SOUNDS FROM HERE

Supported by the Israeli Embassy and Tararam- The South African Israeli cultural fund.

Emotions were intense at opening of the only international show at this year’s Musho! Theatre Festival. (Review by Shika Budhoo)

Staff of the Catalina Theatre, organizers of the festival, patrons to the festival, crew, director and cast were all visibly tense as the Israeli show, Sounds From Here, began preparation for their first performance. A small group of protestors gathered outside the Catalina, carefully monitored by the SAPS, shouting slogans and waving banners in defiance of the Israeli government. After this shaky start to the evening - when every audience member was made fully aware of the inescapable nature of politics - we left the theatre somewhat confused as to reason for the protest because the show, Sounds From Here, was rather a personal story of life and lifestyle.

It was a unique experience for me as I was made truly aware of the personal and political ties that facilitate our existence. The protest (sort of an unwanted pre-show event), I must mention, made me fully aware of the principals of protection, desperation, conflict, security, fear and hope. The production explored all these ideologies and more. So, in a sense, what may have appeared as a ‘conflict’ start to this show, in a strange way enhanced my viewing of it and pushed me to think harder about what the presentation of this piece of theatre involved and its outcome.

It was not ‘just’ a piece of theatre. It had immediate links to the world around it and, with the tense environment, it made it more an awareness piece - which for me, was exactly what the piece, Sounds From Here, was about. Awareness! However, it was not about political awareness, but rather SELF-awareness…

Sounds From Here is a strictly post-modern piece of theatre that may have left the usual theatregoer alienated by its sheer presentation. The one-woman show, performed by Rasha Jahshan, a Palestinian performer from Nazareth, and directed by Israeli-Italian Dorit Weintal presented the awareness of one woman amidst the changes that are inevitable. Changes in environment, in body, and in thought. Jahshan’s character explored the constant re-evaluation one has to undergo in order to survive, and the push and pull of the psyche that affects all areas of life. A psyche that had been affected and afflicted with an existence plagued with the fact that a truly personal experience can never completely be shared.

A physical theatre piece, Sounds From Here, is spoken in Arabic and Hebrew, with a live English translation voice-over. There is no ‘story’ (progression) as such but, as in a true post-modern work, it comes specifically from one point of view, told using various techniques and open to a host of interpretations. In this performance, it was evident that Jahshan broke many barriers, theatre and personal. The element of childhood and development was a strong personal component. It was both an emotional piece of theatre- as the intensity of the performance was sterling - as well as a didactic piece of theatre -if you allowed yourself to be spurred by the impetus of the images, words, movements and unconventional visuals offered.

With her voice, entire body expression and her relation to the ‘almost’ empty stage, Jahshan was able to transform moment to moment in her performance, expressing the changes in thought and emotion exceptionally well. Her energy was slow and steady when need be, and fast and frenetic when intensity built. Lighting was a vital component to this piece of work as the choice of colours, the level of light spillage and the transformation of spaces were brilliantly conveyed completely complimenting the experience. The piece was ‘dark’ in nature from the beginning with Jahshan lying on the ground, resembling an injured patient in a hospital ward (with an innovative drip as part of props and set included) to the end when she is exhausted from giving so much of herself and collapses in the same position as the starting image. The scene during which she searches for the light in darkness and as she finds it, it disappears, struck many a chord in the common notion “looking for the light”, a concept I’m sure all can relate to.

The piece embraces the techniques of Bertolt Brecht, in that many devices of alienation were explored, i.e. making the audience fully aware of their presence as onlookers, calling on them to be part of the action, when Jahshan climbs her way through the auditorium of people in the audience and the physical contact she makes with certain audience members amongst other techniques. Brechtian techniques asks for the audience to look on and learn and feel alienated, but in some way have a connection to the secular message portrayed in a way that propels action in thought or behaviour.

Sounds From Here explores the constant jump between public and private space. In both private and public, the questions of what is allowed, what is prohibited, what is needed, what is discarded… what is and what isn’t? They are questions that we are constantly faced with, the need to understand and make sense of that we are fed and what we choose to eat? The image of Jahshan, drinking and throwing up simultaneously may be the image that startled and completely confused the audience… it was a raw image, with no pretty connotations. The acts performed simultaneously made me more aware of the constant tug-o-war that is inside us all. It is the tug-o-war of what we ‘want’ people to see, what ‘they’ choose to see and what is actually paid attention to…

Sounds From Here is an emotionally stimulating piece of work if you allow it to be, and even if you aren’t emotional, it’s a chance to view a piece of work that is true to the post-modern eccentricities of our age… - Shika Budhoo