Tag Archives: racial divides

Misty

Trafalgar Studios, Studio 1, London *****
Review of performance seen Sept 13, 2018:

© Helen Murray, Mya-Napolean as his young sister, Arinze-Kené writing, being an artist - ain't easy...

© Helen Murray, Mya-Napolean as his young sister, Arinze-Kené writing, being an artist – ain’t easy…

Sometimes you just know you’ve seen the future. I missed seeing Misty at the Bush. I can only imagine that for once, the transfer has settled it into an even better, more appropriate venue. For this mostly solo tour de force and `force of nature’ as he has already been dubbed expands to fill the larger Trafalgar Studios space as if built for it. Continue reading

What Shadows

Park Theatre, London (***)

© Mihaela Bodlovic, Ian McDiarmid as Enoch Powell delivering his `River Tiber' speech in 1968

© Mihaela Bodlovic, Ian McDiarmid as Enoch Powell delivering his `River Tiber’ speech in 1968. In the background, Amelia Donkor as `black’ academic Rose Cruickshank.

`Rivers of blood’, as Enoch Powell’s Birmingham speech in 1968 about immigration was famously dubbed. Except he never really said that. Like so much else we call history, it was a moniker adopted by the press out of an illusion the politician, fond of quoting from classic scholars made: `like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood.’ Yanked out of context, it stuck. Continue reading