Review Wish You Were Here at Gate Theatre Camden Town

As in her Pulitzer Prize-winning play English - which ran at the Kiln - Toossi’s handle on the specifics of Iranian culture and politics is presented through forensically observed relationships.

Set between 1979 - 1991 and spanning the Iran/ Iraq war, Sepy Baghaei’s sensitively directed, humorous production forefronts the importance of enduring female friendship and raises questions about the spaces – physical and spiritual – where women can push for freedom of expression and movement during war-time and beyond.

Wish You Were Here is written by American Iranian playwright Sanaz Toossi (Image: Rich Lakos)

The play opens on a joyful, pre-wedding scene; a gathering of five childhood friends, there to give the anxious bride, Salme [Emily Renee] – the first of their group to wed - a make-over before her send-off.

While Salme is the most devout of the group, the key-note is far from pious.

The friends pluck one another’s eyebrows, curse the humidity, and banter about fragrant ‘pussies,’ even volunteering to dive under Salme’s wedding dress to check if the bride passes that test.

Played on an impressively period living-room set by Tomas Palmer, replete with burnt orange sofa, the stage is also framed by a white canopy, oft-times illuminated in ghostly hues, foreshadowing loss.

Afsaneh Dehrouyeh; Emily Renée; Isabella Nefar; Juliette Motamed; Maryam Grace in Wish You Were Here. (Image: Rich Lakos)

Pouya Ehsaei’s soundscape is genius: Iranian TV soaps, pop, news bulletins, eery abstract. Dialogue is brilliantly incidental as Toossi weaves in political references.

When pragmatist Shideh [Isabella Nefar] complains about the ever-diminishing prospects of studying abroad following Khomeini’s Revolution because of ‘The protests. Everything. And there’s static in the air,’ it would be easy to miss the significance of her lines.

But then that’s the point; the women resist being defined by circumstance. With each scene-change, another friend prepares for their wedding and we learn who from their group has left Iran, til only brittle Nazanin [Afsaneh Dehrouyeh] is left, still longing for her vanished Jewish best friend, rebellious Rana [Juliette Motamed].

Running at nearly 2 hours with no interval, fears and passions repeat and the dialogue could do with some shaving. But the focus on displacement and the point that finding a home or homeland is intrinsically bound up with the people we love is honoured with real grace.

Wish You Were Here runs at Gate Theatre in Crowndale Road, Camden until November 23rd.