Meetings (Arcola Theatre October 2007)

Food serves as a metaphor for the old way of life that Hugh craves. For his wife, Jean, meetings and more meetings is the only way of ensuring she climbs up the ladder in the new corporate world they couple have found themselves.

In 1980s Trinidad, the economy is booming and Hugh and Jean, a high-flying business couple, have every reason to be happy.

But when Nicholai La Barrie as Hugh meets an old woman selling traditional Caribbean food he remembers the meals his mother used to make: he realizes what is missing in his life. Starting with food, Hugh changes his whole way of life. His search for happiness leads him away from swimming pools, a speed boat and Jean.

‘Meetings’ is a darkly comic look at a generation tempted by the fast cars and fast food of the American lifestyle but rooted in a more traditional culture. Their search for an identity, torn between heritage and globalisation, is as recognisable today as it was in the 1980s.

Hugh wants the traditional things in life that his Trinidadian Culture has to offer him; Jean (Inika Leigh-Wright) on the other hand wants a slice of the economic boom in the nation.

Written by Mustapha Matura, who is regarded as one of the finest dramatist of West Indian origin; Meetings is set in Trinidad, his place of birth. It is a play that delves into the loss of cultural heritage and tradition, a clash between the old and the new.

Hugh wants real Trinidadian food, like coo-coo to get back that old feeling of what it means to be home but Jean can’t be bothered to make any because she is too busy with her meetings, a point she reiterates when she tell him, “I’m not ya mother younno,” when her husband makes a point about the kitchen having everything they need except food.

However, his new found appetite for the old way of life is satisfied by Elsa (Davina Anderson), the house-help brought in to help make traditional food for Hugh.

Soon we are faced with class divide as shown through the characters of Elsa and Jean, two different women with separate lives. While Jean has lost sight of her history, Elsa is still very much connected to the old way of life and Hugh has rediscovered his passion for that old way of life, which Jean no longer wants for them as a couple.

Dan Barnard succeeds in his ability to bring to light the questions raised by Matura in this reprised production of Meetings. While it does not tug at you emotionally, it is successful in its ability to provoke thought and question us as individuals about the little things in life which we sometimes take for granted such as family, identity and heritage.

Image: Trini Jungle Juice.com

Pure Gold (Soho Theatre October 2007)

The blue London skyline serves as the scenic backdrop for Simon’s desire to provide for his family. Written by Michael Bhim and directed by Indhu Rubasingham and the return of Talawa Theatre Company to the stage after two years; Pure Gold is a transparent depiction of the realities of the everyday London life of a man and his struggles to provide for his family.

Simon is doing the best his best to ensure the financial well-being of his family, re-gain the respect of his wife and the approval of his son. However, he also feels cheated by the harsh realities of life that surrounds him, especially the lack of job opportunities.

Faced with limited choices, Simon’s decisions are that of a man who will do whatever it takes to be counted as a man in the eyes of those he loves but will his decisions also cost him the respect he is fighting so hard to gain?

A gritty examination of the daily frustrations of life, which culminates in the domestic violence and abuse hailed at Marsha (Golda Rosheuvel) from Simon (Clarence Smith) with their son, Anthony (Louis Ekoku) caught in the middle.

This bold take on one man's struggles with poverty through the eyes of the up-and-coming playwright, Michael Bhim, is compelling and powerful. His ability to take a subject matter that permeates throughout society as it deals with the everyday life and situation of a family shows great promise for this young writer with his first full length play.

The play brings to the surface questions such as, does money really make you important and is life about the choices we make as it reverts back to the old notion of what makes a man.

Pure Gold is an intense and delightful production for anyone who can understand the challenges and set backs of getting by in today’s fast pace world and reiterates that gold comes at a price. It is a snapshot of life and its present day realities.

Image: Richard H. Smith

Shows Through Time

The stage for all its faults is also a strong place for telling it like it is and having no need to apologise.

I have seen a few productions in the years past, even prevous year that have stayed with me for the right reasons. If you are yet to see 'Da Kink In My Hair', I beg you, make time the next time you find out its in town. It will lift your spirit and make you laugh. Trey Anthony is a prolific writer. She knows how to speak to the heart of women.

They are women telling their stories and they tell a good story that is ebullient and thought-provoking.

'The Brothers' by Angie Lamar, helps to understand how men think.

Now if you have never heard of 'TownShip Stories', one words sums it up, Gritty. Just sheer gritty realism.

There were provocative and powerful.

Selah!

Image: http://www.treyanthony.com/1_1-overview.php

What Makes Theatre Great?

"I deliberately look for colourful people. They're are very right for theatre. Theatre has to be theatrical" - Lanford Wilson

CHARACTERS

If you enjoy anything that stimulates the mind then we have something in common. For me, its theatre. There's something about it which makes it so different to other forms of art. Yes, its live, direct and in you face but its the sheer factor that it is life for all its reality, yet it is not real.

Ever wondered what playwrights think about when they create the characters we come to know for those few hours we sit with them, get to know them, sympathise with them and then fall in love with them if we like them. If not, we are more than hapy to see them go to the gallows.

I imagine its like the process of pregnanacy, just less physical and emotional. As a playwright, you carry a character inside you from the stage of conception and then give birth. Same way, you become a lunatic as you hit the keys, puncnhing those words out and soimetimes, you find you have to say those words out loud; inorder to get a feel and rythmn of what they sound like. Guess what, you become a lunatic for them. Poeple even laugh at you and think you have gone crazy. I know, it has happened to me and still does. I talk to myself on the bus and a little while back, a friend asked me why I was having a converstaion with myself? Though my lips were not moving, the characters had me engrossed deep in converstion and I forgot about my immediate surrondings. They had my full and undivided attention.

Same way, an established playright has a relationship with their characters. It is one of the tricks to creating colourful characters. To know them like you know yourself. However, you must also be able to let them breathe and walk on their own. That's why you have to seperate yourself from them and let them tell their story. Like you would let go of your children, when you know its time to stop babysitting them.

Characters are human beings in play, they have a mind and a will. A personality and can their own decisions. They live like we do. They are vicarious about life and if they are dull and boring, they are not afarid to let it show either. Characters are who they are.

Writing my play has meant a lot of thinking and I am yet to scracth the surface of what makes a great masterpeiece. I get nervous that I am might be going down the route of melodrama but if I don't let it flow like it is now, then how will I be able to correct myself and avoid the melodrama I hate in theatre productions?

Time to get back to the paper right before amd write those words ike tomorrow is the day it gives birth to itself on the live stage.

What's This About?

Now that you can tell without a shadow of doubt, theatre is my second home. Anything live and on stage gets the baby in me kicking. There is something about carrying an idea from its conception stage to the very point where you give birth. The whole process is a beauty, creating characters, giving them a voice, watching them grow and become live characters is unexplainable. You just can't match it.

Writing a stage play to me is the ability to create a world that you believe in, a world you can identify with, a world you have lived in and still live in. Writing is about the writers experiences; it might not be their personal experieince but it is theirs because they lived, witnessed, heard and felt it. It is about using your senses to observe the world around you and bring to life.

I am currently writing a stage play for a proposed dissertation and this blogpage is part of my story to creating a whole new world in the next three months. Starting today, 21 October 2007. What does that mean? Basically, I have the right, power and ability to create a text that you or anyone out there will read and beleive every word of it. At least, I pray and hope so. I also pray you appreciate the slice of life I am able to bring to the table in my own little way. The sum total is for you to agree it is possible.

Along the way, I will learn about Dramatic Action, Climax, Suspense, Characters and Dialogue. It is not a process I take lightly because my audience has entrusted me with the ability to create a work that is truthful to its core. An undiluted version of events from my point of view.

Who is my audience? My audience is anyone that will read this blogpage and my script and is able to interprete it based on their socail and cultural background. This is the point where I tell you that the audience interpretation of any stage work is through the eyes of their own personal experiences. They bring a world and wealth of life to the work and it through that lense, they are able to tell you if you are on point or you wasted your time and their time with your choice of story.

For now, I am going to stop here but I deeply urge you to keep coming back to this page and read as it will be updated regularly. I will tell you about my current work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, bring you previews and reviews of some shows and trust me to tell you more as my stage play develops.

However, I have no intentions of telling you who I am. That doesn't matter. What matters is that this work of creativity creates its own identity.

Torn (July 2007 Arcola Theatre)

Natasha finally meets a man who loves her for who she is after a series of abusive relationships. He helps her to aspire and aim high in life; David brings out the best in her. She is his African Queen but there is just one problem. Natasha is Jamaican and David is Nigerian. A war of cultural tensions between Natasha’s Afro-Caribbean and David’s African heritage ensues and heir love is a taboo to both their cultures.

David’s sister, Kemi (Yetunde Oduwole) is adamant her brother will not be seen with a “Riff Raff or Jamos,” terms used to describe Jamaicans in the play. Natasha’s father, Malcom (Brad Damon) describes Africans as “You people.” The irony of the play is brought head on by Freddie (Chris David Store), the only white character in the play, who tells it like it really is, “They are both black, in 'it?”

Torn brings to the surface, the issues of cultural tensions faced by many, who come from different backgrounds, race and culture, and fall in love with what their race and culture deems to be unacceptable. Yet, they live silently with their pain in order to maintain tradition. It questions our prejudices despite the fact that we are of the same tree, we feel such anger towards each another without any reasoning.

What are those personal issues and perceptions we as individuals ignorantly carry about towards people of the same race and heritage because our culture and country of origin is different to the other? When do we stop living our lives in our past history and start living and loving for today?

A witty writing debut by Femi Oguns, who also gives an outstanding performance as David, the acting is as loud, intense and emotionally charged as the dialogue is hard hitting and humorous.

Torn is a thought-provoking performance which displays our ignorance when it comes to the tool of slavery that was used to separate us and we refuse to let go of our anger towards one another for acts perpetrated against us. A tug of emotions run through you as you sit back and experience the pain the characters feel on stage.

Moreover, Oguns succeeds in ridiculing the lazy liberal view of black Britons as one homogenous community. Impressively, he lets these tensions reveal themselves through everyday detail, notably in a hilarious exchange over the different textures of African and Caribbean hair.

While the play can be accused of hinging on the borderline of melodrama in latter scenes, it dares to raise a subject that the ethnic minority community has gladly ignored for years as it silently ravages through the lives of its children.

The Big White Fog (Almedia Theatre May 2007)

Set in Chicago’s South side in the 1920s, The Big White Fog chronicles the story of the Mason family, headed by Victor Mason (Danny Sapani) as they strive to keep their vision of America dreams alive amid the great depression and the racial divide. Family tensions soon ensue when Victor's commitment to Marcus Garvey’s, Back To Africa Movement begins to cripples their dream as a family. Though the movement proclaims its dedication to the freedom of the black man and envisions a day when all African Americans will be free and go back to Africa, where “The hope and destined fulfilment of the Negro’s dream.”

There are people like Daniel Rogers (Tony Armatrading) who consider it to be a flawed revolution and believes their heritage is right there in America. Victor's insistent on investing his family’s wealth in Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line turns out to be a decision that will cost them more than they would have liked.

Emotionally charged, as tensions run high when each character is forced to face up to the vicissitudes life hands to them. The audience gets a raw deal on the dynamics. Jenny Jules' Ella Mason has no voice in the decision making process of her family as Victor takes charge and wants everyone aboard his ship and his dream of Africa.

Lester Mason (Tunji Kasim) has high hopes of gaining a scholarship to go college but his dreams are dashed when he is refused based on the colour of his skin and is made to sacrifice his future for the family when they run into financial trouble during the depression. The use of subtext within the play gives the characters greater depth. Victor Mason’s relationship with his mother-in-law was deeper than just domestic issues. It was a good portrayal of the strain on relationship within the Black community at the time - where one feels superior to the other due to skin tone, education and financial standing - and this is reflected in the relationship between Victor and Daniel.

The Big White Fog was written in 1937 by Theodore Ward, who died in 1983 and this landmark family drama reveals how these battling factions fare during this raw and vivid period in American history.

Novella Nelson's Martha Brooks is the matriarch of the family and Wanda Mason (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is the granddaughter who wants more from life and believes getting an education is a waste because it will get her nowhere in America as long as you are black. “There’s nothing in this country for a Negro girl to look forward to, and you know it as well as I.”

The play is set in the living room of the Masons, giving a homely and cosy feel to the production and the audience is made to feel like they are right in the middle of the action as each scene unfolds. The depiction of the grandmother sewing and Ella shelling real peas was an interesting way of bringing the real world onto the stage. Giving a platform to explore the interaction between the women and men during that time in history and the situations they faced up to.

While the play is a delight to watch as it gives you a glimpse of past life, it also makes you question if Ward’s observation of life in the 1920s has left America today. Is life still a ‘Big White Fog?’

Image: Catherine Ashmore