In a heart destroyed by tragedy, can rage and reason coexist? A Love Letter to the Nightingale is a gripping tale that – while convoluted at times – ultimately shines with questions about forgiveness and healing.
With a vision and video installation to match, Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson makes a devastating enquiry into the connection between trauma, loss, emotion and logic. The video artist’s theatrical debut is an emotionally consuming, highly charged piece of work, and a story that can be appreciated by anyone who has ever felt hot with rage at the hands of injustice.
The audience enters The Blue Room’s compact black box theatre, which is configured for intimacy and reflection. Eyes meet across the theatre’s traverse stage. A wine-red Persian carpet and large disc-shaped projection screen suspended in mid-air are the most notable props dividing the audience in half. There’s cigarette smoke in the air (herbal cigarettes we’re assured!) and Ashton Namdar’s pulsing soundtrack is intense and visceral.Â
The soundscape remains unabated throughout the show. The personifications of Rage (vigorously performed by Danny Aghaie) and Reason (Ashkaan Hadi) fight, dance and lament brokenness and shame. Their performances are strong and sensitively embody the two halves of a woman’s harmed psyche.
During the show, plot points and Persian mythology drawn on by Eshraghian-Haakansson may elude some. While we are pulled into the work emotionally, clarity around the nuances of the story can make it difficult to follow sometimes. The production triumphs through its visual beauty and detail.
The video art and Persian language narration have a strong part to play in the emotional rewards of the piece.
This show is reminiscent of Eshragian-Haakansson’s previous installations, but A Love Letter to the Nightingale adds new elements. The confluence of video art, soundscapes, dramatic dialogue, text projections and physical combat makes it an ambitious vision to execute, but the artist eventually manages to create coherence.
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Evoking Persian mythology – the simurgh (a rough equivalent to the phoenix), the nightingale and other Persian mystical texts – Eshragian-Haakansson creates a bold standard for this artist’s future direction. All risks taken pay off because of the strength of the video art and Aghaie’s performance. This is a unique production and it will grip you and then release you.Â
A Love Letter to the Nightingale
The Blue Room Theatre
Lead Artist/Director: Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson
Co-writer: Cara Flame
Producer: Jessica Russell
Lighting Designer: Matthew Erren
Acting Coach: Myles Pollard
Composer/Soundscape Artist: Ashton Namdar
Cast: Danny Aghaie, Ashkaan Hadi
A Love Letter to the Nightingale will be performing until 26 October 2024.
