In ‘Nassim,’ a playwright bonds with his audience

By Rich Fahey

BOSTON – Slowly, but surely, playwright Nassim Soleimanpour will earn our trust. And, with it, create a unique theatrical experience that bridges East and West.

In The Huntington’s production of “Nassim,” now at the Calderwood Pavilion of the Boston Center for the Arts until Oct. 27, the native of Iran who now lives in Germany is on a quest to make new friends.

He has an indispensable partner in his quest: A person at each show whom he has never met before but will be entrusted to carry out instructions that will help Soleimanpour tell his story while also helping him to connect with audience members.

At a recent performance, that partner was Karen MacDonald, an award-winning actor and one of the leading lights in the world of Boston theater for decades. She joined a list that has already included well-known actors such as Celeste Oliva and Kenneth Cheeseman, Jared Bowen of GBH-TV, actress /playwright Melinda Lopez, and Armando Rivera  of Teatro Chelsea.

Soleimanpour has created several ingenious ways to draw us into his world, and we in the audience will speak some words in Farsi, the Persian language spoken in Iran, try to remember a few phrases,  and – in the end—MacDonald will tell a simple story in Farsi that rings true.

As “Nassim” opens, the special guest performer opens an envelope and starts reading, unrehearsed, the first page of the script. The text then gets projected onto a screen at the back of the stage for the audience to follow along, as a pair of hands (which turn out to be Soleimanpour’s) flip the pages.

MacDonald began reading pages of scripts that often contained prompts — such as bringing gifts to the stage — and questions, many of which the audience shouted answers to, that helped the audience get to know MacDonald and Soleimanpour better.

It will take some coaxing by MacDonald – and the audience members – to bring Soleimanpour onto the stage, where we will be able to attach a face to the dancing fingers that were flipping the pages.

It was director Omar Elerian who was able to convince the playwright to take the stage himself as part of the production.

A good portion of the show is devoted to  MacDonald learning enough to tell a simple tale in Farsi to someone back in Iran – a poignant moment, since none of Soleimanpour’s plays have ever been produced in Iran.

Along the way, she and Soleimanpour will learn much about each other, swapping cellphone photos and favorite foods, with the playwright – who makes it a goal to learn new English words at ever performance – successfully plying her for her favorite English swear word, and later finding a way to deftly and humorously include it in the production.

At one point, three audience members will be called on stage to demonstrate their facility – or lack of it – in memorizing and speaking simple phrases in Farsi.

Slowly but surely, the connections between the playwright, his stage partner and the audience strengthen, built largely around  the theme of language, and how it can work to both unite and divide us. Soleimanpour tells us through the script (translated from Farsi) of his efforts to learn to read Farsi. If he failed to read a word or mispronounced it during his lessons with his mother, she would make him eat a tomato, a fate that befalls one of the volunteers from the audience learning the language.

The 75 minutes of “Nassim” are filled with  a series of simple pleasures, good-hearted and meaningful, combining to become both a cultural primer and a celebration of all the ways we are all human, always seeking to make new connections.

The Huntington production of “Nassim.” Play by Nassim Soleimanpour. Directed by Omar Elerian. At the Calderwood Pavilion of the Boston Center for the Arts through Oct. 27. Tickets from $29. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org