Echoes of Nuwa: The Last Human Project at Omnibus Theatre Review
Written by Cathie for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
When designing the perfect being, what would you include? What materials would you use? How can you avoid harm? These questions are posed as part of Echoes of Nüwa: The Last Human Project. A beautiful and captivating retelling of the myth of Nüwa, the Goddess who created and sacrificed herself for humanity.
Created by Muddy Lolos Theatre Group and directed by Daniel York Loh, this show looks at the highs and lows that humanity can achieve. With the premise that the Goddess Nüwa created both the Muddy Lolos and humans in her image out of mud, yet after she sacrificed her body to save them all, humanity destroys itself with a press of a few nuclear buttons. Therefore, the three Muddy Lolos servants of the Goddess have been reawakened to reform humanity so they aren’t a dangerous mess this time.
Through an echoed and distorted recording from the Goddess, they work to create a utopian society which doesn’t make so many holes in the world again. Using a viewing platform, they tinker on and observe the humans through flash forwards of a century at a time. At first, they assumed it was easy and create humans who are the height of “appropriateness”. This doesn’t work for humorous reasons, and through much experimental action in adding anger, creativity, dreams, and power, we observe the dark twists and turns humanity often takes.
The themes of balance, the importance of democracy and hearing every individual’s voice, the right to freedom and the importance of honouring the environment were clear and expressively showcased throughout with dynamic strength. The performers Chia-Yi Chan, Jinyu Dan and Qianyi Wang have fantastic chemistry together and perform with the ease of seasoned actresses. They each had an equal role in this show and worked hard to support each other at every turn. It was refreshing to see a show which so heavily centres the female characters and storylines, and felt very empowering to watch. This show had its debut at the Omnibus Theatre ahead of its run at the Edinburgh Fringe.
For its very first performance, this show was remarkably impressive and felt polished yet bursting with enthusiasm. This was an incredibly interesting and multi-layered show that fuses traditional Chinese myths and storytelling with Western theatrical performance. It is a brilliant melding of these two different formats, and it got more fascinating the longer it went on. Its running time of 1 hour is perfect for keeping the story’s momentum tightly wound and with slowly increasing tension. Muddy Lolos is clearly a dynamic theatre group to watch for future amazing productions. If you enjoy powerful retellings of myths, inventive use of props, fantastic actors and a riveting storyline with a brilliant twist ending, then this is the show for you.
★★★★★
