Ballerina by Khaos Theatre - ★★☆☆☆

Week Two of the Vaults Festival 2023 gives us The Ballerina. A production by artist-led theatre company Khaos which first debuted at Theatrelab New York City in early 2019.

The immersive play written by Anne-Sophie Marie and directed by James Barnes, explores the aftermath of Colonial rule in an unnamed African country and the impact of Western foreign policy. The show follows an African diplomatic class within Africa, with the fallacies of Democracy at the core of the discussion. The audience are invited to question their beliefs on the aforementioned whilst interrogating how the West have approached their own ideas of Democracy. 

Based on a true story, the show uses African protagonist and interrogator Pacifique Muamba from an unnamed independent African French colony and his imprisoned French diplomat Colin to shed light on the reality of global politics. Colin, who is thrown into a cell (which we the audience share with her) is accused of conspiring to overthrow their government through the means of a peaceful and artistic protest.

Experimenting with Antonin Artund’s Theatre of Cruelty (which aims to create an intense theatrical experience shocking the audiences’ senses through gesture, sound and lighting) the intention is to utilise this technique to confront the audience and challenge their preconceptions - in this case, the perception of the Wests’ supposedly civilised values.

However, the show felt apologetic in its approach, despite being perfectly set in the dark dungeon, that is the underground stage of the Vaults. With the not so distant noise of Waterloo Station trains just above our heads, the bare stage set in traverse seemed perfect to tell this story of “Democracy vs. Anarchy” and immerse the audience in an exploration of Post colonial rule.

Unfortunately, the traverse staging and hum of life above our heads that could have added to the feeling of imprisonment and torture became an impediment. The quietly intense political to-and-fro taking place between the two protagonists though masterful, was often lost and the performances too intimate and centralised on stage to those of us sat at either ends. The Director’s choice to include additional masked characters added little to the foreboding ambiance they attempted to create, calling into question the “immersive” element of the show. 

Performances by the interrogator and the imprisoned diplomat played by Edward Nkom and Dominque Izabella Little, were strong in both accent work and commitment to their story lines with Nkom’s wit being a welcome break to the long and drawn out interrogation scenes. The choice not to ground the story in a specific country allowed room for some illuminating ideas around the relationship between the West and it’s footprint in Africa. However, the lack of specificity around the nation and the scarce information on who these two characters were and how they arrived at this moment caused the brutality depicted to feel inconsequential to the points being made. 

The Ballerina is a solid attempt to address the colossal matter of how Nations are coping post colonialism, and calls into question the ways in which the West have previously and continue to force their stance down the throats of African countries they once colonised. Unfortunately, with insufficient grounding in human truth to buttress the stakes, the play seems to bite off more than it can chew with techniques and styles that subtract rather than add to its storyline.

You can catch The Ballerina showing at The Vaults until 05 February.