Review: Scenes from a Repatriation, Royal Court Theatre

Although the premise of this show interested me at an intellectual level from the outset (it’s the story of the thousand year old statue of the Bodhisattva Guanyin in the British Museum and its return to China), I struggled to imagine how this was going to work theatrically. I mean, where is the drama?

Luckily, I love having my preconceptions challenged. Set out as a series of independent yet connected scenes that work more as tableaux, there is drama to be found in every corner of this tale. Writer Joel Tan’s script is mercurial in its changes, forensic in its analysis, but above all else, human in its storytelling.

The raw script looks rather academic and opaque on paper (the Royal Court publish their new plays) but the words crackle into a roaring furnace like tinder after a drought. All of human life is here, stretching through centuries and across continents: colonialism, democracy, loss, protest, social-climbing, indifference, racism, sexism, you name it. If it sounds like it’s too much, it’s not. The writing is insightful and concise, rendering many scenes simultaneously touching, shocking and funny. This is no abstract indulgence: Tan guides you tenderly on a journey much like that of the statue itself. It is a journey you will be glad you took.

This is due in the main to the direction of this piece, which is outstanding. In this case, rather unusually the directors here are a partnership: emma + pj. Maybe it is the case that by working as a directorial team, they really understand how to work in sync with the broader team of creatives, but the end result is a spectacular synergy between writer, actors, designers and sound designers that is as seamless and faultless as if it had all come from one mind.

The small ensemble shows remarkable versatility, switching roles between scenes with such virtuosity that towards the end I found myself counting them on stage, wondering if new actors had suddenly appeared. They navigate a gamut of emotions (and accents!) with a versatility that demonstrates huge promise.

All of the action takes place in the shadow of a huge model of the statue itself. In a tight space like the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs this could mean restricted space for artistic expression, but TK Hay’s tactile staging contrasts the polish of mirrors with the unpredictable textures of both sand and water to create a space that allows the production to breathe. These striking textural contrasts mirror the essence of the piece itself: it is at once raw and polished, inviting and hostile.

This space comes alive with the sensitive lighting design that broadens the space (the gauze projection deserves special mention here) and along with the sound (which was both musical and genuinely visceral) ignite that fire underneath the aforementioned tinder and set this production alight.

At the end of a week in which I had witnessed some theatre so dire that I contemplated a nap, when I walked out of the Royal Court last night my faith in London’s theatre scene was well and truly restored. This will challenge your perspectives on a whole range of issues, but I believe that that is what theatre is for. And when it’s done this well, it’s as invigorating as a desert rain.

Written by: Joel Tan
Directed by: emma + pj
Lighting by: Alex Fernandes
Design by: TK Hay
Sound design and composition by: Patch Middleton

Scenes from a Repatriation plays at the Royal Court until Saturday 24 May.