It’s hard to know how much to say about the content of Nomad, a physical theatre piece by Gözde Atalay, because disorientation was such a strong part of my experience. I’m just not sure exactly how much of that disorientation was intentional.
We are simply feeling what Ayşe feels – dislocation, frustration, and disorientation
Nomad has three distinct parts that intertwine only to a certain degree. Undoubtedly the heart of the show is Ayşe, a woman immigrating to Europe. Her experience becomes all of our experience as she approaches the audience for help with things that seem outside our control. The audience participation that runs throughout the show is deeply uncomfortable, but we are simply feeling what Ayşe feels – dislocation, frustration, and disorientation to what is going on around us.
I understand the intention of breaking up that story with others, but unfortunately the two other parts of the performance are so tonally distinct that I struggle to put them together into one show. One, a police officer bordering on clownish, opens the show in such a way that sends my expectations in a very different direction than the majority of what follows. While audience interaction remains key, the laughter this character elicits seems at odds with the earnestness required by the rest of the show.
The third piece, a movement sequence centering around huge sheets of brown paper, is as compelling as dance, but again is difficult to relate back to Ayşe or the police officer, and takes us to a place of suspended disbelief and un-reality at odds with Ayşe’s groundedness.
Nomad, while affecting, leaves me reeling for reasons that seem both intentional and unintentional. I spend much of the performance – and much time after it – trying to make sense of what I am seeing and trying to understand what is happening. If that sounds like your idea of a good time, Nomad might be for you.
