A sensitive and insightful piece that carries us on a journey from sensationalism, to denial, indignation and utter resignation.Rating
Good
Asylum King is written and devised by Paz Koloman Kaiba and Ahon Collective. Their production provides powerful commentary on current socio-economic pressures facing all dimensions of community. A sensitive and insightful piece that carries us on a journey from sensationalism, to denial, indignation and utter resignation.
Collective Arts Studios annual fringe festival nurtures emerging talent across creatives, stage management and performers. This ambitious piece by Kaiba seeks to mesh the film noire of Philip Marlowe (created by Raymond Chandler) with the current landscape of Asylum Seekers, political posturing and the dangerous rhetoric of today’s society.
Francesca Marlowe (Sophie Lenglinger) centres as a naïve aspiring journalist with a somewhat convoluted backstory, coming from New York, but now based in the UK. Lenglinger struggles with balancing inconsistent pronunciation and the juggling of the traditional detective’s Panama hat, vape and staging. Whilst committed to the role, her voice often needs further projection, especially to succeed in competing against the varied soundtracks of jazz, protest and the rustling of audience members.
Tommy (Tom Ray) represents the disaffected local community, who find themselves with an Asylum hotel in their midst. Driven by poverty, unemployment and a roar of the social media followers, he seeks to justify the vilification of Asylum Seekers. His breadth of emotion and anguish is convincingly presented. His loud, bullish presence and self-righteous indignation is the mouth piece of the ill-informed and underserved community.
However, it is Aaron (Güney Akis) who provides a depth of presence. Akis transitions purposefully from being jobsworth and diffident, to ardently empathetic and ultimately fearful and disillusioned. His ability to engage emotions, from derision to compassion and desperation, shows great versatility.
The studio is an industrial, spacious yet intimate setting for this compelling three hander. The prop shifting for scene transitions could be realised through zoning the expanse of the stage and using lighting to shift between each iteration of context and scene. Thrust staging limited audibility for side seated audience members, often directing the majority of volume on the centred audience (directed by Işık Kaya).
Stage management (Ash Purt) and Sound Design (Iraz Akcam) was artful. The team made good use of projections, jazz covers of popular music (including Eminem’s Lose Yourself) and lighting, transitioning moods and scenes effectively throughout.
Technical support was outstanding, working in concert with the cast. This occasionally falters where timing between tech and performers do not align. This will undoubtedly harmonise as this production continues to evolve.
Kaiba demonstrates ruthless compassion in sharing this poignant tale; losers are many and winners are privileged. It is a thought-provoking piece that will benefit from increased time to breathe. Kaiba’s bruising commentary reflects social media pressures, doom scrolling, apathetic political clickbait and the desperation of economic divides that result in ‘inconvenient incidents’. Today’s societal moral dilemmas deserve increased treatment, without the noire shading of past more predictable times. Ultimately, ‘… no matter how loud the protests against them become, asylum seekers can only cry silently, they cannot leave.’
You can read more about this show in our interview here.
Written/Devised: Paz Koloman Kaiba and Ahon Collective
Producer: Ahon Collective
Director: Işık Kaya
Sound Design: Iraz Akcam
Stage Manager: Ash Purt
Video Artist: Kadir Arici
Asylum King plays at Collective Theatre until Sunday 25 January.
