Chris Thorpe claims this monologue “is not a Brexit show”. But it’s animated by disenchantment with his own Britishness, and it’s deeply concerned with borders and identity.
A mix of odyssey and polemic, it’s an autobiographical piece — sprinkled with surreal touches and five musical numbers that call to mind Billy Bragg’s protest songs.
At the start, Thorpe’s fictional alter ego, right, evades police brutality in a Serbian bar thanks to his nationality. This becomes a source of anxiety and prompts a journey of self-discovery (or maybe a midlife crisis). He travels to Singapore to observe international plutocrats and visits America’s Monument Valley, where a Navajo guide inspires him to think about “the bloody history of Empire written in imagined lines upon the Earth”. He also encounters a talking coyote who’s apparently a former East German citizen.
That’s surely the most bizarre element of this 80-minute piece. Uncomfortable and thought-provoking, it reunites Thorpe with Rachel Chavkin, who in 2014 directed Confirmation, his probing look at belief systems. But this is a less coherent and dramatically satisfying collaboration, and Thorpe’s frank, emphatic, often abrasive tone can feel relentless.
Until May 11 (bac.org.uk)
