Talawa Firsts on Tour – Fairfield Halls, Croydon

Talawa is one of the UK’s most outstanding black theater companies, championing black excellence in theater over the past few years. In the past they have produced shows such as the Olivier nominated A place for us and the Offie-winning production of local black classical composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Recognition. Their latest offering, part of Talawa Firsts, an annual program celebrating new work, is a double bill, Bougie Lanre’s bakery and Love in gravitational ways.

The former opens the evening and is as unconventional as its title. Bougie Lanre’s bakery is a one man show performed superbly by writer Kareem Parkins-Brown. Parkins-Brown stars as a character named Kareem who is a chef at what could be a burger joint or possibly a fine dining restaurant or possibly both as Bougie Lanre’s bakery defy convention everywhere. Kareem the character (or is it Kareem the writer/performer?) breaks the fourth wall throughout as he tells the story of characters who either work in the kitchen or front of house, including Ahmed, the crazy house manager, Feletia, Jesus. loving Mary and the Chief’s wife, all wonderfully brought to life by Parkins-Brown. Along the way there is a ghost, a belching and yawning oven and other surreal objects.

Bougie Lanre’s bakery it’s a genre-defying hybrid of a show, part stand-up, part philosophy lecture (in a good way) and uses many theatrical devices that somehow blend together. There’s gorgeous lighting, a quirky video of kitchen scenes, on-screen chapter titles, singing, miming, dancing, freestyling (a type of rapping) – all mixed into a joyous, life-affirming theatrical stew. Parkins-Brown is a totally captivating performer who has the audience in the palm of her hand. At times it felt like a gospel service, with the audience responding to Kareem, giving it a call-and-response feel. Parkins-Brown is also a superb writer, each section melting tightly into the next. The part where he’s told his salary is being cut in half and how he can only live in half of his apartment, but which half since the toilet is on one side and the kitchen on the other, is funny. All in all Bougie Lanre’s bakery is a wonderful piece of theatre, superbly written, perfectly directed by Phillip J Morris and energetically performed by Kareem Parkins-Brown – a star in the making.

Bougie Lanre’s bakery is followed by Love in gravitational ways by the acclaimed playwright Testament. This is a much more conventional piece of theater about the problems of dating these days when you have to use apps. It is a double played by Anyebe Godwin and Kamilah Storey. They both play two characters, but the main ones that hold the play together are naive, working-class citizen Ishmael (played by Godwin) and middle-class, career-professional Londoner Bronwyn (played by Storey). . Ishmael is sweet and gentle and no match for the sharp-tongued and sarcastic Bronwyn who is just getting out of a relationship with a married man and is looking for a new man. Along the way, we meet a couple more characters that intertwine with Bronwyn and Ishmael, but they are secondary to the narrative and sometimes seem superfluous.

The problem with Love in gravitational ways is that it doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before and their journey doesn’t really surprise the audience, although there is a weird twist at the end that may have caught some of the audience by surprise, even though it’s a bit ambiguous. The direction, unlike the play that goes on, is not as clear as it should be, with one of the characters having his back to the audience in one scene and other scenes where, for some reason, the characters are behind scenes talking to background music that is too much in the foreground; There is also some unnecessary furniture movement that distracted from the action.

The double bill is about to go on tour before returning to Talawa’s home in Croydon in June and I hope it finds an audience that will enjoy it as much as the one I saw it with. Personally, I would change the order and then the audience would leave the theater with a big smile on their face and the memory of Kareem Parkins-Brown, his energy, the cast of characters and their joy fresh in their minds.

Bougie Lanre’s bakery

Love in gravitational ways

Review by Alan Fitter

Love in gravitational waves
Testament writer
Director Brigitte Adela
Cast Anyebe Godwin and Kamilah Storey
Producer Samantha Nurse

Bougie Lanre’s bakery
Writer Kareem Parkins-Brown
Director Philip J Morris
Cast Kareem Parkins-Brown
Sound Lo-Wu Producer Samantha Nurse

https://talawa.com/