Veil, Corn Exchange, Brighton, Apr 18

10:02am Friday 18th April 2008

A veil can hide or distort the truth but it can also conceal secrets," says Bob Frith, writer and director of Horse And Bamboo Theatre's 30th anniversary production.

"This story about the historic tension between East and West uses veils as well as masks, mime, music and film to explore how a concealed crime can have ramifications for many generations to come."

The catalyst for the story is a single act of violence. A western archaeologist travels to Iraq to excavate a precious object. While there, he rapes a local woman who gives birth to twin girls.

The archaeologist grabs one of the twins and takes her back to the West to bring up as his own.

"The girls grow up in different cultures completely unaware of each other," Bob explains. "But because they are twins, they have a kind of psychic link. They start to have visions of each other as well as disturbing dreams about the crime that bind them together. Finally, they go in search of each other."

Bob's aim was to create a multi-layered show that could be appreciated as a simple powerful story of two women or as a metaphor for the West's violent history in the Middle East.

The action moves between Iraq in the 1950s, when the country was colonised by the West, and present day post-war Iraq where the archaeologist's rape of the woman is mirrored by his plundering of the land.

"History affects everything," says Bob. "Nothing happens in isolation. The seeds for the war in Iraq were planted a long time ago. And if we can see that things aren't straightforward, we are less likely to be swayed by the facile rhetoric of bad politicians."

Bob doesn't shy away from the suggestion that it may have been better to tell his complex, multi-layered story in a more simple, direct way.

"Using masks and mime may seem an odd way of telling a story but I believe the discipline of visual theatre makes the story all the more powerful and effective," he says.

"This work is the culmination of 30 years of producing visual theatre and I wanted to create the richness and multi-layers of a good novel, not just by using words but by exploiting all the different parts of the theatrical palette.

"I think because audiences aren't spoon fed, they have to work to understand the complexities of the story, so they hopefully take more away from it.

The show is set to an abstract soundtrack by modern composer Loz Koye.

"The music reflects both the Middle Eastern and European worlds at relevant parts in the story and like the mask, film and puppetry, it helps to tell the story," Bob says.

"The masks are both haunting and beautiful. Yes, they hide the actors' expressions, but in doing so, they allow the audience to slowly uncover the truth for themselves.

"The whole performance is like a jigsaw puzzle - when you get to the interval, the pieces are all over the place, but in the second act, things start slowly unravelling and the last piece of the jigsaw fits into place in the last second of the play."

• Suitable for those aged 14 upwards. Starts 7.30, tickets £12.50/£7.50. Call 01273 709709.

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