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Main Character Energy
Soho Theatre, London
FOR a flamboyant, self-confessed “attention whore” such as Temi Wilkey there could be no better thing than a one-woman show, which is presumably why she wrote one for herself.
As the focus on a stage-in-the-round, unaccompanied by anything other than a soft pink ottoman from which she draws objects from her past, Wilkey’s role in Main Character Energy is to allow all eyes to fall on her, which is the way she likes it.
Her teenage wish, she says, was to go to Hollywood “where I could have the severe eating disorder I dreamed of.” Now 32 and with her Nigerian genes taking shape in ways she never bargained for, she reflects on the story of her life-in-drama so far, seeking to find out why she’s failed to make the breakthrough she’s been looking for.
One might think that Wilkey’s sob story is (literally) a bit rich, given that she’s the daughter of doctors, privately and Oxbridge educated. But everyone has their crosses to bear and, to be fair, she spends as much time in self-deprecatory mode as she does on contemplating how the colour of her skin and other assorted issues might have affected her chances of landing the leading roles she so craves — not least that of Shakespeare’s Juliet.
In any case, it’s the sharp and often funny dialogue that’s at the heart of the show, rather than any exposition on disadvantage. Tongue-in-cheek and, on occasion, rather subversive about the modern-day language of oppression, Wilkey is not really playing the race card, just letting us see that she has it in her hand.
Cleverly written and neatly put together, the main value of Main Character Energy is the way in which it reveals to us the disappointments and insecurities that befall so many young women with their eyes on the cut-throat world of stage and screen — even those with as much confidence and talent as Wilkey.
For talent she has, in abundance. She’d clearly make a very good Juliet, so someone please offer her the part.
Runs until March 15. Box office: (020) 7478-0100, sohotheatre.com.
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