UPROOTED is the latest show from Ephemeral Ensemble, the theatre collective behind the award-winning REWIND. Marking the troupe’s return to the New Diorama Theatre, UPROOTED is yet more proof that theatre can be more than entertainment, it can serve as a powerful work of protest.
Despite Ephemeral Ensemble being known for their bold, political performances, there is a disarming friendliness to the way that UPROOTED opens. Dancer-choreographer Vanessa Guevara Flores’s description of her homeland in Mexico blends the passionate proclamations of a spoken word poem with the comfortable spontaneity of folk storytelling. She explains that it was a place of community and living in harmony with the Earth, but that this culture no longer exists.
UPROOTED then whirls the audience into the rainforests and barrios of Latin America through the use of simple but immersive production. Communal rubbish bins and plastic sheeting are transformed into homes and rivers. Lights, haze, and multi-instrumentalist Alex Paton’s sound compositions create a landscape that is equally vibrant and disorienting, as industrial as it is tropical. While Ephemeral Ensemble are not the first troupe to do this, the way in which the production expresses home and displacement, pillage and exploitation, anger and loss, creates a visually stunning work of art. More than that, it is a provocative cry from the people whose lands are being displaced and exploited.
The question is, will the right people hear that cry? There is no shortage of heartbreak and horror in the show, forcing the audience to face some uncomfortable truths, but might an Ephemeral Ensemble audience already be sympathetic to global inequality? What about the targets of the performance’s rage, the mega corporations and politicians? How does the message reach those with the power to enact change?
It is a question that is answered by the end of the show. As the troupe make use of the auditorium’s layout to shatter the fourth wall and turn the audience into props, into the set itself, it becomes increasingly clear that the anger is meant for the audience to hear.
The message, it would seem, is that UPROOTED is about more than just displacement in Latin America. It is about here and now, a displacement that affects the audience too, because they are part of the harmonious world UPROOTED is hoping to preserve. Most importantly, Ephemeral Ensemble reminds the audience that by taking UPROOTED’s message and amplifying it beyond the New Diorama Theatre’s walls, the audience gains the power to enact change.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
