FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26
OPEN CALLS
From Shoreditch to St James and back to Shoreditch for four open calls, which Chloe soon realized were pretty useless.
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY & NATIONAL GALLERY
We had a quick picnic in Soho Park and ran through the National Portrait Gallery. The Gallery is man heavy — busts of men, paintings of men, men, men, men. But we did find some photos of women (by women), some photos of famous African Britons, and a few contemporary portraits, like the one of Amy Winehouse.
We popped into St. Martins in the Field, then over to the National Gallery where we stood in the lobby surround by young people off for school break. With only limited time and energy, we bee lined to some masterpieces, especially enamoured by Van Gogh’s sunflower painting. Then to some Italian masters from the 1700s, then back to the Tube and our East End Airbnb for a quick dinner and to dress for the theatre in Trafalgar Square.
“MISTY”, AN EVENING AT THE TRAFALGAR STUDIO THEATRE
The ideas in Keith Piper’s “Go West, Young Man” were echoed in the play, Misty, by Arinze Kene. Instead of dealing directly with labels like Piper, Kene called labels “the virus.” When the play begins, the virus is the “black” man, later it’s revealed that the real virus is the “white” man, and the anti-virus is the “black” man. This one-man play tells a story of a young man, estranged from family and society, who hits a white man on the night bus and is then pursued by police. After a long chase, the police kill him. Parallel to the telling of the story is the story of writing the play itself.
The audience is privy to Kene’s internal monologue, exposing the process of writing a play fraught with complications inherent in juggling opinions and pressures about how he as a “black” man should depict other “black” men. In addition to being incredibly physically demanding, the play is creative, evocative and real. Kene employs video, balloons, recorded voices and live music (the musicians is also a character in the play). Over the two hours of raging, waning and waxing, Kene manages to capture and evoke every possible emotion. Brilliant!
