Esme Davis
Stow your tray-table, secure your blindfold and hold out your hands. You are about to step onto a fifteen minute flight that will leave you feeling disorientated, confused, and empowered.
Journey to the West is underpinned by themes of migration, transportation, and displacement. You are led into an unseen room and guided into a spinning chair. You’re given headphones, and the journey begins. As the chair is bumped, shifted and rolled, the audio narrative jumps from scene to scene, the surreal story placing you in a variety of roles and situations which all connect back to a concept of not quite knowing your place, and not being sure of where to call home.
The more forefront element of this piece is the audio track, which begins by situating you on an airplane about to depart. You meet the pilot and the stewardess, you return throughout the story and eventually become the duality that the story hinges on. Voices murmur around you, a child kicks the back of your seat, you’re passed a drink before take off. The sound design is layered and detailed, with talented voice actors and considered sound effects adding complexity and clarity to the environment.
The experience is stepped up an octave as the performer in the room with you explores every possible sensation that can be produced through the unique medium of a spinny chair. People brushing past, turning you, bumping you. You’re passed things, things are taken away, you’re shaken and disoriented, pushed across the room. Not only does it sound like you’re on a plane, you feel like it. However crude this might be at points, it is endlessly playful and joyful.
This show is a remarkable example of what is possible under the label of ‘theatre’. The actual performance space consisted of room with a spinning chair. That was all that was needed – the audio and the physicality was enough to completely change your environment from moment to moment. There is a sentiment of care and kindness that underpins the work. From the gentleness of the voices guiding you through to the satisfying, crispness of the audio. The entire experience is embedded with a dedication to consent; each point of contact is demonstrated before the show starts and there is always the option to stop the experience at any moment.
The themes of travel and homeplace are integrating with a careful subtly, so that whilst you’re experiencing the piece you are completely caught up in the liveness of what is happening, and it isn’t until you think back on the connections between each moment that you fully appreciate the core message. The essence of this piece is the innovation of the form. The moment you sit down you are already confronting themes of blindness, the unknown, consent, and control. What makes this a really beautiful piece is that those themes were then present through the entire arc of the show. Following this, the climax comes as a triumphant moment of assuming your own control and trusting in the path you’ve chosen.
Full of life, joy, and relevance, this short burst of a show will take you on a journey in more ways than you expect.
Recommended Drink: A mimosa, for the flight.
You can catch Journey to the West until from August 4-9 at Arthur Conan Doyle Centre at various times (20mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Lamesha Ruddock
Jasmine Silk
