'Portrait'

Where: Rich Mix

When: November 12, 2017 at 7:00 PM.

About the Makers:

• Racheal Ofori: She is the writer and performer of this show. Inspired by her own experience as a black women living in London, she tries to examine the identity and role models of stereotypes, challenging them through dance, music, poetry, and humour. Since her graduation, she has worked in theatre, television, and radio; and in 2016, she performed in Kenneth Branagh’s Romeo & Juliet at the Garrick Theater. Racheal success with Portrait led to appearances on BBC2 and BBC Radio 4. Follow her on: https://www.facebook.com/RachealOforiActor/ and https://twitter.com/racheal_ofori
• Kate Hewitt: She is the director of this play. The first time she directed Rachael’s work was in 2015 and she continued working with her in the promotion of this theatre play. Kate won the JMK Young Director Award in 2014 and the Inaugural RTST Director Award in 2016. She was also named as one of the Variety Magazine’s "10 British to Watch in 2017." Follow her on: https://twitter.com/misskatehewitt
• Rachel Bowen: She has been working behind the scenes in theatre for 25 years. She has been working with Fuel practically since the company started. She was the production manager of Portrait.
• Fuel: This theatre company produces a significant programme of work (live, digital and across art forms) for a large and representative audience across the UK and beyond. They collaborate with artists with fresh perspectives and approaches that seek to explore their place in the world, expose their fears, understand their hopes, and create experiences that change them and the audience so that they can empower everyone to make a change on the world around us. Follow Fuel on: http://www.fueltheatre.com/home and https://twitter.com/FuelTheatre

The experience: Theatre is one of my biggest passions. I have attended several plays and also created my own. This play was quite surprising, especially because the description I read on the internet didn’t show how good and interesting it was. The scenario was very simple. Everything was black and it was divided in four parts, each one with an object. The lighting was also very simple, usually blue or a combination of yellows, but sometimes it was red and purple, depending on what the actress was doing on stage.

In formal terms, everything was perfectly well designed; every transition and all the hidden objects around the scenario appeared as a surprise and also very well related to what she was showing to us. She showed different roles and stereotypes, making her change the way she talked, moved, and acted, which was made in a very professional, clean, and beautiful way, always taking care of details and showing all the possibilities an actor has while performing and creating a play. I must say, she is an amazing actress and I understand why she is very successful as an actress and writer.

The story she created was not linear; this means that there was not just one single story to follow; instead the audience could experience different situations and stereotypes that a black woman usually lives during her life. Some of those stereotypes were specifically about race, like the black old lady singing gospel songs, very similar to the ones we see at movies; there was also this teenager in her last year, living society demands of choosing a university, starting working, and making something useful of her life (this can be thought as a very normal process, but the way she acted, it was a black young lady during counseling meetings at her school, something that can be easily supposed as normal due to movies and TV shows), which transitioned into the stereotypical white British teenager and the opportunities they have at studying in universities like Oxford, but complaining about it as if it was a very hard life to live.

The most interesting thing about the way she changed from one to another is that at the end she actually ended up talking about the difficulties about being a women in general, without thinking about race, class, or nationality. At the end, even taking into account those differences, being a women is a demanding thing to be, you must think about make-up, being an angel to everybody, but at the same time being dirty in bed with your partner. You must me smart but sensible. You must be a mother, a sister, a daughter, a worker, a wife, a friend, and who knows what else at the same time. She manages to question all those musts that society and tradition ask from women, all of them perfectly well-strung together through dancing, singing, and speaking, using all the things she had on stage.

There was a moment where she spoke about tradition. It is very common in London to find people that were born here, but their parents were born in another country. The tradition they have is a combination of both and it seems to be a duality you must live with all your life. In the case of the place, this “original place” was Ghana. She even ware a typical headscarf and danced as she is supposed to as black and as Ghanaian. This made me think about Latin American traditions and what Londoners are expecting to see, making me question the stereotypes, but also giving me reasons to know more about my traditions and the place where I come from.

At the end of the play, the audience seemed very happy with the result and in general the comments about it were very positive. I was very glad to have the opportunity of being part of this event and I am looking forward to see something of Rachael again. This show is thought for a young and older audience and how it is set up is really good for small and alternative spaces, so that it can be more intimate and challenging. I hugely recommend this show, which I found political, funny, entertaining, and profound.