Theatre review: Under the Shadow

While I'm generally happy to trust in Rupert Goold's judgement and have been booking every show in his final Almeida season, the announcement that the latest was an adaptation of an Iranian film about the 1980s Iran-Iraq War seemed like it might be a hard sell to get any of my friends to join me, so I only bought a ticket for myself. Maybe if I'd realised it was based on a horror film I might have got an extra seat, as there's a couple of people that Under the Shadow would have appealed to. Set in 1988 Tehran, Carmen Nasr's adaptation of Babak Anvari's film could of course be using supernatural horrors as a metaphor for war and carnage in general, but in fact the story being told here is much more specific to the time, the place, and particularly the experience of women whose rights have recently been curtailed, perhaps more than some yet realise.

Shideh (Leila Farzad) is married to a doctor, and was planning to become one herself, but paused her studies when she had her daughter Dorsa (Esma Akar, Atlanta Chaniac Golding or Erin Jemmotte.)

By the time she tries to return to medical school she finds out that, thanks to some left-leaning political activity during the revolution (the details of exactly what she did that offended the regime even she isn't privy to) she's been placed on a blacklist. We join the story as she gets news that she's highly unlikely ever to be allowed to return to medical school and become a doctor. Shideh can't accept her husband Iraj's (Nicholas Karimi) opinion that she should lean into her new future as a housewife and mother, let alone that they should move from Tehran back to his family to escape the bombing.

The air raids are the play's method of slowly introducing the other residents of the apartment block, with whom they have to share the basement when the sirens go off: The drily sardonic Mrs Fakur (Souad Faress) is a highlight and frequent visitor to their flat, while upstairs Pargol (Transphobia Ltd Employee Nadia Albina) cares for her ailing father Mr Bijari (Bijan Daneshmand.)

Meanwhile the landlords (Mona Goodwin and Rachid Sabitri) have recently taken in their orphaned nephew Mehdi (Jago Agrawal, Rohan Berry or Adi Gimziunas,) who provides the first seeds of something creepier: Seemingly mute since his parents' death in front of him, he's apparently been whispering in Dorsa's ear with stories and warnings about evil djinn that are coming for her from above. After Iraj is called to the front and a missile hits the building, killing Mr Bijari, these shadows appear to have started literally haunting the flat.

This is definitely a slow build that doesn't even get its first jump-scare in until just before the interval, but the work Nadia Latif's production has put into building the scene and the characters pays off, keeping us interested in the story and invested in them getting out of danger - both the human and supernatural kind. Once the djinn do start to appear Khadija Raza's costumes give them a suitably eerie look, Ben Stones' set gives them plenty of nooks and crannies to appear out of, and Scott Penrose's illusions help complete the creepy effect.

It still won't end up ranking as the scariest in the recent batch of stage frighteners, a psychological horror that definitely leans more on the psychological side of that description than the horror. It's effective at what it does though, holding the attention in its gradually encroaching dread, and making clear the connection in the heart of the story with a woman feeling like she's losing everything, and having trouble holding onto what she has left.

Under the Shadow by Carmen Nasr, based on the film by Babak Anvari, is booking until the 4th of July at the Almeida Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Marc Brenner.