DV8 is celebrating 25 years of groundbreaking physical theatre this year. Tucked inside a newspaper-size programme for Lloyd Newson’s latest production Can We Talk About This? is a lovingly created mini-brochure charting the company’s development. Images of men in suits, bold physical embraces, and a young Wendy Houston walking on wine glasses summon memories of a company whose work has pushed the boundaries of using dance to tell theatrical stories.
In recent years Newson has begun to use his visceral choreography to create a new style of verbatim theatre. The company’s last outing at the National Theatre, To Be Straight With You, tackled homophobia throughout the world.Can We Talk About This? makes no apology for talking about a touchy, and contentious, issue: multiculturalism in Britain and the dangers of political correctness.
The opening scene sees Hannes Langolf ask us to raise our hands if we feel morally superior to the Taliban (a question posed by Martin Amis). About 20% of people responded with arms in the air. Langolf slithers against a wall like a snake as he recounts the appalling regime of the Taliban and why it’s ridiculous that the Western world find it challenging to put their hand up to a question like this. Newson’s work challenges the notion that it is not racist to question the liberal fear of offending and its repercussions.
Over the next 80 minutes Newson’s ensemble of ten incredibly skilled (and ethnically diverse) dancers replay the words of real people whose lives are embroiled in these debates. The Bradford riots, campaigners for Muslim women’s rights, Sharia law, Salman Rushdie’s book burnings and the 2005 Danish ‘Muhammad cartoons’ are all tackled here head-on through replays of real interviews replayed by the cast, moments of news footage on three TV screens, and a gestural movement language that sometimes beautifully interprets a situation.
The most memorable of these moments is Joy Constantine delivering a speech by Labor politician Shirley Williams. Williams was the first politician to talk about forced marriages in the UK parliament and it was not a welcome topic of conversation. She performs this monologue sitting on the back of a man whilst drinking a cup of tea. As the speech continues she is ingeniously moved around his body, always looking ever so comfortable and sipping on her tea, even whilst horizontal.
Kim Jomi Fischer slides up and down the side of a wall whilst getting dressed, zipping up his trousers whilst standing on his head as he discusses the Danish cartoons; and Christina May dissects her almost naked body with a marker pen as she discusses her film about Muslim women’s submission to men. These moments simply and effectively unite Newson’s humane yet physically impressive choreography with the troubling stories being represented.
Can We Talk About This? undeniably raises an incredibly important debate, and shakes its audience to address to the ever-growing challenges the West faces in responding to extremism. As with many verbatim theatre productions however, Newson struggles to find a heart amongst the political debates, leaving the entire endeavour seeming cold and impersonal.