London theatre heads underground for some weeks now, for the annual iteration of the ever-burgeoning Vault Festival at Waterloo. Headlining this year is this immersive piece about Ukraine, whose tagline is “staging a revolution”.
Punters in the non-cheap seats, who pay “Protester” or “Premium Protester” prices, get to be part of a carefully choreographed uprising. The rest of us look on in benign then baffled bewilderment and, increasingly, boredom.
The crucial issue at stake during those momentous days in Kiev in 2014 was Ukraine’s further integration — or not — into Europe. Yet disappointingly there’s almost no explanation or contextualisation in Mark and Marichka Marczyk’s work, based on their own romance which blossomed at this explosive time, as a popular movement swells and the party mood slides from love to war.
Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin of Belarus Free Theatre offer a production that is aurally intense and impressive. The insistent pounding of drumbeats underscores almost everything and there is haunting deployment of traditional Ukrainian polyphonic choral music.
It’s a piece, then, of sound and fury, but it’s doubtful whether it signifies anything much. I would be willing to bet that lots of “protesters” will leave this pleased with the borsht, bread and vodka, but without knowing what they were protesting about.
Until March 17 (020 8050 9241, vaultfestival.com)
Best theatre shows at Vault Festival 2019 - in pictures
