Theatre Review: Shapeshifting, Alma Tavern and Theatre
Rating: ★★★★★
Running Dates: Tuesday 19th March - Wednesday 20th March 2024
Where to see it: Alma Tavern & Theatre, Bristol
Duration: 60 minutes (no interval)
Keywords: Physical Theatre, Storytelling
Review
This unexpected and raw performance by Lara of LEGALALIENS THEATRE brings to the stage the experience of many people, like myself, who have found themselves choosing to leave their home country (Italy in Lara’s and my case) to find themselves somewhere else - Lara lands in London in 1997, at the time of Spice Girls and Tony Blair, when girl power and political hopes were at their best. 25 years later, Lara has translated her life experience on stage through empowering acting and enough humour to make this experience open to everyone!
Words are at the centre of this piece - the “wrong word alarm” is similar to the alarm that would ring in Lara’s hometown in Italy when workers were summoned to the factories that were the main landmark of the suburb. It is a flurry of words coming together to hopefully identify the one you are trying to translate from your native language to English. This is an experience that everyone who has moved to the UK from a different country experiences, no matter how many years ago you made that choice!
How do you show up as an Italian but then shift to a version of you that is British so you can fit in, be cast for theatre work? You learn to speak a new language and even adapt your pronunciation, and still everyone knows from the way you step into a shop that you are a…migrant? Immigrant? Refugee? Expat? Every life experience here is accounted for and has a word to embody.
Who are you when you are not Italian enough when you go back home and not British enough when you are in the UK? What is home? It was amazing to see my experience exposed in such a way that made it normal and I’m so glad that this space was created.
I cannot recommend Shapeshifting enough if you can catch it in other small theatres across England - I was intrigued by this project, the way it was transposed on stage and the sense of belonging it gave me across the 60 minutes it ran.
Standout Quote or Moment: Anytime the WRONG WORD ALARM would be interpreted by Lara, who managed to visually translate what happens in the brain of multilingual people when they are looking for words in the different languages they speak.
See If: you love independent theatre and thought provoking performances.
Last Impression: A learning opportunity for British people who want to understand what it is like to be an immigrant/migrant/refugee/expat and an opportunity for the latter to identify in a theatre piece.
To get tickets for Shapeshifting, click here
We were kindly gifted these tickets in exchange for a review.
Written by Angela Masella