Writers and Performers: Nasi Voutsas and Bertrand Lesca
Reviewer: Glen Pearce
There’s something quietly disconcerting about Nasi Voutsas and Bertrand Lesca’s Eurohouse. Theatrical convention is thrown out of the door as we are all encouraged to introduce ourselves to the person sitting next to us and then all join hands in a circle and that’s even before the show starts properly. Bert explains that he will also be operating the lighting and therefore disappearing up to the tech box.
The show itself is equally disconcerting, a strange mix of movement and monologue played out against a constantly repeating Michel Sardou’s Comme d’habitude and Kraftwerk’s Europe Endless.
What starts off though as a partnership soon deteriorates into something much darker and controlling. Bert slowly turns on Nasi, demands sweets back that Nasi has already eaten, chooses the music the pair listen to and then literally strips the clothes of Nasi’s back.
Slowly, and perhaps too slowly, the metaphor drops. This isn’t a piece about bullying and control, this is (and the clue should have been there with the performer’s nationalities) a wider look at the fractured state of Europe and in particular Greece’s debt bailout. Now that Europe has moved from Grexit to Brexit there’s a sense that this show is perhaps a year too late.
Voutsas and Lesca are certainly skilled performers and there’s a subtlety to their performance that captivates but as a dramatic whole something seems missing in Eurohouse. While there’s a strong political message here, just too much is left for the audience to assume and while it is always good to engage the audience’s mind there needs to be something more to hook those thoughts onto than currently being offered.
Reviewed on 5 June 2017 | Image: Jack Offord
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