Many will argue that the beauty of Performance Art is that the possibilities are endless. After watching ‘From Kabul With Love’ I am ready to dump the artistic concept once and for all. Never before I have I been so bewildered in a theatre.
So where to begin? I gathered that the idea of this piece was to start up a discussion about Western conceptions of the East and the absurdity of war, but ultimately, the whole performance became very muddled; the concepts, the audience, even Edina herself. This is mainly due to the fact that despite being a great belly dancer, Edina is not a very good actor, and her performance was essentially a bizarre patchwork of confusing anecdotes and monologues. It was an uncomfortable experience to say the least, especially as the performance suffered some technical difficulties. That said, there were some good parts in ‘From Kabul With Love’ - the performance features a live band who were excellent and as I said before, Edina’s dancing I cannot fault. At one point she performs a belly dance wearing a mask of David Cameron’s and who wouldn’t enjoy seeing the Prime Minister with slinky hips? But this was not enough to save the entire show.
I feel that I have been rather harsh in this review but I honestly believe that ‘From Kabul With Love’ is not ready for audiences yet. The performance needs a stronger sense of direction if it is to achieve a profound reaction from the viewer. I was lost the entire way through.