Unapologetic, experimental, personal.
Voila! Theatre Festival is described as “a place for artists to take risks”, championing multidisciplinary, multilingual and multicultural performance. OFF BEAT absolutely fulfills these requirements.
Daniel Popescu explores identity and belonging in this high energy, experimental performance. The audience enters the Etcetera Theatre to a droning swell of sound, incongruous and unsettling. The set consists of an upright display of a thoroughly used bed covered in condoms, poppers and PrEP (never referred to but used as a screen to change and retrieve props).
Popescu enters carrying an enormous cardboard box and speaking to someone on the phone in a combination of Portuguese and Romanian. Linguistically, much of the audience is excluded by this to great effect, with a few chuckles from some audience members who seem to understand. Popescu keeps us unsettled with pulsing lighting and bass heavy music but very little dialogue as he drinks a beer and eats a packet of crisps. It feels like watching a preshow, waiting for the start, slow and uncertain.
As the show evolves, it becomes clear that Popescu is playing with the absurd and deliberately creating discomfort with his comments on belonging and identity. Popescu has a thoughtful, cerebral approach to playing with speech and remixing it like a hip hop song. This is particularly effective when he is playing a homophobic, anti-immigration public figure. Through repetition and word play, the true meanings in a veiled speech are revealed.
Moments of connection with the audience are created through pop culture references and lipsyncs including Skepta, Doechii, viral X Factor auditions and a very disgruntled Come Dine With Me contestant. Whilst we can intuit that this is playing with what is British and what shapes the culture, it feels disconnected from the rest of the piece which is much more fluid and genre bending.
By far the most grounded and impactful part of this 50 minute performance is a recreation of the ‘Where are you from?’ question that is all too familiar to many of us. As Popescu tells the questioner about being born in Moldova and growing up in Portugal, we watch him fight to be understood and seen authentically. He goes even further by telling us how the often assaulting conversation affects him physically, incredibly visceral.
OFF BEAT employs so many different elements that it ultimately lacks commitment. Popescu gives us a taste of his impressive physicality and hip hop dance background but leaves us wanting more. As if we are watching a rehearsal rather than a performance. Are we missing out?
Deeply personal and at times confusing, OFF BEAT feels unfinished and too insular. With further development, this show could both unsettle and connect to the audience, for now it only consistently achieves the former.