We have four stars in THE TIMES!!!! So excited! Black is the Color of My Voice at Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Post a comment Print Share via Facebook Twitter Google+ Allan Radcliffe Published 1 minute ago The protagonist of Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show goes by the stage name of Mena Bordeaux but, as the title suggests, the play is a not so thinly veiled portrait of the jazz musician and activist Nina Simone. While this merging of biography and fiction may disappoint hardcore fans, it allows a deeper investigation of racism and the power of music as a political weapon. Campbell may wear Simone’s trademark head wrap and sing some of her best-known songs, but her performance goes beyond mere impersonation. Seen in flashback through the prism of a three-day period of self-imposed isolation from the world, Mena’s life unfolds from childhood musical prodigy, encouraged by her God-fearing mother, to popular success and a fierce political awakening during the civil rights era, via a turbulent personal life. The biographical format is enlivened in Arran Hawkins’s production by a laser-like focus on race. The young Mena is barely aware of her own blackness until she is rejected by a music conservatory in favour of a white applicant. Her outrage at the Alabama church bombing of 1963, which caused the deaths of four black children, stirs the singer to address racial inequality directly in her work. Campbell gives lovely renditions of Simone’s hits, from the protest song Mississippi Goddam to the shimmer of I Put a Spell on You. Refreshingly, with the exception of the final number, Feeling Good, which seems shoehorned in as a rousing means of closing the show, there’s a seamless interplay between the music and the building blocks of the story. The staging is austere but the shifting moods are underlined by MM Plumm’s evocative lighting designs. The face on the publicity material may be Simone’s, but top honours belong to Campbell’s quietly moving portrayal of determination and survival. Box office: 0131 622 6552, to Aug 25 0 comments Apphia Campbell Post comment Newest | Oldest | Most Recommended Livefyre
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 19:02:58 +0000
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