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A devised show that will leave you yearning for your home, your friends and your family just that little bit more than when you first entered the theatre.Summary
Rating
Good
I spent a good part of my earlier life in privately rented accommodation, always waiting for the next lease renewal or worse, the notice to leave. For me and the many others in similar situations, it meant never completely unpacking the suitcase, and most certainly keeping personal little keepsakes to a bare minimum.
So when the opening scene of Transit reveals three suitcases, it’s already easy to feel a connection. My home situation might not be quite as extreme as the migrants who are at the heart of the show, but I can certainly appreciate what those suitcases symbolise: a way of living, a warning that that this might be just another stop in a transient life.
Transit is a devised show, created by a team mostly made up of migrants, who clearly understanding what a suitcase means here. Devised in this case means a series of scenes linked by that common theme of being displaced, of not quite being able to settle where you currently call home. The show follows three such migrants as they cope with what life presents them; we witness the stresses and worries they face, the isolation from family and friends who could be thousands of miles away, the multitude of paperwork required to stay in a foreign country, the knowledge that they may just be one payday away from having to repack that suitcase.
Some scenes resonate more strongly than others, some will be instantly understandable, whereas others might not be quite as clear. But even where meaning is more oblique, it’s still a pleasure to watch and appreciate the thought that has gone into taking us through the migrants’ journey.
Monica Nicolaides’ movement direction for the three actors on stage is incredibly well thought out, with the traverse stage acting almost as a catwalk where they drag suitcases up and down and sashay between each other. Equally beautiful is Austin Yang’s original music used throughout; the composition that plays whilst we filter in is something I’d love to hear again, and is reminiscent of The Orb at their most ambient. Megan Brewer’s direction pulls all the elements together wonderfully, making a “fight” scene between two actors jostling for the same role play out delightfully, as they face each round.
Where Transit goes slightly wrong is in some of its technical elements and especially their visibility. Having the show in traverse means we are sitting sideways to the main stage, and so have to crane necks to read the various text that appears; not a big deal, but a little more thought is needed to make sure sightlines are good from any position. Perhaps the visuals could just be shown higher up the rear wall, as a quick and easy solution? There are also a lot of pre-recorded segments to represent the dreaded Zoom calls home, but the gaps between actor and pre-record at times is jarring; it may have been deliberate, to represent the time delay of such things, and a rendition of Happy Birthday demonstrates this superbly, but even so it caused other scenes using the same feature to feel disjointed.
Transit is a beautifully crafted piece of devised theatre that easily delivers its message of what it can be like to be away from where you originally called home. There’s enough about it that makes you yearn to speak to those from whom you may be separated, to tell them that you’re safe, and maybe that you miss them.
Devised by: Ensemble
Directed by: Megan Brewer
Produced by: Lydia Idakula for Halfpace Theatre Company
Design by: Daria Vasko
Lighting Design by: Cheng Keng
Sound Design by: Jamie Lu
Movement Direction by: Monica Nicolaides
Video Design by and Stage Manager: He Zhang
Assistant Producer: Florian Lim
Composed by: Austin Yang
Transit plays at The Space until 2 December. The show will be livestreamed at 2.30 on 2 December, and then available on-demand for two weeks. Further information available here.
