At the 1976 Montreal Olympics the best-ever Polish football team played against the best-ever Iranian football team. This match featured the pivotal Polish players Tomaszewski, Lato and Deyna and for Iran the magnificent Ali Parvin, aka ‘The Sultan’. This clash of talent led to a memorable game with Poland clinching a 3-2 win and going on to win the Silver medal.
Poland 3 Iran 2 uses this match as the ‘book ends’ of an autobiographical tale touching on significant world events such as the long walk of the Polish prisoners from Siberia to Iran during WWII.
‘The setting is perfect…a thought provoking production that goes much deeper than first appears’
The Stage
A continent apart and supporting different teams the game fascinated both Seyf and Dobrowolski. Thirty-five years on, using the match as a backdrop and as a catalyst, the two friends discuss football, revolution, swimming, chess, love and Subbuteo. Poland 3 Iran 2 was a hit at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe where audiences warmed to this universal tale told with the aid of footage from the match, specially created slides, sticker albums and images of their family histories from WWII to the present day.
'A beautiful exploration of boyhood, of family eccentricities, of political resistance and of father-son relationships’
Total Theatre
Generously sprinkled with humour, poignant family tales and frank historical truths, Poland 3 Iran 2 truly captures how much two people from drastically different backgrounds have in common both locally and internationally.
As it tours the country Poland 3 Iran 2 will be presented in its natural setting - in pubs, bars and social clubs rather than theatre spaces. So join Seyf and Dobrowolski in the bar, grab a drink and enjoy a whistle stop tour of monumental historic events sprinkled with banter and bizarre confessions.
‘Pitch-perfect ...a tender cross between a performance lecture, football match, slideshow and art installation … completely won over a packed pub of children and adults alike’
Whatsonstage
‘Poland 3 Iran 2 was one of the best things I’ve seen this year’
Andrew Haydon, Culture Wars
30 Bird is an award winning performance company producing site specific, inter disciplinary work which creates unique experiences for the audience. 30 Bird works with practitioners from various disciplines: architecture, science, the visual arts, dance, music, theatre and film. 30 Bird's work has an international flavour, collaborating with artists and practitioners from as varied a background as the UK, Iran, Germany, Italy, Poland, India, Turkey and Japan. Previous projects include
Chodzenie-Siberia, Plastic (Total Theatre Award nominee), Persian Revolution and
Majnoun.
Poland 3 Iran 2 is supported by The British Council and Iran Heritage Foundation.
