The vast populations of China and India exceed every other country in the world and in The Accountants we’re bombarded with stats projected on a giant screen: growth, spending, broadband speeds. But although this show, conceived and directed by artist Keith Khan, purports to be about two dominant global powers, it is really a musing on personal identity, an intimate personal drama that attempts to ask the biggest questions: who am I, and what should I do with my life?
The story is played out in voice notes and texts between a young British-Chinese man, Liam (Josh Hart), and his Indian “aunty” Kash (Shobna Gulati). Liam is off to Asia to find himself, and their endearing jokey/profound exchanges are visualised on giant phone screens at the sides of the stage. While we listen to them, we also see them compulsively Googling on their phones while fast-moving words and images fill the backdrop and 12 dancers traverse the stage. You don’t know where to look, eyes darting between moving objects. It’s an effective re-enactment of the modern brain state, but a dizzying dramatic experience.
The dancers come from two companies, Xiexin Dance Theatre from Shanghai and Terence Lewis Contemporary Dance Company from Mumbai, both making their UK debuts. They first appear in matching wigs and anonymous office clothes: the accountants of the title are figments in Liam’s mind, taking stock of his life.
While Liam and Kash’s voices and characters are strong, these dancing bodies are unmoored from identity and vague in function. Xie Xin’s movement comes sometimes in watery waves and eddies, Lewis and fellow choreographer Mahrukh Dumasia show us flickers of flavour, but personal signatures are hard to read. Globalisation here means a muting of identity. On Aviva Studios’ enormous stage the choreography seems underpowered for the space.
It’s an enjoyable and technically impressive show (the design is by Manchester-based studio idontloveyouanymore) but the dance element doesn’t add as much as it could. In their chat, Liam and Kash have a game of asking each other big philosophical questions, but they never give any answers. Khan is exploring what it is to be a second generation immigrant; whether identity is something you have, or something you create, but this journey doesn’t quite lead to enlightenment.
At Aviva Studios, Manchester, until 11 May
