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SIFA 2014: Wandering through Amid The Clouds

SINGAPORE — Well, that was a complete turnaround. From the whimsical theatrical heights of Peter Pan and its flights of fancy, we swoop down to the understated, stripped-down elegance of Amid The Clouds, where the idea of flight is grounded on more pressing, real-life issues.

Amid The Clouds by Amir Reza Koohestani. Photo: Fred Frumberg.

Amid The Clouds by Amir Reza Koohestani. Photo: Fred Frumberg.

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SINGAPORE — Well, that was a complete turnaround. From the whimsical theatrical heights of Peter Pan and its flights of fancy, we swoop down to the understated, stripped-down elegance of Amid The Clouds, where the idea of flight is grounded on more pressing, real-life issues.

A man and a woman submerged in water-filled fish tanks are what greets you first in Iranian playwright-director Amir Reza Koohestani’s piece, where water — as river, as ocean — is a vital symbol of life and death, of what links and what deters. Clouds is a journey story of two strangers whose paths cross: A man named Imour (Hassan Madjooni) and a pregnant woman named Zina, who claims a kind of immaculate conception (Shiva Falahi). Their final destination is England, which is very, very far from Iran, and it’s tough-going if you’re an asylum seeker.

The biblical Mary-Joseph story naturally comes to mind (and even a bit of Cormac McCarthy’s Father-Son team in The Road for some reason). It’s bleak, plodding near-stillness is mostly told rather than enacted. And with its frequent use of the voice over, it’s got that art house film vibe to it, the kind that gets shown at Cannes’ less crowd-pleasing Un Certain Regard or Directors Fortnight programmes.

The story Koohestani tells is a simple one, but it unfolds in a dream-like haze that makes it hard to completely grasp or follow. Just as the characters are uprooting themselves, we are also experiencing a sense of dislocation, as the piece unfolds in fragments and signposts. We are here, we’re now here. An airport in Tehran, somewhere between Croatia and Slovenia, a bar, a forest, a train from Milan to Paris, a refugee camp. And we follow them with no sense of urgency, because they seem to be taking their own sweet time themselves.

In fact, I actually don’t know *why* they’re undertaking this journey. The reasons behind it are implied, and some may be okay with it. But I’m not quite sure if I’m comfortable assuming things, especially for a piece about asylum seekers from Iran. It’s a political terrain I’m not confident of dipping my hands into even if perhaps I really should trust Koohestani. But with very little to go on (we’re plonked right in the middle of things with a slim backstory), I think I’ll skip getting into the serious, knowing nods that I’m imagining is what’s expected to happen between the audience and the playwright here. (At least I knew what Persepolis was about.)

Nevertheless, even if you skip all the baggage of what’s unsaid (which is actually one of its strengths), Amid The Clouds offers some really vivid moments, images, sentiments that take place in this journey-because-of-that-which-must-not-be-named: The dangers of crossing mountains where anti-Muslim “racist fundamentalists” lurk, the anxiety about the use of headscarves in Europe, the glimpses into life in a refugee camp. Zina gets to be the “ethereal” contrast to the earthy Imour, whom I’m kind of drawn to. It’s him that Koohestani spends much time fleshing out, his quirky nosebleed incidents, his methodical escape plan across the English Channel by way of counting waves.

Amid The Clouds is also sold out. But you can try your luck by hanging out at the FOH counter at SOTA Studio Theatre tonight, at around 7.30pm, for any returns. Payment by cash only. For more festival details, visit https://sifa.sg.

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Meanwhile, if you’re looking ahead to next week’s Wooster Group show, there will be a talk with founding member Elizabeth LeCompte and other members on Sept 20, noon, at SOTA Studio Theatre. Go here for deets: https://sifa.sg/media/sifa-shares-6.html

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