It takes guts: walking down Rotterdam's Kruiskade with a big wooden cross and shouting "Mason was a fish!" shouting. The drug-addicted residents of St Paul's Church, the dishwashers at Chinese restaurants and waiting passengers at the tram stop look on in bewilderment. Sandro Lima shouts lyrics about Mason the saviour like a possessed religious maniac.
Just before, we were picked up at the Schouwburg by an old man in a white suit singing Suriname, accompanied by a trumpet. In a long string, the spectators walk through the centre of Rotterdam, each time accompanied by a few Surinamese players.
Tjon Rockon is a young, Rotterdam-based theatre maker with Surinamese roots. He stood out in recent years as a performer in performances by Made in da Shade and then as a creator of bold, performance-style shows. Free Mason, based on Surinamese funeral rituals, he made at Oerol. For The International Choice, he adapted it into an urban version, where the whole story seems more in place to me anyway.
The procession ends in an open storage room under a city flat with lots of concrete and metal cages. Here is a large white coffin with a flag over it. There is a dog, drumming, it smells like incense. We are at the funeral of one Mason, but we don't find out much about him. Five men, all suris with beards, all have their own way of dealing with death. It seems to be a kind of fantasy ritual, with religious ecstasy, the pouring of liquor, winti, the handing out of cake, the rhythmic chant of 'iene-miene-mutte' -the audience enthusiastically joins in - and bored resentment.
Mike Lebanon plays the straggler who still has a bone to pick with the deceased: "Open that coffin! Just to verify. Just checking it's not me." His authority gives weight to the performance, while Chiron Holwijn's clownery (with Indian costume, mink cape and track trousers) keeps things light. Is this a serious funeral rite or are we all being made fun of? The absurd and ironic tone is pleasantly ambiguous and reminded me of The Warm Shop and Nik van den Berg.
Then director Tjon Rockon violently breaks into the performance. Throwing chairs around, he accuses the actors of doing nothing: "What is it with you and Suriname, anyway?" It is an odd intervention, especially as he disappears from the stage without much further explanation and the ritual continues as usual, but now with a slightly more sincere tone. The remaining actors all dress in white and take the coffin outside, where the dancing procession ends in a park between some fires.
Thus Free Mason become a rather double-hearted performance, where irony and purity want to stand side by side. If you want to do that consciously, it is difficult, but if you just let it happen, like Lima with the cross in front of St Paul's Church, it is brilliant.
Free Mason can still be seen until 23/9.
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