Skip to main content

allie-liu
16th October 2014

Review: Amsterdam

Chanje Kunda excels in her one-woman show at the Contact Theatre
Categories:
TLDR

Colanders, mini lightsabers and slanted furniture give an interesting aesthetic to Chanje Kunda’s new play Amsterdam, which mixes drama with performance poetry and art. We were fortunate enough to watch the play’s world premiere on Friday 3rd October in the intimate space of the Contact Theatre—and it certainly didn’t disappoint! As we follow Chanje through a year of her life, we experience her first trips to Amsterdam, which lead to a new relationship and causes her to re-evaluate the way she looks at her life in Manchester.

Chanje is a very likeable performer and despite at times the play becoming bogged down in metaphors, especially towards the end, she is an inclusive entertainer and the piece has a conspiratorial tone. The overtly comedic sections present a very warm and familiar setting—as if we were gossiping with a friend. The crowd responded with laughter throughout the play, raucously so at the use of a megaphone to evoke the voices of friends and family; and the subversion of conventional terms used for emails into tongue-in-cheek flirtation.

This symbolism of material goods to express something more intangible is used throughout the play and it begins with freedom being poetically described as “your own roof” and other household appliances. The link between the product and experience remains strong, with Chanje coupling the excitement of her new life—and man—in Amsterdam with luxury apartments and fast cars. The doomed nature of the relationship probably hints more closely at her real views on the connection between commodities and happiness, short-term gratification and long-term contentment.

This is epitomised in the play’s denouement with a second performance of a poem about her son—which also features a recording of her son reciting along with her. It focuses on her son’s love of the rain and, as such, represents a return to, and realisation of, Chanje’s maternal responsibilities. Through the return to a love that is based on natural closeness rather than the enticements of luxury shows the hollowness of her love in Amsterdam and the pureness of that for her son.

Chanje exceeds all expectations as a one-woman performer; her ability to embody several characters (somewhat stereotypically) is both humorous and believable. Having no one else on stage to bounce off of or prompt makes the fluidity of her rhythm and rhyme all the more impressive.


More Coverage

My Beautiful Laundrette review: Nationalism, racial tensions, and political turmoil

Lacking a fresh political perspective, entertaining with classic tunes and compelling design, My Beautiful Laundrette takes stage at The Lowry

Come From Away press launch: A community show for Christmas

A special preview of The Lowry’s non-Christmassy Christmas show inspired by remarkable true events from 9/11

Brilliantly slick and thoroughly enjoyable: UMMTS ‘Alice by Heart’ review

You would have to be mad as a Hatter to not enjoy this Wonder-ful performance by UMMTS

Imitating the Dog’s Frankenstein review: A literally electric reimagination

Imitating the Dog creates a physical and electric reimagination of Shelley’s story, filling any pockets of confusion with drama and tension