More than "The Events"

Added to the list of dance and theatre performances handed out to producers and journalists attending the British Council’s “Edinburgh Showcase 2013” at the last minute, I might have decided to miss The Actors Touring Company’s “The Events”, had I not noticed that it was inspired by Anders Breivik’s mass murder in Norway in the summer of 2011.
However, Edinburgh-born playwright David Greig, chose not to follow the real incident but instead explored its causes and effects.
For example, in the opening scene, we saw “The Boy”, who introduced himself as an aboriginal, watching three ships from England laden with not just convicts and officers but also “class and religion and disease and a multitude of other instruments of objectification and violence” all unfamiliar to him.
At the end of the scene, Greig wrote, “If you could go back in time and speak to that boy, what would you say? You would stand on the rocks and you would point at the ships and you would say ‘Kill them all. Kill them all’.” This statement was followed by a choral performance.
Those words, of course, caught our attention and held it throughout the entire 90-minute play. The subject remained in my mind throughout the whole day, flashing scenes at me as I watched the four other plays on my schedule.
Just as Breivik’s crime affected one of the most liveable places on Earth and resonated all around the world, director Ramin Gray highlighted the nature of theatre in which the audience can enjoy real-time interaction with the artists by having a different choir perform in the play in every venue the play was staged.
In Edinburgh, the Soweto Melodic Voices shared the stage with British thespians Rudi Dharmalingam and Neve McIntosh who portrayed multiple roles including “The Boy” who murdered choir members, and as the lesbian choir mistress and priest Claire. This juxtaposition, textually and theatrically, added another dimension to the play whose message is already universal and set an example of how the play could be staged elsewhere and connect with the local community.
A plan to bring “The Events”– the winner of the Scotsman Fringe First Award which encourages “performers to bring new work to Edinburgh in the spirit of adventure and experiment”– to India and Myanmar is now in progress. And Thailand, as a normal stopover for Myanmar, can tag along as part of this first Asian tour.
While multiculturalism and racism may not be a major social issue here, we’re at a point in history in which differences can trigger, and have already caused, violence. Hence “The Events” will be as relevant here as in many cities. Also, theatre artists and students can witness first-hand a very contemporary British play that is small in scale but not minor in its significance.
Staging it here will also send a message to foreign embassies and cultural institutions who prefer to bring us non-verbal performances, believing that Thai audiences cannot understand their spoken languages.

The writer’s trip to Edinburgh Showcase was supported by the British Council.

More “Events”

 The first German-language |production of “The Events” opened last Friday at the Schauspielhaus Wien, in Vienna, Austria. The original production has been touring the UK and will be in Plymouth from t|omorrow to Saturday.
For more information, visit www.ACTTheatre.com and the “Actors Touring Company” |page at Facebook.