Review: The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes at the Arcola Theatre

The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes
Arcola Theatre
Reviewed on Tuesday 29th July 2014
★★★

A piece of theatre about identity and immigration, The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes is a relevant new play centring around Iraqi refugee Salim (Nabil Elouahabi) who flees persecution in Baghdad to begin a new life. He marries a British woman and attempts to settle into day to day life as a British man, but is severely haunted by his past.

Rashid Razaq’s cleverly constructed play is performed out of sequence, allowing the audience to slowly piece together the true extent of the situation. We first meet Salim (who renames himself Carlos Fuentes) as a seemingly content man, handcuffed to a bed by his promiscuous British wife Lydia (Caroline Langrishe), but as the show progresses we see Carlos unravel.

Never leaving the stage, Elouahabi gives a fine performance as tormented Carlos. He performs with warmth and charm, but also excels during grittier moments. Razaq’s writing is naturally funny and easy to absorb whilst Nicolas Kent’s production is smartly staged at the Arcola Theatre.

The first two scenes (particularly the second which sees Salim visit a case worker) are superb and contain moments of comical gold, but perhaps the bar is set too high as the piece eventually loses its momentum. With a speedy running time of seventy-five minutes, scenes don't drag but the original magic is eventually lost. 

Issues are also highlighted between scenes when footage of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama is projected onto the back wall, complimenting the piece nicely. Whilst The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes beholds moments of light relief and explores some relevant, eye opening issues, it is the inconsistent tone which holds it back.

Reviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)

The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes runs at the Arcola Theatre until Saturday 16th August 2014.

Please visit www.arcolatheatre.com for further information and tickets. 

Photo Credit:  Judy Goldhill 

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