THEATRE / Everyday Life After The Great Revolution II/ A Stop In The Desert - ICA, London SW1 / Watermans Centre, Brentford
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Polish company Akademia Ruchu produces work closer to visual art than theatre. Everyday Life After The Great Revolution II is a response to political and social change in Poland using five actors and four large glass screens. In one sequence the actors paper the screens with scraps of political posters; in another they jostle between them before smashing the glass that imprisons them. But for all its crispness of style, Akademia Ruchu's social tragedy is without a whiff of humanity.
Grupa Chwilowa's A Stop In The Desert is, by contrast, irresistibly intimate. It is performed in Russian by two Russian actors who first appear selling tat in the foyer, just as loathed Russian emigres do in Poland today. To confront such hatred is part of the company's political agenda to use theatre to build bridges between cultures. Later, the performers, an actor and his wife, invite audience members on stage to dance and drink vodka in celebration of the actor's birthday. It makes a mockery of British theatre-going reserve, and simply dramatises the process of making friends across a cultural divide.
Everyday Life: To 17 Sept (071-930 3647). Stop in the Desert: To 19 Sept. (081-568 1176).
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments