Friday 11 May 2012

VOICES: Paul Bazely (Brighton)

An email sent to Nassim by actor Paul Bazely:

Dear Nassim,

My name is Paul Bazely and last night I performed your play White Rabbit, Red Rabbit at the Nightingale Theatre in Brighton England as part of the Brighton festival.

I wanted to tell you what a beautiful, charming, thought-provoking, funny and moving piece of theatre it is. I felt like I was part of the audience as much as I was performing it. Before the show I had some quiet time thinking about how I am just a conduit between you and the audience (it helps me not to get nervous); then I discovered that that was partly what your play was about!

The audience laughed a lot, but they were also moved, as I was by certain parts. At the end, when number 2 read the final pages and sad "is he now a young writer from Iran?" I felt your presence in a real way. Afterwards the note taker came up to me and had a chat. It was a wonderful experience.

I thought I should confess that when I told them about Shiraz and you mentioned Hafez, I added a verse of his poetry in the original Persian. I played an Iranian recently on British TV and had learnt it for that. It seemed to fit and give the audience an idea of why he is so revered. I told them it was my addition and then said "back to the play" and continued. I hope you don't mind.

I loved your theme about plays speaking to us over time and space. I have performed quite a lot of Shakespeare and have often felt him speaking to us directly over the centuries. When you said "Do you have Facebook in your time?" it made me think of this.

Your English is superb! It in no way felt like a translation. It was much more fluent than a lot of plays by some English playwrights!

You are a talented young writer. I hope to meet you one day and maybe perform some more of your plays.

I feel I've met you.

Many congratulations and warmest regards.

Paul

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