, West Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Shadow Trade, his BBC radio series investigating the global illegal drugs trade, was awarded a Sony Silver award for Best News Programme (2001); the Daily Telegraph called it ‘superb … first-rate investigative journalism’.
Director - Kelly Wilkinson
Kelly Wilkinson is a freelance theatre director with a particular interest in developing new work. She has directed for the BBC Roots’ Stages of Sound, Arcola Theatre, Etcetera Theatre, Hampstead Theatre’s New Writing Festival and various workshops and readings. She is Artistic Director of IsoProductions, for whom she has directed the Time Out Critic's Choice production of Ed Hime's London Tongue/London Falls and a National Theatre New Connections production of Burying Your Brother in the Pavement. She was Assistant Director to David Grindley on What the Butler Saw at Hampstead Theatre and transferred this production to the Criterion Theatre, West End. She has assisted Indhu Rubasingham on Heartbreak House at Watford Palace Theatre and on Anna in the Tropics at Hampstead Theatre, where she was Education Associate for 5 years, developing young writers and directing the heat&light Company in new plays by Jane Bodie, Nick Grosso, Mike Bartlett and John Donnelly. She continues to direct Hampstead Theatre's heat&light Company (ages 18-25), a group which she conceived and set-up, most recently in a devised play in collaboration with Frantic Assembly and in a newly commissioned play by Matt Hartley. She has written the published notes for the National Theatre's production of Roy Williams' Baby Girl and the TheatreQuest and drama section of the Create-A-Quest books for the Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation.
|
