Next week, internationally acclaimed physical theatre company Gecko will head up the A140 to perform on the Norwich Theatre Royal stage. They’re based in Ipswich and have been for decades, making it all the more outrageous and exciting that they will be coming here for the first time ever.
Gecko is renowned for their stunning movement and choreography, which is created and blended seamlessly with artistically ambitious lighting and tech, arresting original compositions, and industry-leading design. It’s a total theatre experience. Every element contributes equally to our understanding of the performance.
The temptation can be to write off movement-based or alternative theatre as inaccessible or even haughty, but as a theatre-lover, you would be doing yourself a disservice to take this view. Theatre that doesn’t rely on script and dialogue is opened up even more to interpretation. Gecko’s Artistic Director Amit Lahav encourages this: “We don’t know what the piece is until we’ve performed it because it requires the imagination of the audience to put on that final authorship.”
Taking that concept a step further, speech in a Gecko performance is done in various languages – often the mother tongue or first language of each performer. The result is almost orchestral – the audience zooms their focus out to take in the entire spectacle.
There’s an important place for a theatre like this, which interprets difficult and complex themes in forms that aren’t constrained by words. In Gecko’s short film ‘Movement and Migration’, devising performer Saju Hari accurately remarked, “Talking too much about it, is it a good thing? … Art is one good way to talk about it. We can actually put a mirror up at people. People see themselves and make sense of it beyond words.”
Clearly, this alternative form of theatre is proving popular with current audiences. Gecko is set to take their latest show, Kin, to the show’s commissioners at the National Theatre in spring 2024. We are honoured to be hosting the show’s only East Anglian tour date and debut before it heads to London.
Kin is set to be a beautiful show inspired by Amit’s own grandmother’s story of migrating from Yemen to Palestine to escape persecution as a child. The ensemble of performers comes from all over the world, each bringing their own stories of migration, racism, empathy and home to the intoxicating performance. Gecko encourage you to look inwards and ask yourself, ‘Who am I, and where do I belong?’
Kin is at Norwich Theatre Royal between 14 – 16 Mar.
