Physical theatre company Ephemeral Ensemble are known for their hard-hitting fusion of drama, music and startling visuals. Their show Rewind was one of my top shows of 2024.
Uprooted is “a tropical-punk, ecofeminist rallying cry inspired by the voices of displaced peoples and frontline environmental defenders”.
Four women are on stage as performers: Eyglo Belafonte, Josephine Tremelling, Louise Wilcox and Vanessa Guevara Flores. Alex Paton, noted for his dance, theatre and film compositions, provides the pulsing live music.
Devised by the company and directed by Ramon Ayres, Uprooted tells the story of Europe’s invasion, desecration and abuse of the Latin American forest communities.
Vanessa Guevara Flores opens the piece, setting the scene of how women in Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil nurtured the trees to provide for their families.
The rise and intrusion of European capitalism was a literal and metaphorical rape of these places, destroying nature, attacking women, causing floods and devastation.
Ephemeral Ensemble don’t hold back in evoking this world, and the events that followed. With clever lighting (designed by Tremelling), use of props, and performances that are breathtaking, harsh, and emotionally strong, Uprooted brings its story home with a fierce clarity.
Wilcox has perhaps the most shocking scene, as she is violated and left alone on the parched ground where familiar foliage once flourished. It brought a few audience members to tears.
Elsewhere, the horrors are briskly and savagely depicted, from terrorising and burning a home to bartering a contract with blood. There are moments of beauty as the flood floats over the audience and traps Guevera Flores in its watery grasp.
Ayres’s music captures the urgency and grief of Latinas as the show progresses. The movement from all four women and the brief moments of speech – sometimes addressed to the audience, weave a powerful tale.
Belafonte’s rage at the interlopers is as potent as it is ultimately powerless; a moment where she and Guevara Flores cavort in the waves humanises their future plight.
Uprooted is a cry for comprehension of what brutally upending a world can do. It is often disturbing, sometimes tense, always compelling.
There’s no need to be obtuse or subtle, this is a show that grabs you by the arm and forces you to experience the raw state of Latin America today, while offering resilence and hope.
5 stars.
You can see Uprooted until 25 Oct at the New Diorama Theatre. Tickets (all under £20) can be purchased here
Image credit: Alex Brenner