Review: Deciphers, Coronet Theatre 

London is an international melting pot into which huge numbers of diverse people from many countries and cultures find their way. With different languages, cultural behaviours and interpretations to be negotiated and translated, the spoken word is therefore not always the ideal way to become understood. Deciphers at the Coronet Theatre, devised and performed by acclaimed choreographers Naishi Wang (Canada/China) and Jean Abreu (UK/Brazil), is a contemporary dance piece that offers an evocative sharing of two personal journeys along the path of immigration, which, although entirely unique, parallel each other in many ways. Their cultural backgrounds may be entirely different, but put together in this space the pair tell comparable stories through their bodies, in an impressive and enjoyable performance. 

Before the lights go down the dancers are already on stage, laying on the floor drawing and writing on a long strip of paper from each end. Covered in images and words, this seems to document their histories, and they look into the audience, assessing what they see, before adding us to the scroll of experience. It’s a canvas for the lives they have lived, and they meet together in the middle. Each of them has a tube light which they lay at the end of the strip, marking their beginning point, before the paper is slowly lifted and the two move together, crushing everything that has gone before until they meet at this point in time. It’s an emotional, arduous statement, performed in silence with the only sound that of destruction. 

From here they move on to interrogate the experiences of immigration in largely non-verbal ways, using powerful music (Olesia Onykiienko) to complement and intensify their emotional expression. At times they are free-falling, with beautifully fluid movements that suggest helplessness. At others they convey mistranslation, performing the correct communicative gestures but slightly off, so they remain alien. This brings humour but also a clear illustration of frustration. 

There are some delightful moments where Wang and Abreu introduce dance and speech from their birthplaces, inviting us to share a more intimate knowledge of who they are and where they come from. For a UK audience with no knowledge of their language, the words are senseless until the repetition reveals a learning process and recognisable phrases emerge. For the immigrant, communication is an exasperating process, depicted through impressive whole-body tensions and movement that plays with weight, control and energy. At times this is a little literal – crashing against a brick wall – but these are talented performers who reinvent, reimagine and morph their difficulties into new forms. They draw them with their bodies across the blank stage canvas, offering glimpses of their unique identities whilst they connect with each other and the audience. We perceive the grief of a traumatised man clinging to the crushed remnants of a previous life, or new friends negotiating space and joy together through the dances of their homelands. 

There are some striking choices in Lucie Bazzo’s lighting design, which bands the stage with light and dark to suggest barriers, and in one notable section sees individuals multiply to become whole communities of immigrants, depicted in rainbow shadows which remind us that these individual stories are also universal. 

Deciphers is an abstract production, so it’s probably helpful to know the premise before the start. However, the piece disentangles some difficult experiences to offer clarity through movement and ultimately feels generous and positive. Wang and Abreu are delightfully charismatic performers; quite dissimilar yet the same, and their work echoes this perfectly, celebrating their difference whilst embracing their individuality – and also inviting an alien audience to be part of their future. 

Created and performed by Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu
Lighting Design by Lucie Bazzo
Visual Design by Ivy Wang
Music/ Composition by Olesia Onykiienko
Dramaturgy by Guy Cools
Technical Director: Emerson Kafarowski
Produced by Michael Peter Johnson (UK) and Robert Sauvey (Canada)

Deciphers runs at the Coronet Theatre until Saturday 25 October.