Ephemeral Ensemble returns to the New Diorama theatre with Uprooted, a follow-up to last year's acclaimed Rewind. Director Ramon Ayres employs a striking blend of sound, visual effects and physicality to depict western imperialism's ecological and social devastation of Latin America from a feminist perspective. However, while the production boasts superlative individual scenes, the story fails to cohere.
The deviser-performers – Eyglo Belafonte, Josephine Tremelling, Louise Wilcox and Vanessa Guevara Flores – deliver spirited performances. The overarching eco-feminist message connects gendered violence to the exploitation of land. Musical compositions by Alex Paton and Marco Curcio's magnificent sound design – weaving bird-sounds, streams, chainsaws and rumbles – create great drama. Tremelling's lighting design uses miniature lit houses, shadow-play from a recycling bin, and wind-machine with muslin to depict displacement, water, and a thunderous landslide.
Despite this stagecraft and immersive atmosphere, the narrative lacks specificity and character development. Characters fighting colonial destruction remain as faceless as the occupiers, who wear martian-like metal facemasks. The hour-long show touches on issues from female activism and climate disaster to child labour and violence against women, but does justice to none.
The script feels generic and didactic. Strident statements about the centrality of the earth and progress versus plunder sound familiar. Where Rewind used specificity to evoke intense emotion, Uprooted is a disjointed screed that leaves you impressed yet oddly unmoved.
