The question of home, its geographical, emotional and political implications, haunts Layla Warren in her solo show Long Way Home. Tracing her life through childhood to the present day – from growing up in Iran during the 1980s war to council flats in West London and trying to make it in the entertainment industry in LA – Warren’s writing is rich with intimate detail, as she attempts to make sense of her place in the world after a life of displacement.
Warren is largely known as a television and entertainment presenter in the US, but Long Way Home showcases her talents for acting: the play largely unfolds as an act of storytelling interrupted by small pre-recorded voices, and it is Warren’s knack for impressions – the warm Persian inflection of her grandmother’s voice, the Valley Girl nasality of Hollywood executives – that prevents the show from becoming too one-note. And while the writing is not always the most subtle, with the structure following the typical beats of migration narratives, the warmth and sincerity with which Warren tells her story, and the parallels drawn between her war-torn childhood and those of children in Iran today, strikes a powerful note.
Long Way Home, Gilded Balloon Patter House, until Aug 31 (not 17, 24), 11.40am