Wonderful online version of three plays and brilliant to be supporting live theatre (thank you Lyric Hammersmith), and contemporary plays and playwriters; these in the forms of socially distanced monologues. Love how online broadcasting allows access to a wider audience.
This three hander features cover a variety of topics - from Gandhi the bemused and enraptured Law student abroad in London by Tanika Gupta; the moving and humorous Roy Williams celebrating a strong woman, mother and security guard in Go, Girl, as well as a poignant History teacher retracing his relationships, his past, his absent Father, painful issues of identity and class written by Simon Stephens.
Beautifully crafted and delivered, and using a minimalist cuboid stage set to become everything from shopping mall to Gandhi's 19th century London, these monologues address life - regret, culture clash, identity, cultural misunderstanding, relationships, what it means to be a woman now at this time in this society, COVID, Lockdowns. I love Gandhi's wonder at female 'freedom' and desire for self-improvement and spiritual enlightenment as an 'overseas student'; and yet am saddened at his seeking to be more British than British through elocution lessons, not being cared for or understood by the society and culture he was in; his frustrations at not being able to find vegetarian food (until, at long last, he does!) Also that Christians let him down - they didn't welcome or include, but made him feel other, and his understated comments of feeling adrift in a new culture and society (as equally as it is intriguing), and huge loneliness, compounded by lack of adaptation to his needs (endless meat!). A huge reminder to care better for everyone, and to be a builder of bridges, not walls. Equally poignant was his guilt at being tempted into adultery by the same 'empowered' British women and his betrayal of his wife and culture and parental expectations; even if much of this is in the mind and not actions. Funny and sad in equal measures.
Roy Williams' creation of a proud black woman was celebratory and yet really funny; also painful too as the mother sought to protect their daughter from making the same life choices they did. Also the storytelling! I love the mother's dealings as a security guard with youth up to no good - always having a comeback for their chat and telling them to 'jog on'. Brilliant! Roy Williams compassion and humanity for the characters he creates is all encompassing, and yet we're not sure how this will end....
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