J'Ouvert

 

When: 3rd July 2021 (Matinee)

Where: Harold Pinter Theatre, London

Writer: Yasmin Joseph

Director: Rebekah Murrell

(Spoilers ahead)

This play follows the story of three young women taking part in Notting Hill Carnival, two of whom are African Caribbean and one who is of Asian decent. With themes of community and activism, it creates a strong message whilst exploring an entertaining and uplifting story. There are moments that pull at your heart and moments that make you want to dance!

Before the play had even started I was surprised and excited by the demographic represented in the audience. It was not the usual white, middle class audience that I was so used to seeing in a west end theatre. The majority of the audience was made of people with a similar ethnic heritage as the characters in the performance. This made the entire atmosphere of the audience and the play really different. Instead of sitting quietly and talking amongst themselves, the excitement of the audience was clearly visible. It was as if this was a celebration, they were all joining together to have a good time.

Throughout the play itself, there were strong cultural references that helped to link the play to the community it was representing. At many points the audience joined in, singing along to the songs and finishing phrases of characters, which I had never heard before. It was clear that they felt themselves in the characters and the setting of the play. That they knew exactly what the characters were feeling because they themselves had been through it. This, along with me not even being able to understand their accents at points, made me feel like I was an outsider. That it wasn't my place to be in that room and watch that production. I felt like sometimes, I was being watched, that they knew I would never fully understand what I was watching, that they were waiting to see how I reacted. This was the most important thing I took from the experience. I will never understand fully how it feels to be discriminated against or hated for my skin colour, but in that moment I had some sort of understanding of how it felt to be the minority, and for this I think this play is so important. I am so happy that there are people out there making theatre like this.

One of the most prominent moments for me was the 72 second silence. I could tell by watching it that this had a relevance to something, I could tell it was important. The audience made absolutely no noise, this moment was completely different to any other point in the play. It had silence and stillness where the rest of the was loud and freeing. After leaving the theatre, I researched this and found that this was reference to the fire in Grenfell Tower. The 72 seconds represents the 72 victims. After knowing this it made the moment even more significant. I think this is another great thing about these sorts of references, they get people to go away and research. Through knowledge and understanding change is so much easier. 

Throughout the production the way Gabrielle Brooks and Sapphire Joy switched quickly between playing the characters of Nadine and Jade to a group of men known as Blockhead and Mini-me, was really effective. Their acting during these moments was amazing through the changes to their physicality and their vocal expression, they made it so believable. I also found the multi-roling when they played the two old Caribbean men very funny. From the reactions of the audience they obviously all knew people like this, and these relatable moments made it all the more enjoyable.

Another stand out moment was Jade's speech, this moment felt removed from the setting of a theatre. I felt as if I was at protest, there was a buzz in the auditorium added to by the cheering and clapping of the audience. It was powerful. At the end, the audience started to clap loudly agreeing with what she had said, I however found it difficult to know whether to clap or not. I ended up identifying with the character of Nisha (Annice Boparai), I want to help the fight but it is not necessarily my fight. I feel that I am unsure of how to do this without stepping on peoples toes, and looking like I'm taking part just for the sake of hopping on a bandwagon.

I massively enjoyed myself during this play. There were a lot of moments where I wanted to get up and dance. There were also a lot of moments that I found quite funny, even when it felt somewhat targeted at me or when I didn't fully understand. I think a lot can be learnt from this play and I hope to see more productions like this soon.

I think I've learnt from this that if you want to encourage people to go to the theatre they need to hear their own stories. Stories they can relate to, and stories to inspire them.

This has also sparked off some new thoughts on the ideas of diversity in the theatre industry, which I hope to post about soon.