Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour (White Rabbit Red Rabbit, NASSIM) and Italian Palestinian director Omar Elerian (NASSIM, Misty, two Palestinians go dogging) push the boundaries of his signature unrehearsed cold reads to the next level.
A new performer takes to the stage at every show without having a clue of what is going to be asked of them. Unrehearsed and unprepared, the script becomes their guide as they journey through the story of the playwright, connected live from his flat in Berlin? Or is he? Can we really know where or when we are?
ECHO asks us to confront what it feels like to be an immigrant in time. Fusing technology with the oldest tricks in the book, ECHO is an experiment in concept touring for the age of climate crisis: an ambitious, magical and uncompromising production where no one travels yet everybody can be present.
Artists
Nassim Soleimanpour
Omar Elerian
"As he heightens the audience's sense of complicity in his art, Soleimanpour makes a quietly persuasive case for theatre's special power to foster empathy."— London Evening Standard (on NASSIM)
CREDITS
Writer Nassim Soleimanpour
Director Omar Elerian
Cast A new unrehearsed performer every show
Creative Technologist and Production Designer Derek Richards
Lighting Designer Jackie Shemesh
Dramaturgy Kirsty Housley, Immanuel Bartz
Script Editor Stewart Pringle
Creative Producer Immanuel Bartz
An NSP production, co-produced by LIFT (London) / The Royal Court Theatre (London), Staatstheater Mainz, Riksteatern (Sweden), Why Not Theatre (Toronto), Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles (Brussels) / Le Lieu Unique (Nantes), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. In association with The Shed (New York City) and Canberra Theatre Centre. A LIFT Concept Touring Commission. Supported by Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
ECHO is generously supported by the Maria Björnson Memorial Fund and the Goethe-Institut London.
Image Credit © NSP (Majid Kashani)
