Using physical theatre, poetry, dance and live music, Transit is a powerful, human response to a world that too often reduces migration to a headline.Rating
Excellent
The stage for Transit is set with solid white wheelie cases of varying sizes, arranged in a circle. Geometric off-cuts from the same material sit at the side of the stage. The purity of their white, shining exteriors creates an arresting spectacle, and the atmosphere is one of reverence. Bang on the dot of 7pm, five actors emerge from backstage to dance silently, whirling and twirling with the cases. A young girl emerges from one of them.
Genuinely moving, Transit is told through a series of vignettes using physical theatre, poetry, dance, multimedia and live music. The characters are all legally living in the UK, some distance from their families, and the piece opens with a discussion of how a life can be packed into a 23kg suitcase. What do you keep? What do you leave behind?
A brief interlude invites audience participation: spectators choose between two items, often a practical one versus a sentimental one, and those who comment reminisce about favourite family foods. The conversation returns to a recurring theme: where do these people belong? They are neither one thing nor the other: not quite absorbed into their new world (forever “the other,” or “not quite local”), yet no longer part of their old one, missing family celebrations and old friends. Differences in time zones thwart communication.
Through the action, we experience their daily frustrations: forms lost, names misspelt, assumptions made at passport control, inadequate understanding of visa requirements. A simple, traditional stage is transformed through effective lighting, pace changes and audience interaction. Important questions are raised through reflection and challenge: What is nationality? What is cultural identity? What is their end goal? At this question, they all turn to the audience and, as one, raise their voices and declare: “Indefinite right to remain!”
The success of this piece lies in its gentle ebb and flow: the audience tracks the arc of the characters’ emotions as they move from anxiety to laughter. The clever use of space and lighting creates light and shade, both physical and emotional, and the variety of performance mechanisms produces an overwhelmingly sensory experience. It is, fundamentally, a human piece: one in which family is global, and the audience embraces that. In an age that reduces migration to a headline, Transit insists on the human being behind it and makes the audience feel what it means to belong to more than one place at once, turning paperwork and passports into poetry. Gently and completely, Transit remains with you long after the suitcases are packed away.
Devised by Halfpace Theatre
Co-Artistic Director: Megan Brewer
Co-Artistic Director: Mikko Juan
Ensemble: Bethany Monk Lane, Niamh Smith, Jonathan Chan, Ting-Ning Wen, Gawa Leung
Transit plays at the Arches Lane Theatre until Saturday 5 September
