Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Tayo Aluko. Music performed by Martin Robinson.
The 20th Century is littered with the notion of celebrity, arguably even more so in the image conscious/obsessed world of the 21st Century. As time moves on though, that celebrity becomes more about wanting to be known rather than what for and more importantly what you are willing to take a stand for and willing to sacrifice over. How many people, how many modern day celebrities would stand firm in the eye of the American public and be resolute against the evil that the McCarthy Hearings, America’s political low point at the time, were setting out to destroy for example? For a handful of men and women, notably Arthur Miller and his dramatic response in the exceptional The Crucible and Paul Robeson, a man ahead of his time but a true trailblazer in the fight for equality in the lives of Black Americans, stand out.
In Tayo Aluko’s inspiring story, Call Mr. Robeson: A life, with songs, Paul Robeson, singer, actor, gentleman and speaker against a system that was designed to breed inequality and suspicion of those looking for change, the man who could command an audience of 10,000 plus to stand in Liverpool’s Lord Street in 1949 and hear a performance of such worth, history and the man was brought to life once more.
The thoughts of anyone can be seen as being compartmentalised, neat, ordered, a library in the mind and the place where storage is of a premium. The setting in the Unity Theatre reflected this as surrounding Mr. Aluko were different piles in which certain stories, memories and keepsakes were placed. From the picture of Robeson’s father, a man who distinguished himself by taking the huge personal risk in fighting for the right to be free and who became a successful man of the church, to the huge impact that meeting his wife Eslanda had on his career and his life. Even when other’s women’s names cropped up and the confession of having fallen in love with them, Eslanda was still there right up to the moment of her death, an event that seemed to have more devastation on the artist than could probably be thought of at the time; all were there pointing him in the direction his life would take.
Following the story of someone’s life can be a tricky affair. What to include, what to leave out, what to steer clear of, all in which to tell the story of the person to their grandest appreciation. There was no sense of editing, aside for the sake of time, in Mr. Aluko’s wonderful salute to the life and music of Paul Robeson and the sounds that washed over the audience was keenly adored and stirred a passion within the Unity Theatre crowd.
Call Mr. Robeson: A life, with songs is uplifting, a true hero of the 20th Century brought back to life and one that has not been diminished by the passing of time. Mr. Aluko deserves fulsome praise for his portrayal of the man behind the music.
Ian D. Hall