If you have managed to bag a ticket for the sold-out run of 1884 at the Wellcome Collection, you are in for a treat!
1884 is described as a game theatre show and from the start, the audience are immersed in the world of Wilhelm Street. There is a warmth, palatable love and appreciation for community immediately fostered by the lighting, set and costumes. This is a creative team effort and community is at the heart of this piece encouraged and carefully crafted by the team, both at a street level but also in the home. The audience are active participants and what begins as a group of strangers quickly becomes an audience grouped around tables, building homes together, building traditions and common ground against the backdrop of the wider Wilhelm community. DJ Stanley (Shakeel Haakim) is the lynchpin to proceedings with his banging tunes on 188.4FM, The Postie (Michelle Kelly) weaves her way through the homes delivering letters and we all believe The MP(Mohamed Bangura) is on our side. As an ensemble we are all one in harmony.
But this is theatre, and soon all the bonds formed start to unravel. The audience are invested, now ‘residents' drawn into the narrative, and this carefully created relationship soon feels like a betrayal. The characters become complicit in the change as the ominous ‘meeting' announcements interject the interplay, the postal deliveries pick up pace, and the new rules create division amongst the ‘residents' as they are expected to comply. But this is a modern audience and there is room for ‘resistance' in the beautiful tapestry of writing from Rhianna IIube. The powerful interplay allows room to comply or resist but ultimately compliance rules.
And then Act 2 brings the twist. No plot spoilers here, let's say the truth of the legacy of the 1884 Berlin Conference comes into sharp focus in another clever, thought-provoking interplay with the audience.
Every aspect of this show is layered into an extraordinary curation from the detailed interactive set by Jacob Wu, the lighting by Chene Keng and the costume design by Bolu Dairo. Expertly shaped by Rhianna IIube, Tatenda Shamiso and Marie Klimis, and the Koro team, they weave a thread that binds everyone present into a community that cares.
Runs until Saturday, 25th October and then on to Athens.
Review: Eliza Jaye