Art imitates life for Afghan actor in professional debut
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Reza Momenzada arrived in Australia in 2000 by boat after leaving his home in Afghanistan.
“I was caught in a war zone myself,” Mr Momenzada told SBS News, descriningthe moment he fled.
“The whole neighbourhood was asleep, it happened past midnight. I remember I was very young.
“A bomb was dropped probably less than 100 metres away from our house.”
Eighteen years later and now living in Sydney, the 31-year-old actor is playing the character of Hamed Mokri – a character eerily similar to himself- in the Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s ‘he Sound of Waiting.
“I was in a boat similar to Hamed,” Mr Momenzada said.
“The only thing that I didn’t experience that Hamed has is the loss of a child.
“A lot of his journey is what I’ve gone through and what a lot of asylum seekers go through.”
Mr Momenzada draws upon his own harsh experiences throughout the play.
“It’s powerful, he speaks from the middle of a warzone where a bomb has gone off.
“He’s there with pieces of people around him.
“That’s how Hamed’s journey starts.”
Abbott, displacement and resilience
Centered on a refugee’s experience, ‘The Sound of Waiting’ explores hope and survival.
Reza Momenzada plays alongside Sydney Theatre Award nominee Gabrielle Scawthorn, who plays the Angel of Death.
Playwright Mary Anne Butler’s plot line was written in response to Tony Abbott’s 2010 comment: “Jesus knew there was a place for everything, and it’s not everyone’s place to come to Australia.”
“My plays all start with a kind of bolt of lightning to my chest, and I had a bolt of lightning to my chest at that moment,” Ms Butler told SBS News.
“I felt very angry frankly that somebody would use their personal religion to justify policies.”
It took Ms Butler one year to write, during that time she did a lot of research and spoke to many asylum speakers who shared their story with her.
“I looked at a lot of laws, anecdotes, films, read reports, looked at statistics, but the turning points were my conversations with people,” Ms Butler said.
“Their personal stories were gut wrenching.
“Not just necessarily about the passage, also about their treatment once they reached this country.”
With just two characters, the story follows Hamed as he deals with grief, escape plans and false documentation.
Immersive experience
Director Suzanne Pereira portrays the story through clever projection.
“From the very beginning when I got this play, I said I want the audience to come in and I want them to be inside this world,” Ms Pereira said.
“They’re not watching the story of Hamed and the Angel, they’re actually in the world with them.
“We have a beautiful scape of video projection that runs right the way through the play and a beautiful sound scape.”
The Sound of Waiting will play from Thursday 5 April – Sunday 22 April at Eternity Playhouse in Sydney.
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