★★★★✰
Having played in Derby and soon to be in Edinburgh from 10 to 12 November, feminist theatre company Stellar Quines’ production Sister Radio is an intimate and engaging look into the lives of two Iranian sisters adapting to life in Scotland. The elder is Fatemeh, played by Lanna Joffrey, who has been tasked with taking care of her sibling and making a new life in Edinburgh. The younger is Shirin, played by Nalân Burgess, who rails against their new home and longs to return to Tehran. By 2020 the two have lived together for 43 years—for 40 of which they haven’t spoken a word to one another. As this play unfolds, in an enclosed studio setting that allows the audience to glimpse through the flat’s walls, we discover the betrayal that led to decades of silence.
The script, written by Sara Shaarawi, is one of the strongest elements of the play alongside the acting. The plot—which switches between the two sisters’ youths and the present day—is like a fragmented puzzle. The pieces are carefully laid out for us to assemble as the show progresses until eventually they come together into a bigger picture. The line is perfectly toed in terms of predictability—things are not so simple as to bore the audience, but neither are they made deliberately overcomplicated. There is no attempt to be too left field—the twists and turns are a surprise, but one that can be calculated as you watch.
The show’s acting is extremely strong. Burgess (recently seen in The Sandman) and Joffrey (whose docudrama, Valiant, recently toured) play off one another in a way that reads as extremely organic. They create a believable sibling dynamic that feels just lived-in enough to make their conflicts all the more devastating—and Joffrey in particular portrays devastation stunningly. The journey her facial expressions go on as she turns to share something with her estranged sister and realises she can’t break the silent surface tension between them is effective and piercing. The very same goes for Burgess. These two actors are perfectly matched in style and ability.
The only light criticism of the show is some pacing issues. Although establishing the characters is important, it occasionally feels like a little too much time is dedicated to exposition before the plot really gets going. Nothing should be cut at the expense of the entertaining, domestic moments the two sisters share—however, despite the lockdown scenes being about stagnation, this could be shown in a way that makes that part of the play’s timeline feel a little less set-in-its-ways. This, however, may not be a fault of the play—it depends merely on how willing the audience is to recall the long, loping lockdown days for more than a few minutes.
An important work about Iranian women’s struggle for their rights and the difficulty of finding a home and existing there, the last thing to say of Shaarawi’s play is that it ought to be touring for longer.
Words by Casey Langton
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