Dear performer. I want to show you something. Did you know, in Farsi my name is written like this: ‘.ROUPNAMIELOS MISSAN si eman yM’
Did you know Nassim means ‘breeze’ in Farsi? From Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, comes an audacious theatrical experiment that explores the power of language to unite us in unknown, uncertain times.
No rehearsals. No preparation. Just a sealed envelope and an actor reading a script for the first time. Plus some tomatoes. From the playwright who took Broadway by storm.
Since its joint premiere in 2011, in Edinburgh and at the Summerworks festival, Soleimanpour’s play White Rabbit Red Rabbit has been translated into 25 different languages and performed over 1000 times by some of the biggest names in theatre and film, including Sinead Cusack, Ken Loach, Whoopi Goldberg.
Just as each performer arrives unprepared on the night, audiences will also surprised by who is performing alongside Nassim.
Nassim returns to the Bush this September as part of Nassim Plays following its premiere in July 2017 and a visit to the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August 2017.
Carolina Ortega is a director, dramaturg and writer. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London (MA in Text & Performance) and University of London (English Literature and Creative Writing). She has also trained in physical theatre at the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA), John Mowat, Philippe Gaulier and Lee Delong. In 2013, she trained in Experimental Physical Performance with SMASH Berlin.
She’s currently directing her new project No Way Out with Flight of the Escales (Ballhaus Ost Berlin 2018) and her solo Guilt, Confusion and Revolution. Other credits include dance dramaturgy for Enrico D. Wey and directing Sarah Calver’s award winning show I Gave Him An Orchid (2014). Dramaturgy include Idreman (Amsterdam Fringe 2011) and the Tangram Theatre Award Winning adaptation of Lope de Vega’s Fuente Ovejuna (London 2009).
James is a Technician at the Bush Theatre, supporting the Production Manager and working alongside the rest of the technical team to deliver the theatre’s shows. James’s passion for music production led him to study Music production at the School of Sound Recording and Music technology at the London College of Music in West London. Since then he has been working freelance in a variety of venues across London and the West End. Prior to working at the Bush, James worked for Waterman’s Arts Centre and the Crystal Maze experience.
Nassim Soleimanpour is from Tehran, Iran. His plays have been translated into more than 20 languages. Best known for his play White Rabbit Red Rabbit, written to travel the world when he couldn’t, his work has been awarded the Dublin Fringe Festival Best New Performance, Summerworks Outstanding New Performance Text Award and The Arches Brick Award (Edinburgh Fringe) as well as picking up nominations for a Total Theatre and Brighton Fringe Pick of Edinburgh Award.
By the time Nassim was permitted to travel for the first time in early 2013, his play White Rabbit Red Rabbit had been performed hundreds of times in more than a dozen languages. Since then Nassim has facilitated workshops and panels in different events including World Theatre Festival (Brisbane), Tolhuistuin (Amsterdam), SESC Vila Mariana (Sao Paulo), Schauspielhaus (Vienna), DPAC (Kuala Lampur), Theatretreffen (Berlin), Grob Theatre (Copenhagen), British Council, University of Bremen (Germany), Tata Literature Live (India) and etc.
Nassim’s second play Blind Hamlet for the London based Actors Touring Company premiered at The LIFT 2014 and has toured in the UK and was received well in Bucharest and Copenhagen. BLANK is his third play which premiered in November 2015 simultaneously in Amsterdam, Utrecht and London and since then was performed in Scotland, Argentina, Australia, India and etc.
Nassim now lives in Berlin and is under commissions to write a play for Theatre Momentum (Odense).
Omar is an award winning Italian/Palestinian theatre director, deviser and performer, who trained at Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris. He joined the Bush in 2012 alongside Madani Younis and since then has been the resident Associate Director. He is in charge of the Bush’s talent development, leading on the Associate Artists and Project 2036 schemes. He is also involved in the development and delivery of the Bush’s artistic program and lead the programming of the RADAR festival between 2012 and 2015. His directing credits for the Bush include gig theatre sensation Misty by Arinzé Kene, the Edinburgh Fringe First winning NASSIM by Nassim Soleimanpour, One Cold Dark Night by Nancy Harris and Islands by Caroline Horton. As Associate Director, he has worked alongside Madani Younis on the Bush’s productions of The Royale, Perseverance Drive and Chalet Lines. Other credits include acclaimed site-specific production The Mill – City of Dreams, Olivier Award nominated You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, Testa di Rame (Italy), Les P’tites Grandes Choses (France) and L’Envers du Décor (France).
Rhys was one of the winners of the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize, for his design of VARJAK PAW for the Opera Group. Forthcoming work includes Alice in Wonderland (Northern Stage), How I Hacked My Way to Space (Unlimited) and The Wedding (Gecko). Other work includes James and the Giant Peach, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Northern Stage), The Wedding, Time of Your Life (BBC co-pro) The Dreamer (Shanghai Dramatic arts Centre co-pro), Institute, Missing (all Gecko), The Machine Stops (Pilot), Hurling Rubble at the Sun and Hurling Rubble at the Moon (Park Theatre), The Nutcracker (Nuffield Theatre), Holes (Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Arcola Theatre), Threeway (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). Rhys also designs outdoor work, opera and television.
Sarah-Jane Price graduated with a 1st class degree in Theatre, before going on to study a Post Graduate Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music from which she graduated with distinction. She has worked professionally as a performer and session singer for several years before realising her passion for casting.
Working for a variety of companies initially as a freelance runner and then a casting assistant, she then became a full casting director with Club11 London. Her work includes: Nassim Plays (Bush Theatre), Putting it Together (Belfast Lyric), Hello Again (The Hope Theatre), Adding Machine: A Musical (Finborough Theatre), Vanara (London Premiere) and various other shows, cabarets and theatre.
Stewart is the Associate Dramaturg at the Bush Theatre, working to identify and build relationships with new writers, commission new work and guide plays to the stage. Prior to joining the Bush in 2016, Stewart was the Artistic Director of the Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington for three years, winning the OffWestEnd Award for Best Artistic Director for his work in 2015. As a playwright, he won the 2017 Papatango New Writing Prize for Trestle, and his other works for the stage include The Ghost Hunter and You Look Tasty!. His debut short-film, Whisper, won multiple awards across the world. He has also worked as a producer, KS2 drama teacher and a theatre critic for publications including Time Out, The Stage and New Scientist.
