JADAR

★★★☆☆

Dual دوگانه is an interesting and inspiring but scattershot exploration of British-Iranian identity.

Peyvand Sadeghian is a British-Iranian writer and actress who has found fame this year after starring in The Power and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Back in 2019, she toured the country in Javaad Alipoor’s Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, which visited HOME, Manchester – which she returned to with Dual دوگانه.

Alipoor is one of only two theatremakers whose shows I will never miss. His brand of storytelling is entirely unique. There is not just one narrative but a series of montages. Each setting is revisited several times. Sometimes, Alipoor is an actor, other times, a narrator, and sometimes he’s just himself, talking to and interacting with the audience. It really is quite difficult to describe; you have to see it to understand it. Whilst Alipoor’s shows have several ostensibly separate narratives or segments, they all operate under the same idea and work together in tandem to tell a larger narrative.

Sadeghian has attempted to do something similar with her debut stage show, Dual دوگانه; it appears to be modelled on Alipoor’s unique brand of storytelling. Whilst the piece offers a lot of interesting content, it lacks Alipoor’s style, confidence and vigour.

Sedghian is a dual national of Britain and Iran. Whilst dual citizenship is often attractive and lucrative, Iran does not recognise it, so when Sadeghian visited Iran as a child with her father, they were trapped. Dual دوگانه explores the difficulties of dual citizenship and the British-Iranian identity more broadly.

The piece is made up of several segments. There are puppets, in which Sadeghian presents herself as two different people: Peyvand (the British her) and Parissa (her Iranian counterpart – in Iran, the name “Peyvand” is banned, so she had to be renamed to gain an Iranian passport). There’s dance, drag, rap and poetry. Sometimes, Peyvand talks to us directly, as herself, and sometimes she involves the audience, very much like Alipoor does.

Whilst the individual segments are creative and interesting, I was not always sure what Sadeghian was trying to say or do more broadly. The segments did not come together naturally and smoothly; it all felt a bit scattershot and random.

Perhaps the messiness is intentional: being multicultural – in particular, being both British and Iranian – is messy. In that regard, Sadeghian cleverly captures the chaos of her contradictory identity.

Sadeghian performs with passion. This piece clearly means a lot to her. After all, it is a physical representation of her identity.

Dual دوگانه has boundless artistic vision. It is bold, meaty, and ambitious. It just needs to be reworked and reconfigured into something cleaner, sharper, and easier to understand.

Photo: Ali Wright