Reviews

DV8 – Can We Talk About This? (Tour – Salford)

Venue: The Lowry
Where: Salford

This review is from the show’s run at the National Theatre and some casting may have changed.

“This is shit! Islamaphobic shit!” shouts
the man who has just burst into the Lyttleton auditorium. He throws
something – it could be faeces – at the stage. The interruption sends a
jolt through the room. Heads turn. Concentration snaps. The show pauses.

It
must have been staged. The stagehand that appears with a dustpan and
brush is slightly too quick off the mark. The protest itself chimes too
neatly with the material. And yet, I can’t be 100% sure. That doubt
proves the bravery and potency of DV8’s danced documentary on
multiculturalism.

Essentially, it dares to ask whether
tolerance extends to intolerance. More specifically, whether liberal
Western society should grant freedom of expression to those individuals –
particularly individual Muslims – that call for its destruction.

It’s
a skilfully weaved case, constructed mostly from verbatim testimonial
and media transcripts, that argues post-Rushdie, and a long list of
similar attacks on those to have criticised Islam, society has bowed to
threat. That we have become unwilling to assert the moral superiority of
certain values over others fearful of offence or, worse, repercussions.

Turning focus on forced marriage and Sharia law, DV8
maintain that multiculturalism stops short of cultural relativism. It
sounds a bit ‘Britain for British,’ but it’s absolutely not. The one law
for all they advocate can – indeed, must – encompass a cross-cultural
blend.

Lloyd Newson’s
production plunges headlong into this paradox with the wilful
determination of someone forcing their hand into a food disposal unit.
It was always going to be messy. He’s careful to distinguish between
Islam and “some Muslims,” but the absence of any other species of
intolerance leaves the piece disconcertingly prone to manipulation and
misunderstanding; a fact not helped by information overload. (You leave
with a list of further reading and a headful of questions.) It’s a
seriously steely artistic choice. Some will call it foolhardy, but
theatre exists for such acts of public courage.

Verbatim
texts hover above gorgeous choreography, almost dislocated from each
other, but always balanced and integral. The effect is to entrance your
eyes, the better to attune your ears.


Hannes Langolf & Ira Mandela Siobhan in Can We Talk About This?

Performers
start by hopping in sync, from foot to foot, like politically correct
mannequins. As arguments develop, movements grow jagged, complex and
arrhythmic. There are motifs of treading carefully, horses backtracking
and, with regards media debates, boxing glove-puppets trading harmless
blows. The best sequence shows Anne Cryer MP sensibly and carefully
arguing against forced marriage while floating, guru-like, with a cup of
tea in hand.

Kudos to the National for its continued efforts
to make equal partners of theatre and verbatim texts, but the real
credit belongs to DV8 for theatre that demands – requires – a second
viewing. Hold that against it if you will, but I’d rather theatre that’s
too full, too complex and too important for a single sitting any day.

Theatre this potent, this outspoken and this courageous is rare. When it appears, it becomes absolutely necessary viewing.

– Matt Trueman