Dirt: 3 star review by Natasha Long

By Natasha Long
|
6th Aug 2008
|
★★★

The award-winning Christopher John Domig stars in an unsettling and highly topical play about immigration.

Sad is a thirty-year-old Iraqi man living illegally in Britain, but he is not sad. Throughout his monologue, he repeatedly assures usthe rightful citizens of this great countrythat he understands his place. Sad accepts that he has no right to sit on a park bench, no right to urinate in public toilets, no right to scream if someone holds broken glass to his face and no right to be here at all. Sad is cheerily thankful for the life he is allowed to live in this place, selling roses to forty-year-old men who pay for forty-year-old women. Sad is not sad, but as his thoughts onstage, we are forced to question whether this can be called happiness?

Dirt definitely has a poignant message and this is a worthy production. Domig plays Sad with admirable skill, especially given the appalling conditions of a noise-polluted space. However, seventy minutes is a long time for any actor to command an audiences attention and the script could benefit from some tightening.

Reviews by Natasha Long

Elvis Hates Me!

★★★★

Plastic

★

Everyone We Know

★★

Greater Tuna

★★

I Think You Stink

★★★★

Transgression

★★★

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The Blurb

'See this show!' (NYTheatre.com). An Iraqi immigrant tells his story. His name is Sad. He lives here, sells roses and loves to speak English. But nobody listens. Will you? The most powerful play about racism currently on stage. Sold-out: New York/Vienna/Hamburg.