EDINBURGH 2015 - BWW Reviews: LABELS, Pleasance Courtyard, August 8 2015

Labels is a piece of theatre which examines how and why we label people. Written by Joe Sellman-Leava, he draws on his own experience of racism based on his multicultural heritage. Despite being born and raised in Devon, Joe has been asked many times where he is "really" from. His dad is of Indian descent which accounts for his slightly darker skin tone.

Joe is a very engaging performer and has a knack for storytelling. He opens with some statements about immigration, from the likes of Ed Miliband, David Cameron and Katie Hopkins. Having successfully riled the audience, he then goes on to tell us about his own background and the prejudices he has faced. One particular section where he talked about his use of Tinder and the way one woman talked about his "foreign" appearance made my jaw drop.

Throughout the show Joe uses sticky labels to literally label his audience. Joe uses the contrast between the labels and his family stories to make his point about how "migrants" aren't just statistics in the newspaper.

This is a very human, honest and often very funny approach to how society needs to label people as one thing or another.

Ticket information for Labels can be found on the edfringe website.

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