ALLADEEN. To 6 December.
London/Tour
ALLADEEN
conceived by Keith Khan, Marianne Weems, Ali Zaidi and Martha Baer
Moti Roti and The Builder's Association at Barbican Theatre To 26 July 2003
7.45pm
Runs 1hr 15min No interval
TICKETS: 0845 120 7511 (booking fee)
www.barbican.org.uk (lower booking fee)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 July
A superb show - light and witty, yet serious - deftly and unselfishly performed. Digital images hopping all over the place, voices anonymised by overt amplification: such things usually announce the death of drama. Take it from one in whom terms like 'Robert Wilson' and 'Peter Sellars' can induce instant depressive fits this is a wonderful show. It has a point and makes it unpretentiously yet vividly.
Its creators have done their research and absorbed it into the action. Technology doesn't overwhelm people, either on stage or in the subject matter. A reserved directness creates the sense of wonder Robert Lepage (who follows later in this year's Barbican International; Theatre Event - BITE) achieves, rather than the self-importance of some American posturers er, significant theatre artists.
Ever rung up to book travel tickets, or utilise your route-finder subscription? Ever suffered cold-call 'phonings trying to sell you banking, insurance anything? Ever thought the Joey or Monica on the line might not be that person's real monicker at all; that they're actually Sitya or well, not sitting in Britain or America, but a South Asian call-centre? We meet several such, and their trainer, on screen, while live action tutoring in American pronunciation plays against parallel video instruction, actor and image instructors' arm gestures eerily coinciding.
Personal problems - linguistic difficulties, credit card debt flicker out from their programmed calling, none more than the operative with a standard 132 seconds to book a client's air-tickets. He lives in Silicon Valley, and the tantalising hope she grabs on to - there could be a job for her there too - slips away as she can't admit she's in India. Personal hopes, occupational lies and a job to do create their own 2 minute tragedy.
These Asians become customised pseudo-Americans, given invented biographies for their US personas. They drill American geography and climate, the rules of baseball, US accents into themselves. And soap operas, from which they create ideals the cast's video faces keep metamorphosing into characters from Friends.
Then there's the London karaoke bar. Throughout, the Aladdin's cave of material prosperity ironically underlies the action. If there's a false note it's the electronic banners pushing the links to Aladdin. We make enough connections in this sad yet exhilarating cross-section of economy-muddied cultures.
Performers:
Rizwan Mirza, Heaven Phillips, Tanya Selvaratnam, Jasmine Simhalen, Jeff Webster
Director: Marianne Weems
Designers: Keith Khan, Ali Zaidi
Lighting: Jennifer Tipton, Allen Hahn
Video systems design: Peter Flaherty
Video associate: Jeff Morey
Video (Bangalore): Peter Norrman, Ali Zaidi
3d animation design: James Gibbs, Eric Schuldenfrei
Dinovision inventor: Rick Kjeldsen
Sound: Dan Dobson
Music: Shrikanth Sriram
Dramaturg: Norman Frisch
Associate dramaturg: Charlotte Stoudt
2003-07-23 14:15:46