The Fourth Walsh

Remy Bumppo presents the Chicago Premiere of WISH YOU WERE HERE.

It’s 1978. Protests are escalating in Iran. Revolutionists are overthrowing the Pahlavi Dynasty. The reign of Ayatollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader is fast-approaching. Meanwhile in the Iranian suburbs, five friends have gathered to celebrate Salme’s wedding. They tease and pluck as they prepare her for the ceremony and bridal night. Although they gossip, primp and dance happily inside the house, their lives are drastically changing by actions outside the house.

Playwright Sanaz Toossi thoughtfully examines the bond of friendships over a decade. Toossi creates five distinct characters and puts them in a familiar ritual, a bride and her besties. On the surface, their banter is witty exchanges about pussy smells, unibrows, and pumice stones. During their playful jesting, uncertainty bubbles up about marriage, religion, education and immigration. Even though they fiercely support each other’s difference of opinions, personal convictions divide them into subsets of the friendship cohort.

Toossi revisits the ladies annually across life events. Her play is a timeline of these five specific lives intertwined with the war. Bomb shelters, closed universities, air raids, compulsory hijab laws are forcing the friends to make choices for their own safety and quality of life. Departures are interpreted with shock, agony and rage. The friendship ties tighten, lengthen and unravel over time.

Director Azar Kazemi facilitates realism with her terrific ensemble. Kazemi plops us in the middle of vibrant chaos. Dialogue and conversations overlap with a familiarity of friends taking shortcuts. The relationships feel honest and often messy. The bride, an innocent Gloria Imseih Petrelli (Salme), reads her book as a steadfast Shadee Vossoughi (Nazanin) fixes her dress. A  droll Joan Nahid (Rana) smokes her cigarette while giving life advice. A spunky Yourtana Sulaiman (Zari) is lying on the couch as a hard-nosed Tina Arfaee (Shideh) tries to give her a pedicure. At first, the ensemble is one loud and colorful collective. Their individuality become more and more apparent as time and events pass.

Each year transitions to the next with one of the women moving a few items in or out of the living room. Before the person completely exits to the next scene, they linger for a few moments. The pause has a wistful nostalgia. WISH YOU WERE HERE has layered and compelling storytelling. It asks the difficult question ‘would I leave my homeland if it was a war zone?’ And then it challenges us to imagine ‘how would I feel if my best friend did the opposite?’

Running Time: One hundred minutes with no intermission.

At Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont

Written by Sanaz Toossi

Directed by Azar Kazemi

Performances are:

Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 PM

Sundays at 2:30 PM

Thru October 19

For more information or tickets

Production photos by Michael Brosilow

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