Those who know me well know that I love theatre. It was a big part of my childhood, I went to numerous theatre productions between musicals, dramas, small plays and pantomimes as a child (many thanks to my primary schools, after school clubs and my family) and have always loved watching musicals (classics, contemporary and animated). Always wished I was a part of them, as I always wanted to write, direct, produce or dance and sing in musicals whether it be on screen or on stage, ever since when I was a pre-teen. I don't necessarily feel that way today, although it would still be amazing.
Naturally, I excelled in Drama at secondary school, passed my dance exams (from Saturday classes) and before that I had the privilege of going to a stage school for a brief period of time after many years of dreaming for that to happen. If I have not mentioned that last part already on my blog, that expensive stint was actually at a prestigious stage school in London that will remain unnamed for the time being considering that my time there didn't necessarily feel so prestigious.
Bitterness aside, I still love theatre. It has been my chosen activity for a few birthdays and many dates even, some of which I have reviewed on my food blog. I even went to see a flamenco show while I was in Portugal (Algarve) for my personal writer's block retreat eleven years ago. As a matter of fact, dance stole my heart from day dot regardless of theatre, thus Tango Fire (the Argentinian dance group) is one of my favourite productions of late as Argentine tango one of my favourite styles of dance. I wish I saw the recent Swan Lake ballet rendition from 2022, as well as the seemingly fabulous Northern Ballet's version of The Great Gatsby that ran briefly earlier this year. Ballet Black (a BAME British dance group) is having their sold out show at Watford Theatre this month but hopefully I'll make it to one of their productions in the future.
I digress, theatre gives me butterflies and great excitement which is why it meant so much to me to finally produce a play in 2018. I am forever filled with great admiration and respect for all parties involved to make it happen. The entire ensemble that participates from the orchestra, to the costume and wardrobe department, lighting department, set design, of course the Actors, Dancers, Choreographers, Playwrights, Songwriters/Composers, Directors and Producers. It's just all so very amazing to me as theatre requires such dedication, creativity, teamwork, synchronicity, patience and skill to achieve "good theatre."
Having heard of Black Wall Street the musical happening in London, via a WhatsApp group page caught my attention immediately, as of course I am aware of the real Black Wall Street (or streets plural- considering the likes of Rosewood, Wilmington, Bronzeville, Oak Bluffs, as well as Tulsa, and a few other smaller ones that went under the radar in America). Thus I wanted to know how this would be portrayed or what side of the story was going to be focused on for their audience. Black History Month is indeed very fitting for this production to take place. So with less than a weeks’ notice and having a very busy schedule between my performances and what have you, I jumped at the chance to see it.
Unfortunately, as the location is clearly made for locals (not so much outsiders it seems), this was incredibly hard for me to find, particularly as I was on foot and not in a car. I really do want the venue management staff to be aware of how dangerous I and no doubt some others in a similar position, found the site to be at night as it was a large complex with different multi-use buildings and a varied car park, with many broken or plainly unavailable street lights. All the above can lead to any amount of accidents or crimes, of which made me very uneasy and upset upon entering the grounds after a very difficult journey to the location. So much so that I felt unsafe and wanted to turn around.
Again, this location was made for cars, cars with their headlights to find their way to the parking bays closest to the necessary building within the complex. In any case, there still should be active bulbs within each street lamp and multiple street lamps/lights around the premises to fully illuminate the grounds. Safety is important everywhere, day or night, especially at night. Neglected safety measures do aggravate me and the stone statues of people and animals DID NOT help with my navigation or heightened anxiety in the near pitch black pathways by the way. I had to laugh between cussing to stay calm. The human/animalistic/whimsical silhouettes within the shadows felt very Tim Burton-esque, this would be a great place for a Halloween party.
Because of all this hassle, I was willing to turn around and go home as it had dramatically affected my punctuality and I was missing nearly half of the show. However, as I was on the phone to someone that was keeping me safe and comfortable, more so the ladies at one of the gargoyle protected buildings within the complex were so nice to me when I interrupted their belly dancing lesson to be pointed in the right direction, as they made me feel so welcomed and more assured to just go ahead and enjoy myself as opposed to turning around and having another exhausting hour long journey home on public transport, to consequently waste money on travel expenses and my pre-purchased ticket. If my patience did not exceed my grief then I would not have got to enjoy the splendour that was to come.
I was an hour late but tried to enter the theatre auditorium as discreetly as I could, as I hate to blatantly interrupt people or distract them from the stage. Luckily the door was in a dark area but it was still towards the front of the stage where everyone could see that it had opened and just stare at you, which was very embarrassing. However I just caught an intense moment of the production that looked like a prison scene straight out of the 1920's. Portrayed well by the signature black and white striped uniform. This again caught my attention of the efforts from the Costume Designers/Director; the way they were styled to suit each character as well as to suit the era. I was also fascinated by the use of the background projection to set the scene well. A good alternative from using theatre flats.
All of these wonderful little details. Again as a theatre enthusiast and as a Filmmaker of course, it means a great deal to me. I enjoy stage production because I literally enjoy every single creative piece being layered on top of one another. The stage design, sound effects, the costumes, lighting, the acting and most certainly the story being told through well written words if not dance, body language and song. As well as the overall theatre setting of the ascending stalls, circles, VIP boxes (usually expensive with bad angles if you ask me) and classic red velvet stage curtains. With that said, I can say that most of those boxes were ticked here despite Millfield being a small (yet ideal) theatre. The songs were sung very well and had heart. The Actors done what they were meant to do, which was to transport the audience; audibly, visually and emotionally within each act of the story being told. To have us feel like we are in that moment.
To have us feel their characters emotions and this play was intentionally emotive. As it would be because it was based on a hard-hitting true story- essentially of the Jim Crow laws that motivated the notorious massacre of a self-sufficient affluent Black area, that had "the audacity" to grow and prosper within their own internal segregated town's economy. The very idea of that reality was an offensive phenomenon to the larger White terrorising population outside of its boarders at the time.
From what I was able to catch despite my tardiness, was that this version was told through the angle of what kicked off the violent mob to come to Black Wall Street, Tulsa. After a young Black man apparently provoked a young White woman in an elevator of some public building. However, it was an accidental misunderstanding to which the lady (factually) even confirmed that he did not harm her, however some of the surrounding White people claimed he had laid his hands on her aggressively and ripped her dress (around her arm).
This led (another word that has changed the general spelling to US English whereas it used to be a homograph “lead/lead” and “read/read”) angry White people to chase him down, considering that it was virtually illegal to flirt with White women in the name of segregation. The young man was beaten and arrested with whatever unjustly charges. Although I missed a great deal of the dialogue, historically speaking it seemed that when the White men found out about the successful Black town that he had come from along with the protesting Black folk that came to defend him, they decided to burn it down and commit mass murder as punishment basically. Needless to say, the accused crime doesn't have anything to do with the serious crime(s) that followed, and the murderers were not held to any legal accountability. It's so sad that they just seemed to need an excuse to eradicate the town and townsmen that offended them.
From my recent research, I learned that much of the Black men who came to defend the young man and protest his arrest (which led to fights and riots), were the ones who ended up getting arrested themselves and some of them either got lynched or immediately put on Death Row. Whereas none of the participating violent White men were arrested. The injustice and arguable compensation owed to the descendants of the 1921 mass murder victim's/home and business loss victims of Tulsa, can be researched more via many news articles, documentaries and YouTube videos.
Inevitably, there were many touching and thought-provoking acts (scenes) in the play. Such as when some of the Black towns’ folk found shelter to run and hide with their surviving family members, if not alone and were arguing about how to better defend themselves; run or stay and fight (to run away out of fear and weakness or to stay and fight with dignity, mental strength and pride). Emotional, subliminal, timeless dialogue and themes indeed. Of course, the story is overall about White supremacy and Black oppression on the basis of a key event. Subsequently with the notion of how that reflects in today's society, which is what was largely felt among us in the audience, going by our synonymous reactions. The audience was mainly Black and mature in age.
We largely felt the pain of what our people go through, have been through and are still going through worldwide. May not be to the severity of a whole town being burned down (although something similar happened in a historically Black town of Colombia not too long ago), but evidently there is still oppression. The present day still presents socially, economically and racially bias issues with the police, unjust legal systems that affects us negatively and so on. Therefore there were different scenes, words and lines within the script that were more emotive with the Black audience members, just because.
All of this within the story plus society today, led to an inevitable Q&A afterwards. Which of course came with many opinions and questions from the audience to the cast and Playwright/Director. It turns out that the Playwright/Director of this was one of the co-creators of the Black Heroes Hall of Fame British musical in the 90's, which was a big hit that took place in the UK and beyond. Some of the young Actors in this current musical were also chosen from a Drama school, handpicked by the Director. Which was a nice fun-fact to know during the Q&A as I can only imagine how exciting this experience and opportunity must have been for the aspiring Thespians.
Much of the questions turned conversational and quickly went to discussions about the current state of racism and anti-Blackness within England (much of the cast were British and Caribbean but portraying Americans for their roles). All of the above was insightful yet expected and unsurprising for me to hear. However, as I am always one to thrive off knowledge and subsequently loves to share knowledge, I refused to remain quiet and passive when the mood of the predominantly Black audience seemed to be falling increasingly pessimistic and doubtful in regard to Black progression and the thought of us having (to maintain is a whole ‘nother debate) another Black Wall Street in today's date, with knowing that history often gets repeated (they keep getting destroyed- burned down, gentrified or taken away in one way or another). It is important to me to give my people, specifically young people and cynical people who may not know any better, HOPE in such regard.
Therefore, I raised my hand to give my little contribution of awareness to the conversation which ended up being way more impactful than I had in mind. I gladly informed much of the audience about thriving Black economies that I have seen in recent years between Africa, the Caribbean and America that have done well and are presently doing very well in regards to Black ownership of businesses, land, homes and schools. These are indeed real places, with real populations of Black residents- with a status quo obviously, protection, isolation vs integration, as well as the ones (towns/cities/countries) in development as we speak. I know this due to my recent travels, conversations and extended research.
Everyone is entitled to go and research for themselves and to physically explore themselves to find out more- RESPECTFULLY SO. What people are not entitled to do, to my face anyway, is to deny the facts of these happenings. Black people have lost alot (I still prefer to write it as the original and familiar UK English “alot” as opposed to the new US English of "a lot") but continue to build alot as well as fight for alot. Thus between the time we still achieve ALOT which I have seen all of my nearly 40yrs of living.
The pleasure and joy within the audience from my proven examples of modern day "Black Wall Streets," was infectious after hearing the positive insights I had to share, especially when I quoted some facts and places. The happy grunts of people who concurred in agreement with some of my mentions, was equally joyful. Followed by the side conversations and approaches that I got after the Q&A had finished and we all left the auditorium, in crowds of what felt like a church gathering (when they all take forever to leave the building as everyone is held up in ongoing conversation and repeated Goodbye’s), made for a very pleasant evening. I was taken aback by the amount of people that came up to me to say that they were thankful for what I had to say or the information I gave.
It was quite humbling as I could tell that some of them just needed to hear that glitter of hope, as opposed to being brought down with the regular news of police brutality, corporate or academic mistreatment, high unemployment rates, crime, lack of development, complaints of struggle and topical set-backs that get far more mentions and airtime. Constant gentrification of Black areas or neo-colonialism of Black countries, all of which are naturally draining and can encourage self-hatred which I have NO TIME FOR. I wanted at least some people in the room to feel PROUD and not so frustrated or embarrassed of the shame and sorrow that is often brought to Black communities internationally due to systemic racism and historic issues, regardless of conflicting opinions.
When I saw the change in the face of a particular young person a few rows away from me, transform from disappointment at what was just said before me in regard to our things always being destroyed or taken, to then going to an immediate smile when I spoke of Black middle class areas and Black owned hotels in certain countries that I had just visited, their smile melted my heart and affirmed my need to add to the conversation.
All in all it was a good night out and worth the transport trouble, for the most part. It was a good play. There was great energy from the cast and audience. The Q&A was encouragingly interactive and the cast and crew were gracious with that, as well as with the many pictures we were all excited to take with them in their costumes!
I will forever be grateful for the lovely women who were sitting near the door that I entered from but stayed standing still because I did not want to distract the audience, and I could not see a damn thing to assure my safety if I was to attempt to walk to my seat! I actually have brilliant eyesight (ask my Optician), but for the life of me all the rows of seats next to the door were pitch black just ready for a lawsuit hazard! Thus I kept myself still, waiting for the lights to brighten. The women sitting nearby noticed this and three of them held my arms to guide me to my seat, up a few hidden steps, safely. That was so sweet! I haven't experienced that level of kindness from a group of strangers (who also didn't know each other by the way) in ages, I nearly fell over anyway just out of shock!
Two other nice moments were when; a woman sitting behind me believed that she recognised me as a performer and when I confirmed that I was a Poet/Spoken Word Artist, she said that she has definitely seen me perform before but could not remember where. It was my voice that triggered her memory as well as my "beautiful" baby cheeks if I do say so myself ;-)
Secondly, someone came up to me after the Q&A, while I was speaking with some other audience members in the foyer and said “Miss, you have such a strong presence about you. From the moment you spoke you didn’t need the microphone. You just have such an aura and commanding presence. Thank-you for what you shared.” I was so taken by that. What a night!
Check out more footage on my Instagram page @LkReelDeevah.
Love Lauren
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