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Talking Shop Productions in association with Park Theatre presents the World Premiere of

Ostan

By Arzhang Pezhman

Directed by Gaby Dellal

Rebin 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.  

Work is the local hand carwash, under the nurturing eye of the manager, Destan, an Iranian-Kurd. The Iranian bit helps because the owner, Shapur, is very proud of his Persian roots. 

Play is online gaming with friend Noah, a truck driver and loyal customer of the carwash. Though maybe not so loyal on the virtual battlefield. 

Indefinite Leave to Remain is Gorkem. New worker, fresh off the boat. A Turkish-Kurd who claims to be the grandson of the Kurdish freedom fighter, Apo Ocalan. 

Rebin, an Iraqi-Kurd with no safe passage home, just sees history repeating itself. While he stays true to his story and stuck in the system, he’s seen half a dozen like Gorkem make their way through the carwash, claiming heroic tales of escape, securing indefinite leave to remain and moving on with their lives.  

Rebin has heard it all before. 

That is until the boss, Shapur, proposes using the struggling business as a front for a human trafficking enterprise. Smuggling immigrants into the country in the boots of the carwash client’s cars. 

Rebin’s routine is about to be shattered. Indefinitely. 

Praise for previous works by Arzhang Pezhman:

‘Somersaulting dialogue… a red-blooded creature thrashing with real-life passions and concerns of its own’ The Guardian on Local

★★★★ ‘Excellent and provocative’ Birmingham Post and Mail on Bolt-Hole 

‘Dark but at times highly amusing’ The Stage on Gravity

‘A visceral intelligence’ Exeunt Magazine on For Their Own Good with Untied Theatre

Artwork by Emma Park.