OSTAN to be Presented at Park Theatre This Autumn

Ostan - پاریزگا , meaning province, state or border - will be presented at Park Theatre this fall. The play follows the life of Rebin, who has been stuck in the UK immigration system for almost a decade. The world premiere of this new drama was developed by Fringe First-winner Arzhang Pezhman, a first-generation refugee from Iran, during his PhD. Drawing from the current immigration crisis, with thousands stuck in a broken immigration system, Pezhman questions who it is you are meant to be when stuck in this state of limbo. Dealing with prevalent themes of displacement, alienation, identity, family, and survival, Ostan encourages audiences not to take people at face value for better or worse and to look beyond their circumstances.

The cast and creatives reflect a broad representation of the MENA region and has a cast of five Middle Eastern actors. The run includes audio described performances and multiple bi-lingual captioned performances in Sorani, Kurmanji, Farsi.

Rebin is an Iraqi-Kurd who has been stuck in the UK immigration system for almost a decade, which has given him plenty of time to get into a routine.Work. Play. Apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. Repeat. With no safe passage home, Rebin watches various immigrants go through the carwash where he works and move on with their lives. But when his boss proposes using his struggling hand car wash business as a front for a human trafficking enterprise by smuggling immigrants into the country in the boots of their client's cars, Rebin's routine is about to be shattered. Indefinitely.

Writer Arzhang Pezhman said, "I read a newspaper article in 2015 about the arrest of an Iraqi carwash owner who was asking customers of the carwash to smuggle people from mainland Europe in the boots of their cars. As a first-generation refugee from Iran, although some 40 years ago, it raised so many questions for me about the current immigration crisis. Like how politicians and demagogues seem to distract attention with fiery rhetoric about the evils of "lax borders, small boats, and nefarious smugglers" while doing very little for the hundreds of thousands already here, stuck in a broken immigration system. And for those stuck, often for years, who are you meant to be in this state of limbo?"

Arzhang Pezhman is a playwright and writer for film who has had his work produced by the Royal Court and the Birmingham Rep theatre, as well as working as a writer in residence at Soho Theatre. In 2013, he collaborated as a writer with Untied Artists on their devised show, For Their Own Good, which won a Scotsman Fringe First Award. He has also worked extensively as a playwriting tutor in theatres, schools, pupil referral units, and prisons, and he recently attained a creative/critical PhD, focusing on workplace plays, from the University of East Anglia.

Park Theatre presents exceptional theatre in the heart of Finsbury Park, boasting two world-class performance spaces: Park200 for predominantly larger scale productions by established talent, and Park90, a flexible studio space, for emerging artists. In eleven years, it has enjoyed eight West End transfers (including Rose starring Maureen Lipman, The Boys in the Band starring Mark Gatiss, Pressure starring David Haig, and The Life I Leadstarring Miles Jupp), two National Theatre transfers, 14 national tours, seven Olivier Award nominations, has won multiple OffWestEnd Offie Awards and won a Theatre of the Year award from The Stage.

Ostan runs from 18 Sept - 12 Oct at Park Theatre www.parktheatre.co.uk

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