Bigmouth
It is hard not to be slightly envious of Valentijn Dhaenens. Dhaenens, with his sinister charm and understated charisma, takes to the space like a soul possessed in his eighty-minute solo tour-de-force of sections of infamous, famous or the more obscure speeches from world history that make up Bigmouth.

Accompanied only by a set of microphones, with which he is able to interlace pieces of text with beautiful a cappella soundscapes (most notably his take on ‘We’ll Meet Again’, totally different from soldiers’ sweetheart Vera Lynn’s 1939 original), Dhaenens effortlessly takes us to a mass rally in the Congo, a cave in Afghanistan, or a radio recording booth in Nazi Germany.

At times Bigmouth is highly unsettling, and I would like to think deliberately so. Decontextualised, these speeches must be judged on their own oratory merit, by what comes across as rational and reasonable to a 2013 audience. In this regard, it is Hitler’s Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels who comes out on top, delivering a more controlled and digestible speech than his deranged American counterpart General Patton, whose words are accompanied with a wide-eyed and bloodthirsty performance from Dhaenens. Likewise, it is Osama Bin Laden, rather than George Bush, the supposed defender of the free world, who comes across as more thoughtful, and, dare I say it, sympathetic. With this in mind, Dhaenens has perhaps missed a trick in revealing from the off who exactly he is mimicking; perhaps the audience would leave the Soho Theatre with more to ponder if they hadn’t known from the outset who they were listening to. I personally would have felt more challenged if the sections of text had been totally removed from some of the most notorious characters in (for the most part, modern) history.

Dhaenens’ own Belgian heritage also shines through; three of the speeches come from Belgium’s own history, including its shameful colonial past. Patrice Lumumba, whose biography is about to be showcased in the Young Vic’s A Season in the Congo, makes a rallying cry for Congolese independence, while 30 years later King Baudouin abdicates, unable to agree morally with his government’s decision to legalise abortion. In this regard, Big Mouth also acts as a history lesson, and a hugely engaging history lesson at that. Our last trip to Belgium comes from a speech from far-right MP Frank Vanhecke, addressing sympathetic Americans with his islamophobic diatribe and warnings of Europeans “becoming strangers in our own country”. Vanhecke is clearly a highly dangerous and offensive individual, and so I found it uncomfortable (and utterly baffling) to find my fellow audience tittering merrily throughout this piece. I would assume (and hope) that this wasn’t Dhaenens’s intention.

Dhaenens is undoubtedly strongest when not delivering the speeches in English; he appears freer and the performances are far more engaging. It is the rather ropey American accent that lets Bigmouth down, with George Bush’s southern drawl coming across as quite laboured, a far cry from the electrifying Goebbels or Lumumba seen earlier. That said, Bigmouth is a thoughtful, intelligent and highly charged piece, be it performance art or theatre, and it deserves a bigger audience than the sparse one I was a member of last night.

Bigmouth is on at the Soho Theatre until 13 July. For more information and tickets, see the Soho Theatre website.