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nabokov and The Bush Theatre present the World premiere of
ARTEFACTS
by Mike Bartlett
20 February - 22 March

Cast | Creative | Reviews

"One of the most exciting new talents to emerge in recent times" (The Stage)

Sixteen-year-old Kelly has never known her Dad. Turns out he’s from Iraq, which her mum never mentioned, and he’s brought an ancient Mesopotamian vase as some kind of present.

But Kelly doesn’t want a vase. She wants her dad to stay and get to know her.

It’s not the reunion either of them expected and for Kelly, it’s the beginning of an epic and dangerous journey.

Mike Bartlett has been described as “One of the most exciting new talents to emerge in recent times” (The Stage). Last year, Mike’s first play My Child was called "Brutal, thrilling, unmissable” (Evening Standard) and “The theatrical equivalent of a firecracker” (Metro).

nabokov is a company dedicated to commissioning, developing and producing new work that offers a response to contemporary agendas, trends and events. Their last production was Edmund White's Terre Haute, which played the Trafalgar Studios last year prior to a national tour.

Following its run at The Bush Artefacts is touring the UK. for more about nabokov and the tour, please visit www.nabokov-online.com

Supported by Stage One Bursery Scheme for New Producers and Old Vic New Voices

Evening performances start at 8pm; Saturday matinees at 3pm. For further details see calendar.

Cast
Kelly Lizzy Watts
Susan Karen Ascoe
Ibrahim Peter Polycarpou
Faiza Mouna Albakry
Raya Amy Hamdoon

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Creative
directed by James Grieve
designed by Lucy Osborne
written by Mike Bartlett

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Reviews
"Mike Bartlett made a big impact with his first play, My Child, in which a kid became part of a parental tug-of-war. Now he expands his territory to include father-daughter relationships, cultural collisions, and the state of Iraq. And, if it's a lot for an 80-minute play, it shows Bartlett moving refreshingly outwards rather than examining his navel… James Grieve's urgent production, which is to on a national tour, is eminently worth catching."

read the whole Guardian review

"By Mike Bartlett's standards, Artefacts is a bit of an epic, lasting 75 minutes without an interval, but once again I was left full of admiration for this dramatist's combination of power and precision. There is barely a wasted word in a piece that begins in the personal and gradually expands into the political, so that what starts as a story of a troubled family ends up as an account of a devastated nation. This is dramatic writing of a very high order indeed."

read the whole Daily Telegraph review

"Written with great economy, humour and theatrical verve, Mike Bartlett’s fascinating new play explores the differences in family life between London and Baghdad, where Kelly goes when Ibrahim and his Iraqi wife are hit by an emergency involving their daughter Raya. The mixed emotions experienced by Kelly as regards her mother and her absent father are acutely observed and utterly convincing."

read the whole Stage review

"The play manages to express so much that seems tragic and true about Iraq while gripping us with its formal devices of monologue, parenthetical scenes made up of the stash of letters, entire exchanges in Arabic (one is the fable of the Pied Piper, later repeated in English by the hostage girl) and smart stabs of political and cultural history."

read the whole Whatsonstage review

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