I Said This to The Bird

A small gesture of feeding a little bird through an open window inspires a yearning for friendship and love for a lonely refugee man. I Said This to The Bird is written by Mammad Aidani (poet, philosopher, and writer in exile from his homeland in Iran), as he investigates the diasporic anxieties of four Iranian men (for this production, a woman performs one of the male roles) during the pandemic crisis in Melbourne.

Set in a Migrant Resource Centre, the characters enter separately, as strangers - each seat themselves on one of the four chairs in the room. Four consummate actors, Reza Kaviani, Sepideh Karimi, Faraz Safari, Mohammad (Ramin) Montazeri Kordi, perform in collaboration with their writer Aidani. They are powerful performers who deliver insightful, and nuanced character studies of exiled detainees in Nauru, now finding themselves trapped by lockdown.

They reveal disparate emotions, express a yearning for friendship and to be rid of isolation with a desire to learn to live again as real people, in a real world. One man tells of calling his mother in Iran; when he hears his uncle has died from Covid, he realises his family and country of birth are no longer part of his life as a refugee. 

Trawling through social media chews up time, but to be cut off from people can be crippling socially and mentally. They all have spent time writing thoughts on paper to make sense of their imposed loneliness and yet frustration resides deep in their soul. One man feels a displacement with his own people when he recalls celebrating with song and dance in the local Iranian community. There is difficulty for him to understand what it means to be a migrant in a new country; a place where he has no history.

There is bravery in their outbursts revealing, a hunger for life; yet a disclaiming and reclaiming of their personal identities as they grapple with their past lives and how Covid has revealed a new realisation and hopefully a happy new beginning.

And as for the hungry bird who came visiting the lonely refugee man, the bond grew strong, and the encounter developed into a friendship that was real and honest.

I Said This to The Bird is performed in Persian. There are English transcripts for English speaking audiences to follow along, or read before and or after the show available at the door.

Flora Georgiou

Photographer: Darren Gill