*** (3 stars)
“Extremely laudable”
I’m sorry to give this show only three stars, but I don’t feel I can give it four, much as I’d like to. Listed under Dance, physical theatre and circus in the Fringe programme, I was not expecting to find myself in what was in effect a seminar-like consideration of the disastrous effects of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and what actions might be taken to repair the damage it continues to do today.
At that time, Balfour was British Home Secretary. He stated the British Government’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. For many people, this is the starting point of the current appalling situation in Israel/ Palestine.
It is 23 August 2045, and we start by hearing a succession of audience members read an [imagined] statement dated twenty years ago from the then [unnamed] British Prime Minister, apologizing for the UK’s part in the creation of the current Israeli regime and setting out seven concrete actions “to start a decolonial process of reparations for the Palestinian people”. We are a committee called to evaluate the progress of the reparations and consider next steps. To make sure we had all time to take the statement in, another set of audience members read it out loud.
On a split screen we then watched side-by-side film footage – black and white documentary footage from Balfour’s time beside colour footage of ‘contemporary’, i.e. filmed in 2045, of various actions related to the reparations. I found there was insufficient time fully to take in quite what these actions were, apart from the renaming of a forest somewhere in Scotland – from Balfour Forest to Palestine Forest.
The ‘committee’ were then invited to propose further reparations. It took a little while for this to get going, but suggestions started to flow. Farah Saleh, who was leading this whole session, had already done some pretty mystifying movement during the readings of the PM’s statement: she now did more of them against a sound-montage of the audience’s suggestions, which left me even more puzzled.
The lights faded. We thought this was the end, and applauded. But this wasn’t the end. We were invited to return to the present day and take a minute to discuss with a neighbour an action point we might take out into the world. There was a further invitation to share these with the whole audience. And then it was goodbye.
All this was extremely laudable, and I was impressed by a number of the suggestions made. But this was not, to me, dance or physical theatre, and most certainly not circus. I totally appreciate the need for Palestinian voices to be heard, and for Palestinian artists to be seen – but a seminar as performance art didn’t do it for me.
There was prolonged applause, so I assume the show really resonated with others present.
Balfour Reparations, Techcube 0 at Summerhall (Venue 26) for more information go to: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/balfour-reparations
ScotsGay Arts 