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Red Forest

  • Theatre, Drama
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

There’s no doubt that Belarus Free Theatre is among the most courageous theatre companies in the world. But bravest is not necessarily best and its work often depends on its outlaw status for its authenticity.

Which is to say that ‘Red Forest’, a meditation on myth and refugees around the world, derives much of its power from being performed by people who are, in effect, in exile from their own country, where they are banned from performing and where Alexander Lukashenko runs Europe’s last dictatorship.

The stage is a strip of sand with water on either side. Above, the horizon is beamed on to a panoramic projection screen. Each location, from Liberia to São Paolo, and Belarus itself, is evoked by its skyline. Each is – was – home to a group of people forced out, by floods or by fighting, by colonialism or corporate invasions, even by nuclear fallout. Wherever they’re from and whatever they’re fleeing, as the voiceover puts it bluntly, ‘there is no going back’.

As such, ‘Red Forest’ is largely concerned with connection to one’s homeland. An American Indian, turfed out of the Turtle Island reserve, preaches an ancestral connection to place, while an ever-present mother figure (Michal Keyamo), always cradling her newborn child, battles on from place to place, living a temporary life beset by troubles. An ensemble become soldiers and rapists, fishermen and tourists. They do a lot of ‘crowd acting.’

Accompanied by Arkadiy Yushin’s live, panpipe-heavy soundtrack, verbatim testimonials float in via voiceover. There’s a definite touch of the Benetton adverts about all this and it trips into sentimentality. While these human stories are undeniably powerful, the show’s own impotence is inescapable. ‘Red Forest’ doesn’t require anything of its audience. It doesn’t charge us to act, just to sit, watch and sympathise. And that’s simply not enough.

More on LIFT 2014

Details

Event website:
www.youngvic.org
Address:
Price:
£10-£19.50. Runs 1hr 30mins (no interval)
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