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.
