Author: Jasmin ‘Ofamo’oni
London-based theatre company, Border Crossings was founded 30 years ago (1995) with a mission to create theatre which works across borders between cultures and art forms and between nations and people.
Jasmin ‘Ofamo’oni’s book details the history, development and achievements of a company which, as stated on its website, has collaborated with artists and companies from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, France, German, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Palestine, Sweden, the USA and Zimbabwe as well as diverse communities of the UK. Note the trademark complete lack of bias and refusal to prioritise in the alphabetical list.
The book, which includes many dozens of photographs, comes in “Acts” (long chapters) interspersed with “intervals” – essays by, or interviews with people like Michael Walling, who has been artistic director from the start, Graham Harvey and Roshini Mooneeram. As a presentational device it’s rather laboured.
Nonetheless, the chronological accounts of Border Crossings productions are interesting. They range from early forays into existing “classic” plays such as a 1995 production of The Tempest created in India and exploring colonisation issues through to Bullie’s House by Thomas Keneally, staged in 2004, which explores Indigenous Australian themes.
“The early 2000s was a time of overt racial tensions in London”, ‘Ofomo’oni points out. Walling remembered Bullie’s House and “found himself drawn to what it was saying about two wildly different cultures meeting”. It toured the UK and played at London’s Riverside studios. And, as the first time they had worked with indigenous peoples, it marked a “pivotal shift in the company’s journey” and led to the development of its far-reaching and long-running Origins Festival.
Checkpoint is interesting on language and its role in performance. The company has frequently worked with actors who don’t speak each other’s language but who find ways of working together and communicating truth to audiences. And if you use a translator, the language is filtered by the translator’s own biases. To what extent, then, does the translator become part of the drama? “Quite often we deliberately put two people together who can’t talk the same language so that they have to work through movement, or through feeling or through music”, says Walling,
There is a huge amount of information here for students of theatre history and methodology even if the delivery is a bit dry. The passion for breaking boundaries is both infectious and moving. It’s also important. And given what they’ve achieved over 30 years, O’famo’oni makes it clear that there is plenty to celebrate, although, of course, there is still much work to be done.
Checkpoint: 30 Years of Border Crossings by Jasmin ‘Ofamo’oni, published by Border Crossings, is out now at £20
