With a mission to place more work by East Asian artists on our stages, Chinese Arts Now Festival returns with a line up of digital, dance, theatre, music, comedy and so much more. Debuting last year, CAN 2020 offers a ‘bigger, bolder, and braver celebration of work’ – Nigel Ng’s stand up comedy show Culture Shocked a brilliant addition to this year’s event.
A cutting shrine to an England that never existed, Death of England, examines tormented, terrified masculinity in the wake of a father’s death. Clint Dyer and Roy Williams (Co-Writers) do an excellent job in using this timely confession to muddy the waters of an increasingly polarised world.
Courtesy of Helen Murray.
A star on the rise, Award Winning Comedian Mo Omar has proved himself within the comedy circuit, having taken part in various competitions and events, most notably having performed on Harry Hill’s Clubnite on C4, and the Pleasance Comedy Reserve at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. Making an appearance at this year’s Vault Festival, Mo tells us more about how Canadian-Somalian rapper/poet/singer-songwriter K’naan (known here for his World Cup anthem in 2012 Wavin’ Flag) has inspired him and more!
Within the arts, as well as on a larger scale, we’re beginning to witness conversations on representation and race take centre stage – addressing the fact that for far too long, many stories reflective of our day to day lives have been marginalised and even prevented from making it onto our main stages. An advocate of East Asian stories taking centre stage, playwright Daniel York Loh presents Invisible Harmony, a part spoken word/part dance piece/part film dismantling the many myths we’ve built up here in the West about the East brining untold stories to the fore.
Santi & Naz
Under the rumble of the Waterloo train tracks we meet Santi & Naz, two young girls living in India during pre-partition. These best friends are none the wiser to their political situation and with Santi being Sikh and Naz being Muslim, the threat of separation is approaching. When Naz is introduced to her soon to be much older husband, Santi is concerned for her safety and tries to warn her of the dangers of not just this man but of the violence that is happening all around them. In their childhood fashion they create a plan to escape the marriage which ends in disaster.
An inevitable part of existence, death determines the end of our life cycle; a dark part of our reality that we only tend to discuss in the West post someone’s passing, if we’re comfortable enough in opening up about it. Jaco Van Dormael and Michèle Anne De Mey’s daring exploration of moments leading up to seven character’s demise brings light to the normality and mundanity of life, as well as it’s unpredictability as we have no idea of knowing when our time will come to an end.
Courtesy of Julien Lambert.
The story of migration in some way or other affects us all, whether we’ve directly migrated ourselves or our relatives centuries, decades or years prior have had to make the move from one part of the world to another. A universal theme, migration is a facet of humanity that will continue to impact on many and shape their lives. Exploring this facet of humanity in his latest work for the Royal Opera House, Kibwe Tavares presents Aisha and Abaya – a tale of two sisters seeking refuge away from their war torn homeland.
As the show opens, we are introduced to Jack Morris, an actor. We watch him learn his lines surrounded by photos of his glory days, however, it is not long before we see his frailty.
Courtesy of Ellie Kurttz.
What we’re beginning to witness more of on our stages is the importance of presenting a wide range of stories from various perspectives, and this needs to continue to further enrich the theatre experience. Damilola DK Fashola’s Fragments of a Complicated Mind places the complexity of a black woman’s thoughts centre stage, a culmination of storytelling, direct address, dance and poetry bringing the thoughts and feelings of our protagonist to the fore. Ahead of the show, we spoke to Damilola about how she approached creating the show, responses towards the show’s debut last year at the Omnibus Theatre and Theatre503, and what she’d like for audiences to take away from the show!
The script has moments of brilliance, the performances are nuanced and layered, the soundscapes are brilliant and yet I sit wondering if this is actually any good. It should be, there isn’t a disastrous artistic decision I should slate, but there is a lack of cohesion that leaves the play feeling incomplete, or that’s deliberate?
Courtesy of Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.
