Last month, Body in Progress, an autobiographical play written and performed by Belarusian poet Hanna Komar, debuted in London at Theatre Deli.
Set against the backdrop of the fraudulent 2020 Belarus elections and the brutal crackdown that followed, Body in Progress tells the story of Komar’s ongoing experience with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after she fled her country and settled in the UK. The play explores how trauma manifests in Komar’s body, leading her to dissociate from the world around her.
“In September 2020, I was jailed for nine days for a peaceful demonstration in Minsk,” Komar told Index. “That experience and a lot of police violence that I witnessed or lived through in 2020 triggered the violence I experienced in my family, and all together it made my body and mind dissociate, in order to keep me sane and functional.”
The play features Komar and the Belarusian actor and movement practitioner Sophie Vallee, who together personify Komar’s experience of dissociation between body and mind. Throughout the performance, they physically come together and become entangled then drift apart, echoing Komar’s inner turmoil and illustrating how she is repeatedly triggered by memories of Belarus. We see her attempt to ground herself in the present by following a daily routine and wandering the streets of London.
Photo by Hanna Komar
In a particularly poignant scene, feeling lonely and isolated in a new city, Komar shares a Facebook post asking friends back in Belarus to name the places in London they’d like to visit. She then visits these locations, including the Tate Modern, tube stations, and the River Thames, updating her friends along the way as a means of rooting herself in London while remaining connected to her home country. However, even the smallest trips sometimes become overwhelming as she is flooded with flashbacks.
“I wanted to convey an embodied experience of trauma, which I did through the descriptions of tiny details of my routine and my walks in London,” she said. “How it makes one’s everyday existence difficult, how simple things become hard work.”
In her play, she refers to the works of Dutch psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk and other mental health professionals, who explain how our brain and nervous system cope with trauma and PTSD, and “how healing is a long-term, complex process,” she said.
Vallee powerfully expresses Komar’s inner trauma through movement, elevating the play into a piece of performance art. This allows the audience to grasp Komar’s intense distress from experiences such as her imprisonment in Belarus.
It is also through Vallee’s movements that the audience witnesses Komar’s journey of healing and self-recovery.
“I was grateful that Sophie agreed to work with this emotionally intense and heavy text. Unlike me, whose character was clear, she represents a number of voices, and it needs professionalism and dedication to present them in the way she does during the performance. I think being Belarusian helps with that,” Komar said.
Given that Body in Progress is Komar’s first play and her acting debut, she delivers an incredibly moving performance that left many in the audience in tears. Through a brilliant display of theatre physicality, Komar embodies the image of a woman in exile – vulnerable yet resilient, traumatised yet determined to rebuild and find a sense of home in a new country.
Hanna Komar starred in the play with Belarusian actor and movement practitioner Sophie Vallee. Photo by Hanna Komar
The play also serves as Komar’s tribute to the fundamental role of women in the historical fight for human rights. Through her perspective, which draws connections between dictatorship and patriarchy, Komar unpacks how a woman’s body can both absorb oppression and foster resistance.
“I use a quote in my play: ‘Kafka was the first to comprehend a body as a battlefield for freedom…’. Our bodies are a site of violence and a site of resistance. Being caring and considerate is a good way to resist violence. Collective care is a good way to resist it too. And I believe that when we gather to experience work like Body in Progress, we give ourselves a chance for collective processing, releasing of and resisting to violence,” said Komar.
Body in Progress showed for two days as part of Voila Festival. Komar plans to eventually take it elsewhere. Ultimately, the play is a powerful tribute to the lasting impact of oppression on the self and a crucial reminder that exile is just the beginning of one’s journey to recovery.
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