This is a highly dynamic physical theatre piece which is beautifully performed by a female company of 5 actor/dancers and two live musicians in a highly choreographed polemic set about the oppression of women in work. The landscape is the polluted, industrialised Mexico-US border lands where labour is cheap, and women are exploited and routinely subjugated by the system, the police and the capitalists. A group of adolescent children play as their mothers endure factory drudgery and 35 pesos a day breadline work. The ensemble work is both thrilling and engaging with set piece emotional body expression particularly powerful and probably on its own a compelling reason to seei this show.
The live music is provided by percussionist Haruna Komatsu and singer/guitar strummer Shamira Turner who also embodies the fat cat hierarchy of boss, police officer, major and presidents. The lead is the convincing Milagros Tamsin Clarke - child of the streets and the protagonist who sets out on a mission of blind vengeance against the oppressors. The lighting is excellent and atmospheric and the Tolmen stage ideal in its scale and intimacy to capture the action and dance. Costumes also excellent- including the uniforms of factory workers and the demeanour of Mexican women.
We've hear Trump bewailing the bad deal that NAFTA has been for the US but here we encounter the real raw deal that the women and children in border Mexico have at the hands of the exploitative gringo companies who base their manufacturing operations in low wage Mexico. The "Bucket List" which is the production's title whose tour following an 2016 Edinburgh Fringe success is produced by Battersea Arts Centre, turns out to be the "hit list" of capitalist targets that the oppressed daughter of a murdered mother and raped and beheaded aunt sets out in pursuit of The subject matter is raw, the delivery is convincing seen through the eyes of Mexican pueblo children playing in the shanty town streets - the movement and the characterisation in the kids rough and sometimes violent play is a highlight.
Unfortunately the plot's messages get a bit mixed and the narrative enters the fantastical realm oscillating unevenly between eco-warrior story, a fight against brutal female suppression, chess as a means of redemption, a fairly naive political commentary and the polluting evils of globalisation. The meld of ideas mixes China Syndrome/Erin Brockovich/Los Amores Perros and the equalising violence of Death Wish. It therefore ceases to convince and that affects the integrity of the plot.
A simple story brings in a detritus of issue based sub plots the narrative loses coherence and leaves the audience sceptical and ogres become cliches.
Written by the company's co-artistic director Nir Paldi, this Bristol based company has a convincing international feel, and its great to see politics and protest viscerally and aggressively portrayed on stage by a compelling company...there are moments of considerable raw grief, distress and emotion captured painfully in the production, so while entertaining it is not always a comfortable ride.
Great performances by Deborah Pugh as Jenny/Maria; Vasilij by Luisa Guerreiro and Tamsin Clarke as the protagonist...but its not right to pick em out this was a company in great shape making great theatre.
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