Brave new world

0 The staging makes for an ‘immersive tapestry’

against a rich repertoire of cultural references, tests the resolve of the two women, played with heart, humour and inner strength by Karen Alvarado and Monica Vilela.

The clinical bureaucracy of the morgue captures the cold brutality of the killing, whether it’s being carried out by US troops or Islamic militants, while evocative projected imagery and traditional music builds an immersive tapestry of a fascinating place where the years pass

like bombs fall.

What is the future? An Iranian skyscraper is being built called The Bride of the Gulf. Commerce, it seems, has moved in as the soldiers moved out, leaving Basra a transformed place, but one that still maintains a defiant and optimistic spirit, one that this play allows us, as a Western audience, a rare opportunity to share.

SALLY STOTT

Until 27 August. Today 3:10pm.