The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer
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The Gift of vision
KATHERINE M GRAHAM sees a play which draws illuminating parallels between the troubled lives of two black women living in the mid-19th century and today
This right-wing conspiracy theory is used to justify the coercive measures against gender, race and labour rights that best serve capitalism, attests GAVIN O’TOOLE
KENNY MONROSE recommends a new exhibition that highlights the significance of Black British music
ANGUS REID is bowled over by an exuberant film about the making of Keith Jarrett’s legendary concert
MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
The Gift
Theatre Royal Stratford East
JUMPING from 1862 to the present and back again, Janice Okoh’s The Gift charts the experiences of two black women, both called Sarah and both navigating the racial politics of their historical moments.
More than 150 years may separate them but they share some disturbing similarities — two threatening worlds lurk outside comfortable drawing rooms, with invasive visitors intruding and social interactions structured by racial bias.
Okoh’s smart script portrays a world in which the British social rituals of tea and politeness work to mask and hide how colonialism is still a cultural issue. Act Two’s powerful final moments, as Simon Kenny’s wonderful set opens up and modern-day Sarah (Donna Berlin) is transported away, demonstrate the real extent of the pain that causes.
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