In the uneasy dog days of Saddam's rule, young soldier Mazen (Moncef Mansur) is awarded a risky mission: to travel to the south of Iraq to find an army deserter and the enigmatic cleric and militiaman, Qudz. Several years later, the new American transition government sends Mazen on exactly the same mission: but now, he must navigate a country torn apart by poverty and war.
It's a neat idea, highlighting the frustrating circularity of Iraq's recent history. Written and directed by the Yard's associate artistic director Tarek Iskander, 'Qudz' also features a predominantly Arabic-speaking cast, and is based in part on the verbatim testimony of ordinary Iraqis.
The production makes good use of The Yard's versatile theatre space, too, turning the stage into a sand-blown desert. And Iskander makes a good attempt to layer the story through music, choreography and video projection – in an evocative early scene, we watch the mythical storyteller Scheherazade begin a tale about a boy who must save Iraq, sending a lion loping across the back wall.
But these techniques are often clumsily employed – a high-octane dance sequence to evoke the first American bombardment just looks messy – and the more realistic scenes feel listless and overlong.