Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 180

face and body were badly disfigured. Her agony was compounded by waking
up one morning to find her son stealthily snatched away in the dark of the
night.
I exhale slowly and look around the darkened auditorium. There is not a dry
eye to be seen. The play is a cathartic release for much unreleased trauma,
and a huge sense of empathy builds up for the “other”. Some audience
members are sobbing unashamedly, many have tears streaming down
their face as every single person experiences the violation, fear, anger, and
helplessness. By the time the curtains are down, the audience has melded
into one collective core of humanity. The performance has transcended
barriers of country and language as the actors pierced issues of sexuality,
consent, respect, and simple choices.
I have been attending the Edinburgh Fringe festival since ���� and have
never ceased to marvel at the pulsating hub of energy the city becomes in
August. It is a fascinating canvas that gets embellished into a rich tapestry
with the vibrant colors and hues of different countries – from aboriginal
Maori dancers from New Zealand, ethereal South African Gospel singers,
rhythmic drummers from Korea, theatre companies like Derevo, Theatre
Slava, Aurora Nova who specialize in bringing physical theatre, contemporary
circus and new theatrical formats to enchant thousands of spectators from
different nationalities and ages.
This is the power of the arts and of theatre—to transcend boundaries
of country and community. We represent different cultures, different
sensibilities and different nuances of issues concern us as global citizens.
Our structures, formats, forms of expression may be fiercely nationalistic
but they essentially depict basic human conflict and human relationships.
This is what struck me as I watched Robert Softely’s candid and thought
provoking take on the challenges faced by differently abled people in “If
these Spasms could Speak” at the Fringe Festival in ����. Robert is a Scottishbased
artist and Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise Theatre, working with
disabled and non-disabled professional artists. The play was a hard hitting
comment on the challenges Robert had personally faced as a differently
abled person. Yet it was universal.
At its very core the play spoke about humanism and compassion—the
defining arc that connects us all together. That gives us a sense of purpose
to being alive.
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