Ballad of the Burning Star

Even by the standards of abrupt left-turns go, Theatre Ad Infinitum’s decision to follow up an elegant, wordless weepie about a lonely old man (‘Translunar Paradise’) with a balls-to-the-wall cabaret show about the Israel-Palestine conflict is pretty remarkable.

‘Ballad of the Burning Star’ is essentially a vehicle for the talents of Nir Paldi, Theatre Ad Infinitum’s Israeli co-artistic director, here dragged up as cabaret performer alter-ego Star. Hectoring and bullying his long-limbed troupe of fatigued lady dancers with queenly sadism, Paldi leads them through an anarchic, semi-autobiographical account of Star’s life growing up in the Occupied Territories. The delivery is loud, ugly and surreal, as befits this most awful of conflicts, with Paldi browbeating his hapless dancers through song-and-dance routiune renactments of the deaths of sundry members of his family.

Those of a liberal persuasion need not be afeared – ‘Ballad of the Burning’ star is framed through Paldi’s personal experience, but doesn’t take sides, seeking instead simply to channel something of the madness and horror that everyone in the Occupied Territories faces on a daily basis. Certainly there’s no self-justification: indeed, the devastating ending offers the opposite.

It’s intense, visceral, blackly funny stuff. But it’s also meandering and tangential, with the words to many of the songs gobbled by poor acoustics, and Paldi’s schtick feeling increasingly stretched prior to the shock conclusion. ‘Ballad of the Burining Star’ has power in its messiness, but there’s something to be said for the elegance of the company’s previous work.