English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins recently Tweeted, “A quartet knowing not a word of each other’s languages can sit down together and make beautiful music. How come musical notation is so much more universal than language?” He soon drew ire from commenters pointing out that the four hypothetical quartet members have simply been trained in the traditions of Western music notation. Whether or not you consider it a work of genius, the score to a Beethoven String Quartet is no more universal – in fact, probably less so – than the instructions to a piece of flat pack IKEA furniture.

Palmyra. Photo © Alex Brenner

It’s the assumption of Western cultural universality – and therefore superiority – that Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas attack in their two-hander Palmyra, which has been touring the world since its wild success at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe. Not long after ISIS was removed from the city of Palmyra – having destroyed the temples and looted the tombs of what was one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world – Valery Gergiev conducted the Mariinsky Orchestra on the amphitheatre where ISIS staged its executions. It was...