We are going on the road! While we are in-between venues, The Other Room are collaborating with Grand Ambition, Swansea on 'Baba Joon', by Lisa Zahra.
“First time I spoke to someone in Swansea’s, I thought they were singing to me.”
From sitting in her Baba’s Merc after school, prayer beads dangling and Julio Iglesias playing too loud on the radio, to Iranian breads and pickles in a Cardiff flat smelling of rose water, a Swansea-born daughter longs to visit her father’s country. Will that freedom ever come?
Incorporating witty and poetic spoken word, physical movement and a soundtrack that fuses 90’s dance and traditional Iranian music, Baba Joon (Father Dear) is an evocative portrayal of one man’s experiences of arriving in Wales from Iran in the 1970s and his daughter's navigation through the joys and complexities of being from a mixed heritage family living in South Wales.
Where are we from? Where do we belong? Where’s home?
Swansea-born writer and performer Lisa Zahra has an Iranian Dad and a Welsh Mum. Baba Joon is her first play and was originally developed through the Royal Court Writers Programme 2021 and commissioned through The Other Room’s 3 Phase Participation Project 2022 funded by Bad Wolf, Arts and Business Cymru and The Carne Trust.
The California visit is partially funded by a College of Humanities and the Arts' Artistic Excellence Programming Grant and the Department of Film, Theatre, and Dance at San José State University.
The Other Room in co-production with Grand Ambition presents
Baba Joon
Tue 17 – Sat 21 October, 7.45pm
(previews Tue 17 and Wed 18 October)
Fri 20 & Sat 21 October, 2.30pm
Performed at Swansea Grand Theatre
Cast & Creatives
Writer Performer: Lisa Zahra
Director: Izzy Rabey
Set and Costume Designer: Cara Evans
Lighting Designer: Grace Priest
Sound Designers & Composers: Roshi Nasehi & Emma Daman Thomas
Stage Manager: Philipa Mannion
Assistant Stage Manager: Amy Ashwell
Assistant Director: Nadia Nur
Movement Director: Gemma Prangle
Producer: Jafar Iqbal
THE OTHER ROOM TEAM
Dan Jones (Artistic Director)
Samantha Alice Jones (Community Director)
Alice Baynham (Head of Audiences)
Baba Joon is presented by The Other Room, in co-production with Grand Ambition.
GRAND AMBITION TEAM
Richard Mylan
Michelle McTernan
Steve Balsamo
Christian Patterson
Supported by
Gwneir y cynhyrchiad hwn yn bosibl trwy gefnogaeth hael gan y canlynol: Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru, Sefydliad Esmée Fairbairn, Bad Wolf TV Studios, Arts & Business Cymru ac Ymddiriedolaeth Carne.
This production is made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Wales, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Bad Wolf TV Studios, Arts & Business Cymru, and The Carne Trust.
The California visit is partially funded by a College of Humanities and the Arts' Artistic Excellence Programming Grant and the Department of Film, Theatre, and Dance at San José State University.