Between Two Worlds: A Review of Becoming Benno
There's something very vulnerable about watching a person stripped down to their essential self, standing alone in a sterile room with nothing but hope and a backpack. This is where Ben Voss places us in Becoming Benno, his deeply personal solo show currently running at Theatre on the Square.
The premise is deceptively simple: a South African actor finds himself detained at Sydney Airport, his Australian permanent residency visa suddenly in question, his wife and child waiting anxiously on the other side of immigration. What unfolds over the next 55 minutes is far more complex. It’s a meditation on identity, belonging, and the courage it takes to reinvent yourself in middle age.
What strikes you first about this production is how it captures something uniquely South African in its DNA. There's an energy here, a particular way of meeting adversity with humour and humanity that feels like coming home. Voss doesn't just tell us about his character's struggle; he embodies it with the kind of authentic vulnerability that makes you lean forward in your seat, invested in every bureaucratic hurdle and emotional revelation.
The beauty of Becoming Benno lies in its intimate scale. With nothing but a simple set representing that liminal space of an immigration holding room, Voss transforms the theatre itself into a pressure cooker. There's nowhere to hide in a one-person show, no ensemble energy to fall back on when the spotlight gets too bright. It's theatrical high-wire work, and Voss largely succeeds in keeping us suspended with him.
His portrayal of Ben (part alter ego, part universal immigrant) is both sweet and achingly real. You recognize this man: the over-preparer who's memorized every detail of his application, the performer who uses humour as both shield and sword, the husband and father whose dreams are tangled up with the welfare of his family. Voss inhabits this character with such specificity that when Ben's confidence cracks, revealing the fear underneath, it feels like watching someone you know struggle with their deepest insecurities.
The supporting characters that populate Ben's ordeal — the meticulous border officer Mr. Brody, the visiting grandmother Arisha, the working-class cleaner Jared — are brought to life through Voss's skilled character work. Each offers a different perspective on belonging and displacement, creating a rich tapestry of voices that prevents the show from becoming too insular. These encounters serve as both comic relief and emotional counterpoint, reminding us that immigration stories are as varied as the people who live them.
Yet the production isn't without its challenges. Solo shows demand relentless momentum, and there are moments where Becoming Benno settles into valleys that feel static rather than contemplative. The narrative occasionally seems to circle rather than progress, testing the audience's patience even as we remain invested in the outcome. These slower passages might reflect the real tedium of bureaucratic limbo, but they sometimes work against the theatrical energy that keeps us fully engaged.
But when the show finds its rhythm, which it does increasingly as it builds toward its climax, the emotional payoff is substantial. Without revealing too much, the resolution brings a catharsis that feels earned rather than given. There's a moment near the end where Ben's journey from anxiety to acceptance crystallizes into something beautiful and heartbreaking, and you might find yourself unexpectedly moved to tears.
What makes Becoming Benno particularly resonant for South African audiences is how it captures the specific weight of our national conversation about staying or going. Every South African knows someone who has made this journey, has wrestled with these questions, has stood in some version of this room. Voss doesn't offer easy answers about whether immigration represents escape or opportunity, but he does offer something perhaps more valuable: recognition of the profound complexity involved in choosing to remake your life elsewhere.
The show's success on both local and international festival circuits becomes clear in the watching. This is storytelling that travels well because it taps into universal themes of reinvention and belonging while remaining grounded in a specific cultural experience. The humour translates, but the heart of it, that particular South African ability to find lightness in darkness, gives it depth and authenticity.
Becoming Benno succeeds because it doesn't try to be more than it is. It's a conversation between one man and his choices, played out in the most mundane yet consequential of settings. Voss has crafted something both intimate and expansive, a story that feels like a warm embrace even as it explores the cold realities of modern migration.
For anyone who has ever stood at a crossroads wondering which version of themselves to become next, Becoming Benno offers both mirror and compass. It's theatre that reminds us why we tell stories in the first place: to find ourselves in someone else's journey and to discover that we're not as alone as we sometimes feel.
Becoming Benno runs at Theatre on the Square until the 28th of September.