INTERVIEW: ‘Nassim’ explores connections through language
Photo: Nassim features the playwright, Nassim Soleimanpour, and a guest performer. The production comes to New York thanks to Barrow Street Theatricals. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by DKC O&M with permission.
The description for the new play Nassim is fittingly mysterious:“No rehearsals. A different guest actor at every performance. A sealed envelope. And some surprises.”
Enter the world of Nassim Soleimanpour, the acclaimed playwright who utilizes “imaginative storytelling” to spin tales of connection and culture.
“It, of course, follows the format of [my] previous plays, which are all cold reads,” Soleimanpour said in a recent phone interview. “But the big difference here was I really wanted to collaborate with this friend of mine, the director of the show, [Omar Elerian].”
This sense of collaboration is quite a revelation for the playwright because he’s used to developing shows, such as White Rabbit Red Rabbit, with no director on board. To present Nassim, which is currently playing New York City Center’s Stage II, Soleimanpour, who is originally from Iran, decided to present half of the show as directed and somewhat set in stone, and the other half is left to serendipity and the whims of the guest performer.
The through-line between the directed half and the non-directed half is the power of language and the unity of humanity, all delivered by the recitation of a guest performer. Performers in the coming days include everyone from Zachary Quinto (March 14) to Michael Stahl-David (March 16).
“I moved to Germany at the time, and I was struggling with German as a new language,” he said. “This [director] friend of mine speaks Arabic. He’s native Italian. He speaks fluent French. He lives in London. … The topic of language and how it can unify us and sometimes sadly separate us I think was the trigger. That was the early discussion.”
From that initial idea of building a semi-unconventional show about the power of language, Soleimanpour took 3-1/2 years to develop the piece. Once it was ready for an audience, the playwright began to visit different countries and cultures, which only added to the richness of the play.
“I had this basic idea of a show that wherever we take it, it starts in their language, and it ends in my language [of Farsi],” he said. “That was there from the very beginning, but why are we doing this? Do I still want to cast a new actor? Am I part of it physically? Am I involved? The live streaming. The story of my mom, my childhood. … Step by step that came in. It was a long process, I can say. It was a very long process.”
Now, Soleimanpour has performed the piece more than 200 times, and that’s saying something because being on stage is new for him. Back during his schooling days, he was never a performer, but Nassim inspired him to change that part of his résumé.
“I never had intentions to put myself on stage, so when we decided that I will be on stage, I thought maybe adrenaline will kick in,” he said. “But even from the very beginning, I felt very confident, and I think there are two reasons for this. One is the previous shows [are] even more risky. Like the show White Rabbit Red Rabbit, it’s just 40 pages and an actor who is going to read it for the first time without any help. They do it on stage, so the script is written in a way that it can survive. And I repeated that in Blank. It worked as well. So when I wrote this, I felt like I might not be a good performer, but I know my way around the plays. I can write it in a way that it can survive.”
Another facet of Nassim, which comes to New York courtesy of Barrow Street Theatricals and Jean Doumanian, is how Soleimanpour and his guest performer are helped by the graciousness of the audience and the honesty of the words being said aloud.
“I can make mistakes,” he admitted. “The actor may do things that are wrong, but as long as we all accept that, hey, that is happening and we laugh about it, it becomes part of the show. So that’s I think the way I treat it when I perform. … As long as no one dies, it’s a good show.”
It’s tough to speak about Nassim with people who have not experienced these 75 minutes in the theater. There are many surprises along the way, and it’s best to keep the proceedings a secret. Here are a few details: The play becomes quite personal for Soleimanpour, and the audience and guest performer leave Stage II knowing a new language to speak — at least a few words.
Another takeaway is the audience learns about Soleimanpour’s upbringing in Iran and his relationship with his mother. There’s also an undercurrent of cultural appreciation and the unity of the world’s language communities. In today’s troubled times, when immigration policies almost prevented the playwright from traveling to the United States to perform Nassim in New York City, these themes have taken on a finer focus.
“It’s not only about the States,” he said. “We’re living in a weird period of time. We have Brexit. Are you kidding me? This is a British show, and I’m a Berliner. I live in Germany, so this is the heart of the negotiations on Brexit, in Germany and the UK. So when we started doing this show it was pre-Brexit, and then Brexit happened in the meantime. … Now here I’m in the States in a very, very political period of time in your country. Of course, that resonates. The fact that it took me seven months to get my visa to come here, the fact that I haven’t seen my wife for two months and a half [so I can] stay here and perform for you because my wife couldn’t get her visa, makes that in a way related to the show because the show is to make friends. It’s designed to make friends, to unify us, and sadly politically we’re being separated. The nations are not separated, but the governments are separated sadly.”
Nassim explores these issues in the most personal of ways, but to see how personal it gets, a ticket to the experiment will be needed.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Nassim, written by and starring Nassim Soleimanpour, is currently playing New York City Center’s Stage II. It comes to New York City courtesy of Barrow Street Theatricals and Jean Doumanian. Click here for more information and tickets.
