★★★☆☆
The Accountants is a brand-new dance extravaganza directed and designed by Keith Khan, with dramaturgy by Jude Christian and choreography by Terence Lewis and Mahrukh Dumasia of Terence Lewis Dance Company and Xie Xin of Xiexin Dance Theatre – and dancers from those two companies.
The Accountants is described as “an electrifying encounter of cultures as China and India” and “a thought-provoking dialogue and stunning visual effects” that sifts through the clutter of data and stereotypes to reveal profound human connections and celebrate the vibrant tapestry of global culture.” The focus on India and China is presumably because Indian and Chinese people, at least in the UK, are often just grouped together as “Asian”, even though their cultures are incredibly distinct.
I had it in my head that I was going to watch a socioeconomic political dance battle between India and China, but it is even deeper, meatier and more complex than that.
Far, far more complex…
To break it down to its bones, the show explores a text and voice-note conversation between a young British-Chinese man, Liam (Josh Hart), and Aunt Kash (Shobna Gulati), a middle-aged British-Indian woman (who is not actually his aunt). Liam is travelling India and China – which, of course, are next to each other. He does not know a lot about the cultures of those countries – nor does he seem to want to. Kash, who has never been to either, knows a lot about the countries – or, perhaps, thinks that she does.
This is an interesting exploration of identity and the “knowledge” that children and descendants of immigrants have of their ancestral homeland. Before the show, staff asked some of us to fill out a questionnaire, and we were asked how much we know about India and China. “Well, I am [part] Indian,” I told the Egyptian member of staff – but, like Kash, I have never been to any of the countries that I descend from – so how much do I really know?
The show has a lot of interesting ideas – perhaps too many. Many of the ideas are simple and should be easy to follow but the show needlessly complicates and confuses them.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the production is the thing that initially looks the most intriguing: the screens.
Screens are all the range in theatre these days – sometimes they work wonderfully; sometimes they just cheaply make up for a lack of set; and sometimes they are used so much that they become uninteresting – or, in this case, confusing.
The Accountants, which is being performed on the huge stage of The Hall at Factory International at Aviva Studios, has a giant screen behind the main action with huge phone screens at either side of that screen. One phone belongs to Liam; the other, Kash. We see their conversations play out in real time. Information and images on the main screen sometimes reflect the content on the phones, including what the users are researching. idontloveyouanymore do a wonderful job of creating diverse creating content for the screens.
Whilst this is interesting, there is too much going on – and too many screens. Your eyes are forced to move from screen to screen, so quickly that you struggle to take in all the information – all the whilst missing the gorgeous dancing happening down below. In a dance show, the dance should come first, and everything else should inform the dancing – but the first act of this show puts the focus on the screens, with the dancing reduced to decoration.
The “screen time” is fortunately reduced in the second act. Towards the beginning, the big screen is pulled up, revealing an immense stage which seems to go as far back as the stalls themselves. It’s like an abyss. There are rows of lights at either side of the stage. The dancers are like little ants in a big black box – but their powerful dancing allows them to fill the stage. The dancers, sat towards the back of the stage, slowly make their way to the front of the stage. It is foreboding and chilling.
Only the screen on the stage right is used in Act 2. The screen becomes blurred. You do not really have to pay much attention to the screen in this act; it becomes decor – icing on the cake. Yet, its brightness and quick speed render it impossible to not keep looking at it – again, distracting from the dancing.
The dancers appear to represent “the accountants” that Liam says he has in his head at the beginning of Act 1. There is much to interpret here, including the ambitions and education achievement of Chinese and Indian folk, the two ethnic groups who perform the best in British schools.
The dancing is striking but it lacks depth and feels a little same-y (at least to those of us who do not have ample knowledge of dance – but that is most of us!). If there was more variety, it might have been easier to focus on the dancers and not the screens. I had imagined Indian and Chinese culture to feel more prominent in the dancing, but whilst the screens explore differences between the two countries – sometimes explicitly, e.g. average lifespans – the dancing seems to blur them together and create a monolith.
I imagine that the clinical, repetitive nature of the dancing is intentional – does it, in contrast to the differences onscreen, show the similarities and interconnectedness between the two countries and cultures? Does it suggest that globalisation has created a loss of identity? Does it represent the controlled nature of a society obsessed with technology? We could discuss this forever. But let’s move on.
The show is at its best towards the end of Act 2 – no, not because it is finally almost over – where the dancers truly, finally, get to shine. The dancing is noticeably different, the screen is finally rendered almost irrelevant, and, for the first time, I finally felt what was being conveyed.
The creative team must be applauded for creating a high-tech visual and acoustic feast. Design studio idontloveyouanymore provide stunning immersive visuals, Simon Corder provides bold lighting design, and sound artist Somatic curates an intense score.
However, there is just too much going on – so much that it becomes difficult to understand, let alone interpret. Towards the end of Act 1, the music becomes painfully loud – and at some point in Act 2, the lights are blinding. Throughout most of Act 1, your eyes and head hurt from trying to watch and process everything. It’s a sensory overload.
The Accountants is a brave, bold and beautiful bombardment of unanswered questions. In this ambitious, innovative production, Khan seems to be exploring the complicated identity of second-generation immigrants – but I, a third-generation immigrant, have left none the wiser. But maybe, just maybe, that’s the point… Who am I?
The Accountants runs at Factory International at Aviva Studios (The Hall) until May 11.
Photo: ©Tristram Kenton
JADAR 