Creator and Director: Surya Dev Chandra<\/b>
The experiences of those who need to migrate to countries, including the United Kingdom, form the foundation of Freedom, a multidisciplinary visual arts project by Unity Arts Collective and\u00a0Surya Dev Chandra, created in collaboration with migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
The piece is part physical theatre, part puppetry, and also an art gallery and exhibition. A path is laid out around the dance space, with facts about the migrant experience mixed in with artworks. The audience is encouraged to move around the space throughout, although the pathway itself is a little too simplistic to sustain movement. By the time Chandra begins his part of the performance, the exploration of the exhibition element is generally complete, and the audience resumes their seats on the space\u2019s bleachers (although in current weather, the presence of fans focused on the seating may have some influence there).<\/p>\n
Although puppeteer James Frost, who also acts as an Emcee for the project, advises that the work is not designed to be presented to a seated audience, it works best from that vantage point. Multidisciplinary artist Ester Ricci crafts dynamic backdrops from coloured liquids, chains and other materials that lose their impact when audience members walk across the projected images.<\/p>\n
Chandra himself, who starts the performance curled in one corner, comes alive later, but his initial frenetic movement around the space feels aimless until, after scrabbling through a mound of sand, he uncovers a mask. When he dons the mask, his character transforms: his movements become more deliberate and measured, a change amplified as Frost helps him into a full-body puppet suit.<\/p>\n
Both the mask and suit have a rough-and-ready, homemade feel, shared by a couple of other life-size human puppets in the space. Chandra alone manipulates one, presenting a couple entwined in devotion and support. The third comes to life as Frost encourages audience members to handle its head, arms, and legs. Slowly and tentatively, Chandra\u2019s character leads the audience\u2019s puppet across the terrain of the space, into a small boat as Frost manipulates a shark around their feet.<\/p>\n
Sound artist Jesu Piceno accompanies all the movement, combining recorded sound with live percussion, woodwind instruments, and vocalisations from both himself and Ricci. While the haunting soundscape occasionally cuts out, it remains a highly atmospheric backdrop.<\/p>\n
Other puppetry involves a series of storks, which Frost flies around the space or lands on a nest where an egg hatches into a hungry chick. It\u2019s in moments like this that the piece\u2019s work-in-progress nature is brought to the fore. Several ideas in the piece feel like they haven\u2019t yet cohered into a single work. Nor do some of the themes introduced in the exhibition text \u2013 including the UK\u2019s policy of indefinite detention for asylum seekers, or that up to 90% of migrating children experience PTSD \u2013 feel like they have a presence in the performed work.<\/p>\n
Then again, a single performance piece is only a sliver of what Freedom offers. This project encourages participation from those who have experienced, and are experiencing, forced displacement. The puppets, artworks and exhibits have been created through ongoing workshops, imbuing them with a sense of community that brings its own layers of importance.<\/p>\n
As an individual performance piece, Freedom may not feel as ready and polished as one might hope. But it is a glimpse into an ongoing work that may not \u2013 and perhaps should not \u2013 ever feel truly complete.<\/p>\n
Runs until 16 August 2026<\/b>
Camden Fringe 2026 runs until 30 August<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Creator and Director: Surya Dev Chandra The experiences of those who need to migrate to countries, including the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1150336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,309430,312816,393,312817,48437,4884,312818,312819,257,293559,6080,312820,2764,16,15,312821],"class_list":["post-1150335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-camden-fringe-2026","tag-chisenhale-dance-space","tag-england","tag-ester-ricci","tag-freedom","tag-great-britain","tag-james-frost","tag-jesu-piceno","tag-london","tag-physical-theatre","tag-review","tag-surya-dev-chandra","tag-theatre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unity-arts-collective"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117100492051335568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1150336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}