Review: IMAGINARY NATURAL BEINGS, VAULT Festival
Mojola Akinyemi writes a vivid exploration of what it means to navigate life as a black woman.
"I want to remember. I want to be deconstructed" says writer Mojola Akinyemi's Girl in imaginary natural beings. A vivid exploration of what it means to navigate life as a black woman ensues. From playground racism to workplace discrimination, we follow her as she rakes through her memory to pinpoint her unresolved trauma and heal from a bad break-up. The problem is that everything in her life is unresolved and she is repulsed by herself.
Akinyemi juxtaposes emotional intelligence against the clichés of a lousy therapist. Played exquisitely by Darcy Dixon, The Girl is a vibrant, complex, and complicated character. Her overwhelming sense of alienation emerges from overly curated language and a penchant for introspection while Dixon delivers a soft, delicate performance, introducing an individual who's jaded in her vulnerability.
The Girl is wonderfully crafted textually, but the quality of her part screeches against some of the others, the therapist's especially. Annie Haworth's portrayal is appropriately grating, but the role isn't as sophisticated in its caricature. Jack Medlin, Genevieve Labuschagne, and Adam Mirsky join her to haunt The Girl's life.
She grows up an outsider, going through flimsy friendships and bad dates, dodging abuse when she can, but giving into it when she is too exhausted to avoid it. It's a carefully observed piece. Directed by Issy Snape, it's dynamic and multidimensional. Snape cages the actors in tubular mosquito nets when off-scene, surrounding Dixon with a visual compartmentalisation of The Girl's world.
While her vision is precise, a few instances clash with the rest. The fourth wall is broken twice in a production that doesn't lean towards that direction and the show takes a weird absurdist turn at the end. It's unclear if this is a hint at the deterioration of her mental health, but it feels like an attempt at a clever way out.
Still, the eloquence of The Girl's pain and the coarse cynicism of her worldview are an unapologetic representation of the universal Gen Z sentiment. This is a company to watch.
From This Author - Cindy Marcolina
Italian export. Member of the Critics' Circle (Drama). Also a script reader and huge supporter of new work. Twitter: @Cindy_Marcolina
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Review: BERLUSCONI - A NEW MUSICAL, Southwark Playhouse ElephantMarch 30, 2023
Silvio Berlusconi. Il Cavaliere, the knight. Entrepreneur, television mogul, right-wing leader. Famous for his scandals, fraudulent deals, chummy attitudes with despots and other questionable figures. Cruise ship singer. Laughing stock and controversial political powerhouse. Does he deserve a musical that glamorises his exploits and explains his side of history even though we’ve heard nothing but? He doesn’t, but you can leave it to the English to try and fail to spin a tale of power misuse and faded grandeur into a feminist elegy. The award-winning producing team behind Fleabag want to paint the Italian tycoon from the eyes of the women he abused. Written by Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan from an original idea by Alan Hayling, it’s unnecessary and so lacking in politics that you come out of it having learnt very little about the protagonist except that he gets away with it.
Review: GONE TOO FAR!, Theatre Royal Stratford EastMarch 29, 2023
Set on a housing estate in South London, the piece sees two brothers being sent out to the shops by their mother. Yemi was born and raised in England while Ikudayisi has just moved from Nigeria. The cultural clash is striking and, while the text has been slightly modernised with coups like the addition of face masks, 15 years are a long time and the racial discourse has somewhat become more sophisticated since then.
Review: MARJORIE PRIME, Menier Chocolate FactoryMarch 26, 2023
Jordan Harrison’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist is a reflection on mortality that doesn’t dare to go into the depths of the matter. It ends up being rather stagnant philosophically and anthropologically, but Dominic Dromgoole’s latest production is a delicate take. Running at 85 minutes on paper but around 70 in reality, the piece’s greatly sophisticated performances and sleek look save it from its redundant nature.
Review: WASTED, Lyric HammersmithMarch 25, 2023
Running at around 50 minutes, it’s snappy and positively Gen-Z in pace and subject. Fernandes crafts a script that wanders from deliciously colloquial to slightly expository, but remains solid throughout.
Review: CONTEMPT, VAULT FestivalMarch 19, 2023
While the writing is gripping and Gabrielle Nellis-Pain’s performance is excellent, there’s something missing. Catherine’s colleagues are ancient ghosts through the hallowed corridors as she puts on a sleazy, raspy voice to portray them against her well-spoken main character.
