Foriegner theatre review: Offbeat, eccentric chaos
Pitched as an ‘anti-identity, anti-comedy’ show, Sohrab Haghverdi’s unruly and unrestrained hour defies any and all expectations
This show is surely the Fringiest of them all. Put the musings of a 13th-century Persian philosopher in a blender with testicles, a snake and some meta visuals, blend hard and then destroy the lot to make something new à la mystical poet Rumi. There’s plenty of toilet humour, juxtaposed jarringly with a story about (but also definitely not about) immigration and childhood cancer. More politically incorrect than Borat and more absurdist than The Mighty Boosh, Sohrab Haghverdi’s avant-garde clown show is, beneath all the bodily fluids, an interrogation of identity and what happens when you spend your life trying to perform a version of yourself that other people will accept.
Haghverdi is an Iranian asylum seeker in America, where his artistic genius could, in theory, earn him a visa. He turns his family, his cancer, his malfunctioning ejaculation system, his nationality and even his urine into material, presenting each to the audience like a grotesque show and tell. Middle-aged members of the crowd clutch their pearls (ok, their plastic cups) as the jokes get sicker and weirder, while he tests how much of himself we are willing to consume. By turning stereotypes and audience expectations inside out, he exposes not only his own absurdity but our flawed appetite for neatly packaged identities. But in Foriegner, nothing stays neatly packaged for long.
Foriegner, Summerhall, until 31 August, 9pm.