24.02.05
A show celebrating the life of Cambodia's '10th Dancer' reaches London This weekend. 'The Continuum: Beyond the Killing Fields' will be performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London between Friday 25 and Sunday 27 February.
Based on Pol Pot’s massacre of the royal court dancers of Cambodia, this documentary performance arrives in London after successful runs in the USA, Berlin, Rotterdam, Vienna, Singapore, Phnom Penh.
It is the life story of 75 year old Cambodian woman, Em Theay, master dancer of royal classical dance in Cambodia. This is a unique form of dance which has women cross-dressing in male roles. Em Theay has survived the scourge of the Khmer Rouge to live on, teaching her skills to the national troupe after the trauma.
This story of dance, passed through generations of mothers and daughters, becomes all the more horrific when one learns that 9 out of 10 royal dancers, along with musicians, actors, playwrights, poets and artists, were killed by Pol Pot in his fanatical attempt to set his country back to year zero.
Pol Pot’s vision was to realise a peasant nation of self-reliant agricultural work brigades modelled on Mao’s China. Reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s genocide, teachers, doctors and even monks were executed. Those who spoke French, English or who had studied abroad, were likewise killed. Simply having fair skin or wearing glasses was cause for execution.
Em Theay, often known as the 10th dancer – the one who survived, tells her story. Persecuted for being an artist, she never falters, a conscience, a memory of the gash which tore Cambodia apart.
This TheatreWorks production is performed with shadow puppets, music, dance, Khmer language and English. For more information visit www.ica.org.uk.
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