Kin review: Migration stories vividly told through movement

In physical theatre company Gecko’s show about people crossing borders, the mood shifts from celebration to uncertainty

Vanessa Guevara Flores in physical theatre company Gecko’s ‘Kin’ (Malachy Luckie)

In Kin, by physical theatre company Gecko, people fleeing persecution are transformed by their journeys. In sweeping stage pictures, we see people in fear and relief, working to keep their families together, building and sometimes losing their identities.

And not just those who are fleeing. In the opening scene, a group of dancers come together under a string of lights, starting a party. Gestures become an exuberant folk dance, arms thrown up, feet stamping. As the scene changes, it becomes clear that these are the border guards. Over the course of the show, they choose to open or close doors, to welcome or humiliate people. Dehumanising behaviour cuts both ways.

Director Amit Lahav starts with his own grandmother, who escaped from Yemen to Palestine in 1932. Vanessa Guevara Flores is picked out from a line of people presenting passports, hoping to get through the gate. It’s a moment of terror: she’s pulled out and let go, without understanding why. Around her, puppets represent the adults of her family, towering above her as they share comfort or alarming grown-up fears. “I don’t think I’ll make it,” one says, “but you children will survive.”