For tonight, I booked For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide.. at the Apollo. I had a front-row seat in the Dress Circle - now, I remembered ridiculously tight legroom, here - so I was at the end of a row, and Seatplan said it'd be OK if I leant forward.. Just a few days ago, they asked me to "check in", and thereupon sent me my ticket..
Blasted, boring work meetings always keep me a bit late on Wednesdays - I missed the luxury of the late show starts of the past two days! So, I didn't really have time for a proper meal - headed to Pret, ate quickly. Caught the bus - though I spent so long staring at it, stopped just down the road, that I wondered whether it had actually broken down! Perhaps they've moved the terminus, which is supposed to be around the corner..?
Beautiful evening for a drive, mind, glorious sunshine. On the second bus, we had some fun when a loud-mouthed guy with a Northern Irish accent got on. My, but he managed to start a row with everyone - two people standing on the street where he got on were making faces at him through the bus window, then he started a row with the passengers on our bus who were - rather unwisely - staring at him. The guy opposite him advised them to leave him alone, he wasn't "right in the head", but they were on a roll.. when they got off at the next stop, they were shouting back in at him as well! (Isn't it funny how, when an intervention might do some good, nobody can be found, yet at other times, people won't leave well alone?) Around the same time, the driver told him he'd put him off if he didn't keep quiet. Mercifully, I was getting off myself, the stop after.
Well, that's an unmercifully long show title, isn't it? I climbed the stairs to the Dress Circle, where the doors to the auditorium weren't yet open - got a drink at the bar. No seating.. but the doors opened almost immediately after, and I took my seat. The usher could use a little adjustment in her attitude, mind.. Just a teensy bit snappy.. Also, beware the steps here, they're uneven, and I spilled some of my drink while navigating them. The smoke billowing from stage before the show didn't help.
Yes, that's the view from the seat - Seatplan was dead right, as usual. You really do have to lean forward, and even then the view is partially obscured by that bar with the lights on. Legroom ok, given that I was on the aisle and could turn sideways - which I kind of had to do anyway, from that angle!
My mood was not improved by the incessant, loud hip-hop playing before the start - which was delayed by 10 minutes. I literally had a headache by the time it started. The house was pretty full by then. When the curtain rises, it's to six black fellows, who start with a dance routine - after that, it's kind of like a mixture of group therapy and roleplay, as they relate their experiences as young black men. A poster in the bar gives an extensive trigger warning - well duh, the word "suicide" even appears in the title! Sure enough, there are tales of stop-and-search, of being beaten by an alcoholic father - also someone's description of how black men can try to "better themselves" by "whitewashing" (going to college, acting like a white man), even thinking they're part of the club: until something happens, and they realise they're not.
They kind of lost me when one of them described an incident of "white saviour complex" - i.e. a six-year-old white boy, more popular with the girls than his black classmate, who offers to team up with him. Jeez, damned if you do, damned if you don't, huh? Combine that with the recurrent hip-hop (I don't have anything against hip-hop in general, but I was getting sick of it this evening), and the macho posturing.. the crowd laughing at things I just didn't find funny.. the crowd getting really jiggy with some hip-hop piece I didn't recognise.. and the guys striking a macho pose at the start of the interval, sending the crowd absolutely wild..
I practically ran out of there at the interval. Patently not my thing - I found it far too aggressive, although it certainly appeals to a lot of people. Outside, they had roped off the entrance - I had to squeeze around the barrier to get out. So, not the most successful of evenings! Well, at least I got home early.. Runs until the 7th. You have been warned.
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