Cycle Interrupted an Existential Fun House

The strain of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to exact its toll and in the electric Black Box installation flickering at the National Theatre of Namibia’s Backstage, patrons are enticed to fall boldly down the existential rabbit hole.

Titled ‘Cycle Interrupted’ and concerned with the profound break in normality’s circuits in the wake of a world shuttered and shifted by Covid-19, the installation digs deep to reflect the trauma and the tides of a time in which we are forced to mourn who and what was while simultaneously being reborn as our current and post-pandemic selves.

Featuring the interdisciplinary talents of 10 artists and creative technicians, ‘Cycle Interrupted’ – for all its technical whizzes and bangs – is a surprisingly spiritual experience.

As hooded figures roam around the cyclical spotlight which replays this year’s particular gloom, misery, sorrow, hopelessness, recession, slump, melancholy and fear, the installation oscillates between shifting centres of gravity.

From West Uarije whirling, wailing, throwing tomatoes and seeking a return astride the blue ether of an other-worldly pool to a cryptic, wandering Angelina ‘Tashia’ Akawa emerging from and enticing us into the womb while Mel Mwevi roves, gifts and sings of being “locked up in lockdown”, ‘Cycle Interrupted’ is a sensory feast of sound, light, spoken word, Namibian rhythms, movement and ethereal character.

Though audiences may lament the installation’s lack of a linear and cohesive narrative and the intentional repetition, ‘Cycle Interrupted’ exists as an invitation.

Blackboards invite patrons to write, signs ask visitors to stay, bless or step into the space and the effect is that the installation becomes a ruminative existential funhouse where meaning is made by the people themselves.

As visitors walk through the space, throwing tomatoes, disturbing the cycles, inserting themselves into this world of blue synapses firing, levitating figures and eerie living rooms, performers mirror the conflict, elevation, turmoil, isolation, tranquility and transformation of the global cycle that has been interrupted.

Creatively connoting the collective dread but also acknowledging an intense illumination, the installation is a demanding but oddly cathartic encounter in which the visitor views and moulds the experience as they move through the space.

Immersive, affecting and bound to inspire creatives to explore the exciting possibilities of technical and digital performance art that is sleek and sophisticated without the forfeiture of soul, ‘Cycle Interrupted’ is certainly something special.

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