For Mani Soleymanlou, the man behind solo drama One, national identity is a complex issue.

At five-years-old, his liberal parents fled the Ayatolloh’s Islamic Republic of Iran to Paris, followed by moves to Toronto, Quebec and Montreal.

All this reluctant emigrating left the performer conflicted, confused and irritated – with fellow school pupils’ failure to understand who he was, and with himself for not truly knowing his deeply troubled homeland.

He played the Chameleon immigrant child desperate to fit in but disconnected from his Persian roots, echoes only coming from his parent’s language and food.

At Brighton Dome’s Studio Theatre Soleymanlou’s childlike narrative was initially linear [“Next scene!”] but erratically filled in with layers of context.

On holiday in Iran he and his siblings were forbidden to smile, his mother solemnly shrouding herself in the oppressive veil.

Dropped into multilingual rants of consciousness were jibes at the refusal to acknowledge homosexuality in his homeland.

The protests over the disputed election victory of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 were laced with vivid tragedy as innocent peers were slaughtered.

Conflict, humour and intimacy characterise this love letter to Iran right up until the finale – a moving plea that Iran be freed from oppression and dogma, a utopia he admits exists only in the imagination.