Mr. K and the Flowers

By: Nassim Soleimanpour

Narrated by: Maz Jobrani, Simon McBurney, Urs Jucker, Golshifteh Farahani, Nassim Soleimanpour

Length: 1 hr and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

From the inventive mind of experimental playwright Nassim Soleimanpour comes Mr. K and the Flowers, a deftly written and deeply evocative existential mystery.

It’s the middle of the night in Tehran when Michael arrives at the apartment of his ex-girlfriend, Shima. He finds her anxiously awaiting a mysterious visitor and fears he’s interrupted a tryst, only to gradually learn that the truth is much stranger and more sinister.

What follows is a series of cunning detours in this atmospheric and elusive odyssey that challenges expectations and assumptions at every turn.

Playwright Nassim Soleimanpour was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible-commissioned playwright, he received funding and creative support to develop Mr. K and the Flowers.

Sound design by Mikhail Fiksel

Directed by Danya Taymor

©2024 Nassim Soleimanpour (P)2024 AO Media LLC

No fun for people who are hard of hearing

I really really tried. But had such a difficult time hearing things, or having things blow out my ears. I have to use a hearing aid in one ear. And I spent more time trying to regulate it. Headphones, no headphones. Not enjoyable.
I wish I could enjoy this. What I did hear sounded very intriguing. I just wish it wasn’t such a struggle.

Hard to listen to on many levels

I tried to like it and listened to the whole thing but I struggled. As an audiobook this is not an easy listen. Most difficult was screaming followed by whispering made for a very painful experience. Also difficult was the overlapping ‘background and between the lines’ speech over dialogue.

Story was hard to follow and I’m sure I missed some nuances but I feel like I missed a lot since I don’t speak Farsi. I’m actually German so I could understand all of the German dialogue and I think listeners who don’t missed out (just the lyrics of the children’s song were pertinent in my opinion). I did not live this even though I tried.

Tow random stories

just pass. it's two short random stories that you would think would tie together at the end but they don't. the stories themselves don't stand on their own either... they're like a couple of chapters from books so there's no context. waste of time

Not my cup of tea

The first part of the book/story could have been something meaningful if continued, time to look for something new

Interesante

Hubiera dado más estrellas si la historia continuara y se entretejieran. Aún así, fue entretenida por un día. Los actores excelentes

Disjointed stories, not for me.

Pretentious intellectual writing. The non-story story was impossible to follow, the reader was ok, but English readers sometimes have an elitist element to their interpretation. Just not my taste for casual listening.

Unusual format

It was like black box theatre on audio or old time radio, I liked it, no visual just my imagination

Very niche material, if that's your thing

The narration is good, and I enjoyed the old-timey radio feel of the analog effects and plot devices. That being said, the incredibly condescending tone that is used with zero pushback by the male characters is hard to listen to. Not for me

Thought provoking but bleak

I enjoyed the experimental structure but the narratives were so nihilistic that I ended up liking the piece far less than I expected.

Didn’t quite make the grade

I liked the two short stories, however there were so many unanswered questions. It’s like the writers had an outline, but didn’t flesh out the rest of the stories. The narrator and all his explanations were completely useless nonsense and didn’t add to the stories. Overall I think I was generous in giving it a 3. I would not recommend it.