A brave but flawed exploration of power
Two semi-automatics are the first thing the audience encounters on the set of Gigi and Dar, the new play by Josh Azouz (Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia), which has just opened at Dalston’s Arcola theatre. The guns, propped on two chairs like reclining generals, are a sinister foreshadow of what’s come, as well as our introduction to the issues of violence and power that underpin this striking but uneven production. If these themes sound weighty and dark, they’re doing the play a disservice – at least for its first half.
The drama begins with rounds of firecracker banter from the guns’ owners, Gigi (Tanvi Virmani) and Dar (Lola Shalam), soldiers on the final few days of their military service at army roadblock 432. The location could be anywhere, but the bright lighting and sense of remoteness suggest it’s a desert. It’s impossible not to think of Israel and the current conflict.
The women are bored and frustrated as the hours dribble by. They eat Nutella, play Truth or Dare, argue, ruminate on sex and boyfriends, and address the audience in knowing asides. Despite the sense of ennui, the soldiers are gloriously brought to life – Virmani’s brooding intensity offset by Shalam’s cheeky, confrontational bravado.
Director Kathryn Hunter (perhaps best-known for the pioneering physical theatre she made with Théatre de Complicité) has said the play is “Beckett meets Mean Girls” [see the interview with Josh Azouz in the current issue of Jewish Renaissance] and, like Waiting for Godot’s hapless Gogo and Didi, raucous slapstick and comic clowning entertainingly pass the time.
But suddenly the mood darkens. A pregnant woman (Chipo Chung) and her 16-year-old son Sim (Roman Asde) arrive at the roadblock. The woman is having complications with her pregnancy and Sim is taking her to hospital. At the moment of their arrival, Dar receives a voice message from her boyfriend, confirming her fears that he has been unfaithful. She doesn’t know who he has slept with, but as she begins to understand who it might be, her humour snaps to furious anger. With her gun slung across her shoulder, she lashes out at Sim, forcing him to undress and dance in front of them.
The audience is plunged suddenly into different territory and it makes for uncomfortable watching. Although the actors are brilliant at conveying the confusion and pain of the story as it then unfolds, the second half never quite retains the magnetism of the first and its exploration of oppression and power dynamics feels heavy-handed.
Nevertheless, this is a brave and provocative play that dares to challenge the audience and doesn’t offer any easy answers – except one that is impossible to miss: violence surely begets violence.
By Rebecca Taylor
Photos by Ali Wright
Gigi & Dar runs until Saturday 2 November. 7pm, 3pm (Sat only). From £12. Arcola Theatre, London, E8 3DL. arcolatheatre.com