| Yasemin Özdemir at Edinburgh Fringe |
Wales at Edinburgh Fringe in the 2020s |
| Salty Irina- Broccoli Arts with Thistle & Rose Arts , Roundabout @ Summerhall , September 2, 2023 |
Pembrokeshire's Yasemin Özdemir made an impact in “Angel.” The production, directed in Peter Doran in his final season at the Torch, went on to tour widely.In 2023 she returned in “Salty Irina”, another politically-themed piece. From Broadway Baby: “The town where Anna and Eireni are studying has been hit by a number of racially provoked murders. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern, except that the victims are all immigrants. While a non-existing strand of organised crime is being blamed, the two women meet after another shocking event and decide to infiltrate a far-right festival to find out what’s going on. They swiftly fall for each other in a terrorised city, sharing a deep hope for a better future. “In essence, Salty Irina is a play about young people falling in love and trying to change the world. “Eve Leigh’s new work might be a bit far-fetched, but it means well. Directed by Debbie Hannan and starring Hannah van der Westhuyen, Yasemin Ozdemir, and Francesca Knight, the production is imbued with earth-shaking romanticism, easy hyperbole, and youthful joie de vivre. Playful but decisive, the couple (van der Westhuyen and Ozdemir) are deeply political and strong in their stance, speaking for one another and grilling their own beliefs and identities. “Performing in the round with very few props, they recollect the events to each other with asides to the audience, who almost intrude into their thin balance between romance and politics. “The writer manages to tackle many points successfully, addressing white privilege, xenophobic violence, the role of religion in contemporary society, and the dangers of impulsivity. It’s an epic tale of anti-fascism activism that’s just slightly too unbelievable for its own sake.” * * * * From one4review: “Salty Irina is the world premiere of Eve Leigh’s new play. Two students, Anna and Eireni, have both come to study at a town well known for its fascist tendencies. Both are potentially in danger – Anna is a lesbian, and Eireni has a Turkish mother. "When Anna questions why recent murders of Lebanese and Senegalese locals are not being investigated properly, and Eireni finds a pool of blood on her doorstep, they decide to join forces to investigate. The local Fascist Festival seems a good place to start, and they head off together, disguised to hide their true identity. Their well-meaning naivety puts them in great danger and the action culminates in a show down with a local far right devotee. “As well as fighting fascism, this is a love story and the two actors – Hannah van der Westhuysen and Yasemin Ozdemir – have a fantastic chemistry. Their relationship, from its initial tentative steps, to its consummation, is never less than believable. The strength of the love story occasionally threatens to smother the importance of the political message, but the emotional ending satisfactorily gets the message across, and the audience loved the show.” * * * * From Bouquets and Brickbats: “Eve Leigh’s Salty Irina, isn’t your average tale of first love, nor even of coming out – although it is both of those things. Instead, a much darker, more frightening theme emerges as Eirini (Yasemin Özdemir) and Anna (Hannah Van Der Westhuysen) embark on a reckless mission… “They’re teenagers, so of course they think they’re invincible; of course they’re likely to take risks. Sitting in the audience, several decades ahead of them, I can only watch in horror as they convince themselves that infiltrating a far-right festival is a good idea. From a grown-up, liberal vantage point, it’s clearly a bad idea for anyone. For an immigrant? For lesbians? For two wide-eyed young girls with more idealism than guile? It can only end badly. “But Eirini and Anna want to do something. There’s been a spate of murders in their (unspecified) city and the police don’t seem to see the link. The victims are all immigrants, but – because they’re from different ethnic groups – each is being treated as an isolated case. So when the girls learn that a fascist group is holding an event nearby, it seems logical to them to don disguises and investigate. An older hippy in their squat says what the whole audience is thinking: “Don’t go!” But when have teenagers ever listened to boring know-it-all adults telling them what to do? “It’s not until the final third of the play that Jana (Francesca Knight) appears. We’ve seen her before, acting as a stagehand, passing props, clearing the set; it’s a neat conceit. The threat she poses has always been there, in the shadows, but it’s only when the girls are isolated and vulnerable that she reveals herself. “If Eirini and Anna were older, the plot would be fantastical. Honestly, at first I think the whole thing is a bit far-fetched, but then I google ‘far-right festivals’ and discover that they really are a thing, even here in Scotland. (God knows what marketing I’ll be faced with now, as the internetty algorithms get to work.) But their age makes me ache for them: I absolutely believe that they would step boldly, naďvely into the fray, convinced that they are doing the right thing. “Debbie Hannan’s direction is fresh and contemporary, all minimal props and non-literal interpretation. It feels as youthful as the play’s protagonists, the transitions snappy and impetuous. “Van Der Westhuysen and Özdemir (last seen by us in Autopilot and You Bury Me respectively) are perfectly cast, embodying the journey from youthful innocence to devastating experience.” * * * * From Scottish Field: “The play is set in some non-defined Northern European city where there have been a series of murders, all the murdered are foreigners, all recent immigrants. “Irina, played by Yasemin Ozdemir, arrives at her apartment and the steps are steeped in blood, obviously the result of another murder. “Anna, a squat tenant, played by Hannah van der Westhuyen, fall into conversation about the recent murders in this culturally diverse part of the city. As their friendship develops their political narrative is also shared and found to be compatible. “That compatibility of politics leads from a nascent sense of deeper friendship into a Sapphic relationship. Between them they decide to track down the killers who they suspect are not, as the police suspect, a mafia group. “The couple believe the killers are part of a right-wing fellowship attending a right-wing musical festival outside of town. “They decide to attend and there meet one of the fellowship, played by Francesca Knight, who introduces them into the creed and thinking of the far right. "The play is written by Eve Leigh and I think takes on too much in a 75 minute production:- racism, immigration, what is home to a recent immigrant, far right extremism, lesbian love, white privilege and religion. It’s a long list of subject matter to be addressed. “The direction by Debbie Hannan does an admirable job of trying to address the subject matter. “The writing is good and the acting very impressive, I just felt it was too inclusive of all modern sins, sins that need to be addressed but individually and, in more detail, rather than compressed into one production. * * * * From West End Best Friend “Salty Irina by Eve Leigh is a powerful two hander following two girls who fall in love and set out on a mission to fight the Nazis in their town (unnamed but somewhere in Northern Europe), despite the danger that this puts them in. Directed dynamically by Debbie Hannan and performed exquisitely by Francesca Knight, Hannah van der Westhuysen and Yasemin Özdemir, the show covers great scope in an impressive 70 minutes. “Debbie Hannan creates strong atmosphere throughout the show and carves out the stage with her blocking in an imaginative way, using primarily the actors’ bodies and a few scattered suitcases that come and go. The performances are nuanced and Knight (playing a young fascist at the summer festival) stands out in this trio with an incredibly atmospheric and terrifying entrance in the midpoint of the play that changes the tone of the show right until its finish point. “The play is well written in addressing the dangers of history repeating itself in a chillingly relevant way to 21st century audiences. It is especially effective in that it isn’t specific to its location and by situating its young characters in an unnamed town somewhere in Northern Europe, reveals how any city, time and people (even teenagers) can fall under and into the brainwashing of fascist beliefs.” ***** Five stars * * * * Sources with thanks and acknowledgement: https://www.broadwayworld.com/scotland/article/EDINBURGH-2023-Review-SALTY-IRINA-Summerhall-202308 http://one4review.co.uk/?s=Salty+Irina https://bouquetsbrickbatsreviews.com/2023/08/10/salty-irina/ https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/fringe-review-salty-irina/ https://www.westendbestfriend.co.uk/news/review-salty-irina-broccoli-arts-ed-fringe |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
This review has been read 732 times There are 39 other reviews of productions with this title in our database:
|
