“Tummers and fellow actors Evgenia Brendes, Gustav Koenigs, Sachli Gholamalizad and Mokhallad Rasem regularly interrupt the film they are re-enacting with witty asides and an inspired game with reality and fiction.”

“With great zest and asides, prejudices are revealed between cultures and classes both within the story and the reality of the actors’ ensemble.” 

“STAN is committed to sharing its long experience as a collective with young makers and actors, partly by actively supporting their work. And so on stage we see Scarlet Tummers, Evgenia Brendes, Gustav Koenigs, Sachli Gholamalizad and Mokhallad Rasem in a clever adaptation of the film that also bears the unmistakable STAN stamp.”

“What director Tummers shows with this construction in which you recognize  STAN’s formal minimalism and reflective distance vis-à-vis the script, is how our perception is never neutral. Just as the actors project those conflicting views of ‘their’ film, so too we allow ourselves to be led by prejudices with the reconstruction of the reality behind the scenes. That is pretty much the bottom line in this intelligent play, which converts the silver screen to a blank sheet of paper in which the actors hold up a mirror to each other and to the audience. Perhaps the many parallel lines will really come into their own later in the run – what a challenge for the actors! – but as an amusing and thought-provoking exercise A Separation is more than successful.”

“A Separation starts off as a courtroom drama, then homes in on the crux of the play, which initially revolves around the characters portrayed by Evgenia Brendes, Sachli Gholamalizad and Mokhallad Rasem. That triangle is superb. Moreover, the actors raise each other’s game so that the whole feels much more than the sum of its parts. Towards the end, the characters played by Scarlet Tummers and Gustav Koenigs really get into their stride so that what you see is a perfect synergy with all the elements reinforcing one another.”

“However, the play is sharper and funnier than purely a reconstruction of the film. Indeed, as a spectator, you instinctively find yourself not only interested in the plot of the film, but also increasingly sucked into the conflicts between the actors. You start to believe in them, forgetting that this is a performance and that the actors are presenting a slight caricature of who they really are. Consequently you regularly fall into the trap of your own biases and prejudices. Until the actors draw your attention to them again. (…) All that makes ‘A Separation’ a challenging and at the same time witty production.”