Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
Cast: Abby Melia, Craig Shanda.
Liverpool Theatre Company 20 Stories High has the knack of producing theatre that grabs you by the thought processes and shakes them out of their modern complacency. Arguably one of the most forthright companies, 20 Stories High make theatre not only relevant but they hold a mirror up to a society that at times allows itself to sink to a depth before seeing one person rise high above the trench line. This is arguably never more so in their production of Keith Saha’s wonderfully self-incendiary play Black.
The pulsating music provided by Craig Shanda as the young aspiring D.J. and recently moved to the area Precious is perhaps in keeping with the idea that boundaries change, that music like attitudes should be taken for what they are, able to change society, able to offer a different view point. It throbs in the ears of the audience and asks keenly why some would baulk at listening to it for a minute or two and seek refuge in what they know and understand for eternity. It is that question that is at the heart of Black as 16 year old Nikki, a young council estate girl sees the explosion of hatred aimed at Precious and his family, the object of the estate’s wrath, as the status quo is shaken as race, immigration and the absurdity of hate at someone else’s background comes steaming home to accuse.
Brave theatre should always be applauded; it is the reason to keep vigilant against any rising tide of extreme behaviour that threatens peace and understanding. Depending on the era you were born into, these tensions have been part of your life in one way or another and yet compared to other countries, the U.K. has got off lighter with such views being kept to those who uninformed opinions espouse hatred to a minimum. Keith Saha’s incredible piece of work highlights though that underneath the public face of acceptability, still lurks the heart of the bully, and that their tentacles run deep and plucking away like a ravenous, hairy spider at any form of anger that shows its teeth.
If bravery be applauded for writing such a piece of glorious theatre such as Black, then for Craig Shanda and especially Abby Melia, the performance was near absolute and astounding. To take to the Playhouse Theatre studio stage and deliver an hour of such monologue, the words rebounding like bullets fired into a vacuum cleaner, spinning the emotions of the audience who perhaps had seen such vulgar behaviour before or who knew someone who had experienced the language of the unenlightened and attitudes of an era that we hoped had been left far behind, this was delivering a tale to a new and daunting scale.
Keith Saha shows the darkness that’s in us all unless we keep vigilant on our thoughts but couples this with a possible light, that if one person can change, then so can all.
Black is an exceptional piece of theatre that raises many questions in modern day Britain and why those questions are still being asked.
Ian D. Hall