Review: Lady Blackshirt

Exploring the development of radical ideologies during the modernist era, Lady Blackshirt surveys the fragility of society and politics in the early twentieth century, and how these remain reflected in the polarised state of affairs today.

The film is born out of DecadeOnline, a larger project where Impermanence commissioned 100 artists to respond to early modernist artifacts and magazine articles. Lady Blackshirt is a compilation of selected extracts, with added choreographic works filmed in Bristol’s Old Vic. The ‘collage’ style film is structured into 8 ‘chapters’, each exploring defining modernist themes such as free will, consumption and patriotism.

Directors Josh Ben-Tovim and Roseanna Anderson (who also feature in the film) say it was “a bit of a behemoth project, being initiated and turned around in just 6 weeks”. After being told Old Vic’s stage would be available to use for a few days they “rushed to pull a cast and crew together” with an “amazingly collaborative energy” coming together to complete the five performances.

Featuring dancer Kennedy Junior Muntanga and musician Andy Balcon. Photo: Impermanence

Placed throughout the film, these duets and solos have a simplicity which makes them a highlight. The stage is barely-lit, the costumes are basic and the gravelly tones of live vocalist and guitarist Andy Balcon provides a raw accompaniment. The uniform style of these segments offers the film a sense of cohesion to the otherwise collage-style piece, with the pared back style allowing viewers to take in the choreography.

The opening duet Immortality and Lost Love (performed by Chihiro Kawasaki and Kennedy Junior Muntanga) is sultry and sweeping, and the performance offers a pulsating start to what quickly unfolds into an audacious piece. Later, Kawasaki is joined by Roseanna Anderson who perform to a recording of Suffragette Mary Richardson, who would become leader of the women’s British Union of Fascists (and from whom the ‘Lady Blackshirt’ reference relates to). The gestures are intelligent and unfold fluently with the speech, showing how effective mime can be for storytelling when the movements are chosen with subtlety.

The film has style, and there are some quirky and satirical performances which push the thought-provoking themes. Performer Tom Cassani hangs from the theatre’s ceiling via a rope attached to his hair, which provides an eerie silhouette to add drama to the provocative themes touched on in the film. A man eats roast chicken from a bath in a segment on consumerism, and later, a denim-clad roman collapses into the sea in a chapter on imperialism and patriotism. The inclusion of footage from Bristol’s 26th March ‘Kill the Bill’ protest offers some prominent moments for reflection on our lives, and for locals, these really bring the film to home.

Featuring Tom Cassani. Photo: Marta Vitiello / Impermanence

Directors Ben-Tovim and Anderson have taken on an ambitious task to distill such a broad range of politics and ideas into an hour long piece. However the flitting and eclectic collage conveys the interrelationships of these well. For this reason, it’s probably well worth watching it twice in order to fully appreciate the film in its totality.

Lady Blackshirt is available for download from Bristol Old Vic online until 30 May: bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/impermanence-lady-blackshirt.  Once downloaded, your video remains live until this date.

Main photo: Featuring Chihiro Kawasaki & Roseanna Anderson. Credit: Impermanence / Marta Vitiello

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