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Preview: The Servant’s Ball Blitzkrieg

I don’t understand this play, and I don’t think you will either. For starters it’s actually a ‘quick script splicing job’ of two plays (The Servant’s Ball and Blitzkrieg) by Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera. Marechera, who died in 1987 after an eventful life – which included getting sent down from New College – apparently wrote about colonialism and corruption and all sorts of things self-styled theatre activists climax over.
The promo http://www.marecheracelebration.org/SBBK.html isn’t much help in understanding the production, being filled with more chunky polysyllabic goodness than an essay of a lit student on a verbal enema. It’s amazing that in all those words, there’s barely anything on the plot. This is probably because, as far as I could tell, there isn’t one. The fact that the audience’s attention is constantly ping-ponged from one scene in one play to another scene in another play probably makes things worse.
Having said that, I rather enjoyed it. I say ‘rather’ because the Servant’s Ball bits were playful while the direction for Blitzkrieg frothed with the kind of morbid angst I left behind in my teens, thank-you-very-much. The cast played off one another well and each gave their stock characters remarkably unpretentious performances (maybe they didn’t understand the play either) in cutely naff and quirky costumes. Special credit goes to Priyanka Mantha and Sophie Lewis, although the latter distorted the upbeat group dynamics somewhat with a heavier, more serious stage presence.
The real sparkle, however, lay in the directors’ use of sounds. Mixed with the lines and actors’ voices were live musical accompaniment, singing, choral speech, wallas, rhymes, all making for a lively aural ensemble. In one witty word-game the actors looked like they were really having fun, which made it all the more enjoyable to watch.
Less enjoyable was the dancing. I’m not sure how many of the cast had diplomas in interpretative dance, but here’s a tip: if you can’t do it, don’t. The average audience member (i.e. me) is unlikely to decipher Postcolonial Subversion of the Hegemonic Neo-colonial Socioeconomic Matrix from what looks very much like A Plain Old Mess. The blocking in general was very disordered, with characters showing little reason for their movements and occasionally walking through imaginary walls.
Ultimately, there’s a lot of promise here which could go either way. Here’s hoping that they up the energy, up the lights, sounds and fun, because ultimately fun, for the sake of nothing but itself, is the most subversive thing of all.

three stars

The Servant’s Ball Blitzkrieg will be playing at the Wadham Moser Theatre, Monday-Friday 3rd Week, 19.30. Tickets cost £7(£5)

 

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