Stage: Confronting colonialism

Broken Chord
choreography Gregory Maqoma
music Thuthuka Sibisi
with Gregory Maqoma, Tshegofatso Khunwane, Nokuthula Magubane, Simphiwe Sikhakhane, Lubabalo Velebhayi and the Echo Vocal Ensemble conducted by Sarah Latto
dramaturg Shanell Winlock Pailman
technical design Oliver Hauser
sound Nthuthuko Mbuyazi
costumes Laduma Ngxokolo
Sadler's Wells, London • 17-18.Mar.23

Strongly resonant on a variety of almost inexpressible layers, this clever performance piece combines music and movement to tell a true story through an impressionistic eye. Choreographer-performer Gregory Maqoma and musician Thuthuka Sibisi take an unusually visceral approach, with eye-catching staging and powerfully engaging music that cuts to deeper currents of truth under the surface. So watching this show feels like a revelation.

Blending traditional Xhosa and modern dance styles, this is the story of the African Choir, which in 1861 travelled from South Africa to Britain to raise funds for a school. They even performed for Queen Victoria. They are played as exuberant artists by Maqoma and four fellow singers, who have complex reactions to their encounters with this culture that has colonised their homeland. Surrounded and sometimes cruelly confronted by the British people, played by the Echo Vocal Ensemble, they assert their own experiences and traditions.

While depicting a specific event, the performance bristles with wider repercussions relating to the power dynamics between the coloniser and the colonised, including the sense of cultural superiority that exists on both sides and should be able to coexist peacefully, each enhancing the other. Bluntly told by the Brits to "go home", these musicians are forced to confront their inner fears and decide whether to face bigotry head-on or to run away. And as they stand within this white gaze, the show encompasses waves of meaningful themes relating to migration and identity.

Most important is the way this piece puts these experiences into sensual perspective, so that remembering history becomes a physical act in a series of stunning set-pieces, most eye-catchingly in a sequence involving flour and dough. It's intensely provocative, but also celebratory in the way it digs beneath the surface to explore the humanity underneath. So while this is a beautiful piece that's loose enough to allow for a variety of interpretations, it's also both darkly challenging and deeply hopeful.

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photos by Lolo Vasco & Thomas Muller • 17.Mar.23