BODIES IN TRANSIT. To 27 August.

Edinburgh

BODIES IN TRANSIT
by Nina Larissa Bassett

Traverse 3 To 27 August 2006
Tue-Sun various times
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS: 0131228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 August

Harsh reality vividly presented.
Next to cannibalism as a way of treating human flesh, the abduction and use of young people (mainly women) for forced sex must be about the most gruesomely inhuman activity there is. And it seems to have exploded with the opening of West-East borders. Teenagers are persuaded to leave their country and connections then forced by threats to themselves and families to have sex to ‘repay’ the costs of transporting them to what they thought would be lands of golden opportunity.

Nina Larissa Bassett’s script for Denmark’s Mucca Divina Theatre Company creates the fictional Lithuanian Marija to stand for these experiences. Impoverished, her lone mother hardly maintaining her own life, a jovial visiting uncle takes her to seeming prosperity in Denmark. The paraphernalia of employment, including contracts and coffee-breaks are there, adding further moral pressure on a naively vulnerable youngster.

Marija’s intended career of beautician is mocked in her experience; scenes where she imagines giving a beauty-demo, happily assertive and in charge, curdle into fantasies of revenge against the brothel-visitors who abuse her. In fact she’s been re-invented as Lola, and is first seen in a police-station where in a mix of trauma and confusion she’s unable to answer questions.

Though Iben Hendel Philipsen gives a fine performance she’s too mature and physically strong to impersonate Marija/Lola. But she clearly demonstrates the young woman’s situation, and those she meets (though sometimes with intrusive mannerisms imposed by the production that seem to do nothing but signal each character over-obviously). For the psychological shock of the experience, the piece can’t outdo Lilya4Ever, Lukas Moodysson’s film treatment of enforced teenage prostitution.

Bodies succeeds best in two areas. First, in cataloguing various types of men Lola is forced to have sex with. Whether sympathetic or rough, it’s clear they have no interest in her. But even more, Bodies makes clear the physical harm of this enforced life. Despite heeding her boss’s warning about using lubricant, the injuries and infections multiply.

Sent home, ‘Lola’ is picked up again by her uncle and passed on as his property. She doesn’t sound surprised; a bleak, realistic conclusion.

Marija: Iben Hendel Philipsen

Director: Lars Hemming
Designer: Sheila Trillingsgaard
Sound: Elton John Theander

2006-08-23 10:05:15