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Hotel Europa



This is a place - a place like any other place. This place is a hotel, the Hotel Europa'. With these words we are invited to check into an extraordinary Fringe happening in which any ideas that Europe is somehow boring or homogenised are in fact swiftly dispelled.
In a sense, by becoming members of the European Union, we all checked into the Hotel Europa some time ago, hoping for the same sort of reassurance offered by the rousing European national anthem that greets us at the start of this show. Yet the three performers here, Andre Amalio from Portugal, Tereza Havlickova from the Czech Republic and Daniel Somerville from the UK, are not into reassurances.
Instead they want to tell us about their countries' troubled political histories and about their own life stories and those of their parents. There is no director and they have devised the show together using their own experiences and family stories. We are told that each comes from a different background whether, acting, dancing or singing, so I use the word 'performer' advisedly as 'actor' doesn't quite seem to do justice to their multi-faceted theatrical technique and autobiographical candour.
Experimental theatre can feel intimidating but despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Hotel Europa is more, well, playful. Near the start we are split up and invited to choose one of three guided tours, Portuguese, English or Czech. The tiny audience meant that I was alone with the charismatic Amalio as he took me outside the Marquee, pointed to the miraculously blue sky and told me with utmost sincerity that we were in Lisbon. I suspect that the tour you take affects how you relate to the rest of the show. For me, being told about Portugal's Carnation Revolution meant that I was somehow more tuned in to the Portuguese tales than those from the other countries. At times I wished I was able to absorb more of their intriguing narratives, but the deliberately fragmented nature of their delivery and on one occasion the fact that they decided to talk at the same time, meant that this was quite tricky.
It would be a mistake to reduce this to an evening of stories however as there is much more going on here - physical theatre, dance, even opera singing - with plenty of room for audiences to create their own narratives. 'This performance is about rising and falling' we are told at one point and there is plenty of that with the performers collapsing again and again on stage, their almost routine deaths for me saying something about our casual acceptance of the victims of foreign wars and revolutions. The three performers have their work cut out being fully-fledged personalities one minute and symbolic representatives of their countries the next.
I can honestly say that I felt completely invigorated after the show and mindful of how we Europeans can relate to each other so easily and yet sometimes with little understanding of the immense differences in our political pasts. Somerville of course is our representative and there is a fascinating moment when he talks about Aids as if it were a political purge: 'In the Eighties people would disappear for a bit then come back a bit thinner or sometimes they wouldn't come back'. His fellow performers are scornful of his British sufferings and there is a hint of that bitterness in the moment when Amalio opens the Marquee door and invites us to 'feel the air of civilisation' - the freedom we so often take for granted. No wonder I felt excited as I cycled away - I think I was actually feeling that freedom.
Stephanie Billen





Start Now (and other works)

'This intense, political and personal three-piece from Inprocess Collective neatly explored universal themes of citizenship, loss and process -experimental style. Physical theatre, operetta, original props of fresh coffee and live projections fused with audience interaction – tour groups, writing letters and dancing – to create a, yep, collective and powerful experience. These three skilled performers (Czech, Portuguese and English), aimed to push away any comfort zones – emotionally and physically – to make us really think (and feel), and they succeeded. Thought-provoking, innovative and important, Inprocess Collective is one to watch.'
Iambic Arts Theatre, 6 May 4/5

Monica Perdoni in