Trade – Pleasance Theatre

Ella Dorman-Gajic’s Trade comes to Pleasance theatre. A gripping tale with powerful performances by Katarina Novkovic, in the lead role of Jana, superbly supported by Eleanor Roberts and Ojan Genc. Trade follows the life of Jana, who gets hoodwinked into the European trafficking industry but rises to power to claim her autonomy. Trade was awarded an OffComm commendation by the OFFIE Awards.

Trade gives us a taste of some of the manipulation, deception, and violence meted out on women to submit to being involved in the sex trade. It can reflect on the socio-economic politics of gender lack of sexual health awareness of the clientele survivors of trafficking, and modern slavery has to put up with.  

The artistically integrated captions make Trade accessible to d/Deaf audiences and native Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian speakers. The text is especially gripping with its bending of time going back and forth in the protagonist’s life with some expert use of props, change in accent and projections. Throughout the tour, the company will collect donations for the leading UK anti-trafficking charity Unseen has made the text available on sale. Don’t miss this complex hitting piece that does not give us any answers while putting the focus back on the necessity to support charity Organisations like ‘Unseen’ that are doing important work on the ground to build awareness, empower, train and advise communities, business, governments, other charities and statutory agencies to stamp out slavery for good.

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/trade#overview

Reviewer: Anisha Pucadyil

Reviewed: 22nd March 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★★★