FRINGE REVIEW: Silken Veils

The clever use of projected animation, dance, poetry and marionettes and other puppets makes it an exciting and unpredictable ride.

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FRINGE REVIEW: Silken Veils

POSTED: Saturday, September 15, 2012, 10:14 AM

Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!

SHOW: Silken Veils

GROUP: Leila Ghaznavi and Pantea Productions

GENRE: Theater

ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 12, 7 p.m.

CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 15

BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Nominated for a Fringe First for best new work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (“Magical and Enchanting 5 stars!” - The Scotsman) Silken Veils combines Rumi poetry, puppetry, animation and Iranian history. Darya questions the value of love as she relives her chaotic childhood during the Iran-Iraq War.

WE THINK: At first, audience members may wonder if Darya — having just fled her wedding into a storage closet — has lost her mind, or if she’s just lost in her memories, as her dead brother returns to life, bringing with him her parents and childhood, all represented both through puppets and the silhouettes of never-seen cast members, acting behind a backlit screen. But Silken Veils quickly reels you into the story behind the story: how Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 and later the Iran-Iraq War tore apart a family, slaying some with landmines and others with sheer grief. It’s no light subject matter, this investigation of whether to love in a world with so much loss is a futile endeavor. But the clever use of projected animation, dance, poetry and marionettes and other puppets makes it an exciting and unpredictable ride.

—Samantha Melamed

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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