REVIEWS
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
On TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp 
London Review
London Review’da Kink in my Hair
|
If you really want to know what’s going on with a woman, especially a black woman, you have to look at her hair.
---- Trey Anthony |
Toni Anderson, D’bi.Young and Rachael-Lea Rickards
(Photo: Gary Manhine) |
’da Kink in my Hair comes to the Hackney Empire, the London borough where, now a resident of Canada, Trey Anthony was born. From its beginnings in 2001, it has been a hit — in Toronto, at the New York Fringe Festival and in San Diego. There is a television series spin off currently in production for showing from June 2007. In Hackney the original Toronto cast is reassembled.
There is of course a special intimacy between a hairdresser and her clients. The salon is where confidences take place, where as the hairdresser busies herself, the client gets one to one attention and is listened to with sisterhood and sympathy. The salon proprietor, Novelette (Karen Robinson), takes a back seat while the women tell their stories but I watched her reactions, the sincerity, the involvement she shows with the unforced drama of each revelation.
The show opens with some introductory choreography and a history of black women from Diana Ross, via Angela Davis to Beyoncé. There is a chance for the characters to show their moves to the traditional sounding song "Tialo Tiah Leh" and "Beauty" by Amina Alfred. Shawnette (Quancetia Hamilton) leads the monologues with her story of her man who she helped through medical school, to promote his career at the expense of her own. She planned her future with him, only to be cast off for a younger model and for her to be left to sing her woeful song of betrayal and rejection. Lisa Codrington plays a Church going matron (Patsy) who tragically loses her son to gang warfare.
Sherelle (Abena Malika) is the successful career woman who is put upon by her family and friends, expected to step into the breach in every crisis as well as holding down a high powered career. As a black woman, she is expected to say Yes to the boss all the time. Despite having a PhD in Economics from Yale, she tells us that she has to put up with taunts of getting her job through affirmative action, or that she has slept her way to the top. Sharmaine (Rachael-Lea Rickards) is an actor, a soap star who is Lesbian and has the challenge of not being accepted for herself. The final monologue is from the remarkable dub poet D’bi.Young as Stacey Anne, the little girl from Jamaica who has moved to Canada only to be abused sexually by her "uncle".
The show reminds a little of the divulgences of The Vagina Monologues but ’da Kink in my Hair is much better in that the stories are more rounded, bleaker in places and never mawkish. The choreography is vibrant, the mood one of understanding and compassion. The beauty business and the indignities we suffer in the name of beauty are ever present and something most women can relate to and laugh at. There are a few songs to change the pace of the evening and the show ends as it began with a celebration of dance and sisterly humanity.
|
‘da Kink in my Hair
Written by Trey Anthony Directed by Weyni Mengesha With: Karen Robinson, Quancetia Hamilton, Lisa Codrington, Toni Anderson, Satori Shakoor, Abena Malika, D’Bi.Young, Rachael-Lea Rickards, Zena Brown Set and Costume Design: Julie Tribe Lighting: Steve Lucas Choreography: Ma’at Zachary Musical Direction: E’Marcus Harper Vocals/persussions: Amina Alfred Keyboard: Thompson Egbo-Egbo Sound: Paul Gavin Running time: Two hours twenty minutes with one interval Box Office: 020 8985 2424 Booking to 25th November 2006 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 9th November 2006 performance at the Hackney Empire Mare Street London E8 (Tube: Bethnal Green or Highbury and Islington and then a bus) |
|
London Theatre Tickets Lion King Tickets Billy Elliot Tickets Mary Poppins Tickets Mamma Mia Tickets We Will Rock You Tickets Theatre Tickets |
