ECHO stands for “Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen”, and ‘Echo’ is also the name of our playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s little dog, whom audiences meet via video link. The Royal Court’s latest offering as part of the LIFT festival, ECHO calls itself “an experiment in concept touring for the age of climate crisis: an ambitious, magical and uncompromising production where no one travels yet everybody can be present.” If you find that concept and title a little confusing, please be assured that you are not alone and indeed that sense of confusion perhaps befits this ambitious show. Although magic can definitely be found in the bewitching onstage magic of sound, light and video, so too can audiences find themselves a little bothered and bewildered during ECHO.

Playwright Nassim Soleimanpour is streamed to audiences (on one of three large screens) from his central Berlin apartment and has a comical introductory interaction with the show’s star of the day, Adrian Lester. Soleimanpour is presumably coming to the Royal Court via video link, live and unrehearsed, yet it does seem highly doubtful that Soleimanpour and his wife and dog didn’t rehearse or preplan this. It’s a little hard to buy into this authenticity when the food on the stove is bubbling just right and his friend just happens to be right outside his apartment for a jovial chat. Although the live streaming is a fun trick, it is not really entirely believable and walks a fine line between entertaining and distracting.

One of the draws of the show, in fact the one that probably draws the most fascination from audiences, is the fact that a new, established and frankly ‘famous’ actor takes to the stage each night, who apparently “[has] no clue of what is going to be asked of them”. ECHO’s all-star lineup includes Jessica Gunning, Meera Syal and Jodie Whittaker (all of whom could arguably fill up the Royal Court with their name alone) and Adrian Lester is no different. Indeed, as expected, Lester delivers the lines that appear to him on screen and are fed into his ear with mastery. However, it is worth informing audiences that this performance is really more akin to a poetry reading of Soleimanpour’s script, than a straight up ‘acting’ feast. Some might argue that cold reads are one of the greatest tests of an actor’s natural talent, and with Lester, the glass of talent is well and truly brimming over. However, for anyone hoping to see some of these acting juggernauts dig their teeth into some nitty gritty ‘drama’, they may be disappointed. Indeed, the real strength of the show isn’t the changing cast of actors or the ‘acting’ at all, but the moments when the show turns to Soleimanpour’s biography as a playwright “time-travelling” between his life in Iran and his life in Germany.

We hear Soleimanpour share with Lester the story of the last time he visited his homeland of Iran (a country he clearly has a deep meaningful love and connection to) in 2022 and the difficulty and confusion he has with having both a German passport and an Iranian one, and how he swaps them out when wanting to enter or leave either country.

The greatest moment of the night comes when Soleimanpour’s once bustling apartment is stripped back, wife and dog are nowhere to be found and we see, through clever production design by Derek Richards, Soleimanpour’s experience at an Iranian border interrogation office, with a compelling performance by the actor playing the interviewer (their name is not listed on press releases). Additionally, there is a moving moment capturing a farewell between mother and son that displays raw human emotion in a deeply resonant way (again, presumably from Soleimanpour’s real mother, they are not listed). However, the show too often drifts away from the personal and into the obscure.

This obscurity is potentially entirely intentional as the stage is illuminated with images of galaxies and fields of stars while Lester is fed lines in their ear about existence and time travel and finding “home”. Although the visual effects are undoubtedly beautiful and boast a novelty factor, it strays into the confusing at times and takes us out of Soleimanpour’s moving biography, but that seems to be the point.

ECHO leaves audiences with damp eyes and a treasure trove of questions, as well as a sense of having been on a unique “journey together”. ECHO moves to so many places and travels in a vortex of time that one could either get lost in the spectacle of or find their way home in.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Nancy Brie

ECHO plays at the Royal Court until 27 July, with further info here.