I wanted to be able to recommend this performance. Ashtar Muallem is our solo performer for the evening and the piece was created in collaboration with Clément Dazin. Muallem is a Jerusalemite artist who did her circus training in France. These are exactly the kind of artists and work I want to see elevated at Fringe, particularly given the escalating but ongoing Palestinian genocide. Unfortunately, the show is trying to do too much, all at once, and therefore does not give the ideas time to breathe.
You can’t sink your teeth into anything before the moment is discarded
The piece needs a clearer artistic aim. Is this show a participatory ceremony, where we all take part in a ritual? Is it using contortion to parody yoga and wellness influencers who are doing impossible things with their body as they pretend you can be just like them? Is it a dark comedy that actually means its earnest message? Is this a claiming of space for Palestinian art and artists, and a clarion call for their freedom to be liberated from their colonisers, or is it a story about losing one's religion? I would have watched a full show of many of these kernels of ideas but they don’t get the depth they deserve. It leaves us feeling like we are skimming over the surface - you can’t sink your teeth into anything before the moment is discarded.
The show has moments that ring with truth, the contortionist and aerial work is sublime. As is Muallem’s communication of the sheer disorientation that comes from being colonised; winding descriptions of Dazin’s grandmother and of Jerusalem and the simple solution proposed to end violence in the world. A strange, humble and honest ending. Strange after the dry irony that makes up much of the rest of the piece.
