RWANDA PERFORMANCE

A high energy and impassioned performance, this piece saw actors Megan Sharman, Ilaria Smiderle and Grace Durbin work all of the stage space, before cutting it across repeatedly with red ropes and punctuating it with paper flags of words culled from the sparse performance text. Set simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, the transversal location of this play by Hope Azeda of Mashirika Performing Arts brought together multiple stories and global perspectives of child abuse, and the long tendrils of trauma.

Impressionistic and visceral, this piece combined video narratives with recorded and live music, spoken word and contemporary dance to replicate a sense of fear, pursuit and lack of resolution for the victims. There was no attempt to disguise or blend the moves between sequences, rather the theatrical processes were highlighted in this piece, the performers never becoming characters, but rather, self-consciously using their voices and bodies to amplify the narratives of others.