Artefacts

Published Tuesday 26 February 2008 at 12:45 by Aleks Sierz

What gift does a father give to a teenage daughter he’s never met before? Ibrahim, the Iraqi head of the national museum in Baghdad, visits London on business and decides to see Kelly, his 16-year-old daughter, for the first time. He brings with him a priceless antique vase - but Kelly doesn’t want a present, she wants to get to know her dad.

Written with great economy, humour and theatrical verve, Mike Bartlett’s fascinating new play explores the differences in family life between London and Baghdad, where Kelly goes when Ibrahim and his Iraqi wife are hit by an emergency involving their daughter Raya. The mixed emotions experienced by Kelly as regards her mother and her absent father are acutely observed and utterly convincing.

There is also a refreshing absence of sentimentality in this story of loss and damage, symbolised by the fragility of the antique vase. As directed by James Grieve and designed by Lucy Osborne, the Bush has been temporarily reconfigured as a theatre-in-the-round, with a distressed Turkish carpet and a couple of simple props evoking both London and Baghdad.

Lizzy Watts plays Kelly as a feisty big-mouth whose chatty nature barely conceals her neediness, while Peter Polycarpou as Ibrahim is a complex mix of dignity and indecisiveness. Excellent support comes from Karen Ascoe as Kelly’s mum, Amy Hamdoon as Raya and Mouna Albakry as Ibrahim’s wife. All in all, this an outstanding piece of new writing.