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It’s Saturday afternoon, the time is 2:20pm - and the 68 bus that I’m on is taking its sweet time to get to the stop I need. I have anxiety... 2:26pm and I’m running now – organising in my mind what to do first. Get ticket or use bathroom? The last time I came to watch a theatre show here I was bursting to go and had to leave halfway through... so I NEED to use the bathroom 2:29pm and I’m on time. Breathe! I mention my journey - my usual frantic journey - where time is a constant challenge, to give you a Fairview of how living in this high demanding city for some... isn't a Fair-f**k@%g-view at all!  Talking of stressed out - the statistics in the UK are currently through the roof for Black Mental Health... have a read... Fairview? I enter the auditorium... (like actually inside where the production is) for this Saturday Matinee... and join (with some hesitation as you don't usually have to wait inside) the 'Lucky Dip' line. The line appears to be made up of the under 40’s and ethnic... so, I join... Verbatim Tall Brown Skin Man (30ish): Have you got a ticket? ME: Yeah Tall Brown Skin Man (30ish): Oh. So you don’t have to queue then, you can just go to your seat Beat ME:Oh Beat ME: So what are you all queing for then? Tall Brown Skin Man (30ish): We couldn't get a ticket, so we have to wait until the beginning of the show to be seated ME: Oh I hesitantly move away from the queue... away from the non-white under 40's to take my seat... Fairview?  I struggle with the concept of luck... I cannot comprehend things just happening... because, well they happen?! And the way my sychronicity is currently - I have a belief system whereby I read (maybe too much) into the clues from the cosmos.  Could it be, that as I transcend out of my working-class, survival mode mentality... I think I can control my future? Therefore, superseding luck... is this a fairview?? A quick digression but check this out and see the 9 Signs That You Are In Survival Mode:
To further my journey - not to the theatre but in my alignment with cosmic energy I do not see my colour as either good or bad luck - see my review on CATS on how the black cat, played by a white male became good luck. The state of affairs regarding class and race in this country is only a reflection of the sickness of those inflicting pain - and as someone who is being hit - my mind (at times) transcends to a calming, peaceful realm as there... there is no pain! Back to this reality... So I take my seat on the 5th row, 1 in from the sea of white faces that are already in theirs and remember that I was shouted out on twitter because… well, because of the lack of black faced audience members and black faced reviews.  Before the curtains open I know that the people on stage will, unlike the audience, look like me and my prediction is right. What seems to be a play about a middle-class African-American family reverses the racism of socially constructed labels back on... well the labellers. And attempts to deconstruct like never before! The twists and turns and ultimate chaos the play presents and causes internally, in real-time, is something that you just have to experience.... but trust me is a necessity for the status quo and left me in complete and utter shock! It looks unapologetically into racial constructs and stereotypes which I loved - and mixed and messed with the middle-class (also White) image of beauty and perfection and the grotesque, ugly (Black?) image.  Without going into too much detail and spoiling what are crucial parts of the whole production, this plays title - under investigation - gives a Fairview of just how some of us experience a world that is the polar opposite.  What I found extremely satisfying is its attempt to close the 'safety gap' in a White English audience not fully taking responsibility or feeling the effects of racism because of the obsession with presenting Black American stories... therefore it is White Americans only that are evil. Fairview is innovative, exciting, challenging as well as uncomfortable and disturbing, but this is the point and this is theatre. If you can (if you're lucky) go watch it at the Young Vic asap... it finishes Thursday 23rd January! Acting ✮✮✮✮✮ Directing Nadia Latif ✮✮✮✮✮ Writing Jackie Sibbles Drury ✮✮✮✮✮ Comments are closed.
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