Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Shouldering the burden of history
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a resonant play on the black British experience, then and now
BMW 26/3/18
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
Black Men Walking
Royal Court, London
POET, rapper, beatboxer and now theatre-maker — Testament is a man with many strings to his bow.
Encouraged by Eclipse Theatre's artistic director Dawn Walton — also the shrewdly adept director of this show — and inspired by David Olusoga's 2015 television series Black and British: A Forgotten History, he set about writing Black Men Walking by climbing the Peaks alongside a group of black men who climb them monthly to catch a break from their very different daily lives.
Exploring centuries of black British history from John Moore, a Freeman of the City of York in Tudor times, to one of Britain’s first black footballers Paul Canoville, the play is a stark reminder of both historical and current racial injustice in Britain.
But it's also a portrayal of hope and perseverance, located deep within the personal experiences of four superbly crafted characters.
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