London
BLACK MEN WALKING
by Testament.
4 ****
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1 to 7 April 2018.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm. Mat Th & Sat 3pm.
Runs 89 mins No interval.

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: William Russell 23 March

Being Black in Britain

Three black men are on a fell walk. The weather is far from promising. They chat, they deliver speeches direct to the audience about being British and black. They meet a young girl improbably dressed for the climate who is also coloured, but whereas they are almost certainly immigrants who have been here since childhood – one, a doctor, has a white wife – she is British born, possibly of mixed race. They worry about belonging and have confronted racial abuse. She is not taking any of that. She belongs – as she makes clear in one story about how she dealt with a shop assistant who questioned whether she could afford to buy something and remarked about “your sort” who waste her time.

It is frequently funny and the performances are splendid, each actor rising to the challenges of confronting the audience with his world. The walking the fells is where they escape from the Britain in which they live and confront their past – and their world as Yorkshiremen. It is a play that makes you think about multicultural Britain and how you being white fit in too.

Thomas: Tyrone Higgins.
Matthew: Trevor Laird.
Richard: Tonderai Munyevu.
Ayesha: Dorcas Sebuyange.

Director: Dawn Walton.
Designer: Simon Kenny.
Lighting Designer: Lee Curran.
Sound Designer: Adrienne Quartly.
Movement Director: Steve Medlin.
Voice & Dialect Coach: Hazel Holder.

2018-03-26 10:32:33