KEN TOWL returns to the Fairfield Halls, and is left to wonder where Croydon’s theatre-goers have gone
Stand-out performance: Kareem Perkins-Brown in Bougie Lanre’s Boulangerie. Pic: Bettina Adela
Back to the Fairfield Halls for a second production at the Talawa Theatre in the space of four days. No sooner have they put Anastasia Osei-Kuffour’s Love Steps to bed than they start their run (until Saturday June 15) of a “First On Tour” double bill of Bougie Lanre’s Boulangerie and Love in Gravitational Waves.
Somewhere along the line, something is going seriously wrong at Talawa, the black theatre company that moved to make Croydon its home in 2019, shortly after the Fairfield Halls re-opened following its controversial refurbishment. Last night, as with Love Steps at the weekend, nearly all of the seats in the audience were empty.
Talawa is known for showcasing theatre of the highest standards and offers a space to young writers and talented actors to present their craft to… well, lately, almost no one. Someone, somewhere needs to get their act together and start marketing this jewel in the heart of the Fairfield Halls.
This is what about 150 people missed last night:
In Bougie Lanre’s Boulangerie, Kareem Parkins-Brown plays a version of himself and a string of other characters in a one-man show that punches high, and low. This dichotomy is spelled out from the very beginning: “And if I speak of paradise, I speak of chicken grease…”, and so begins a philosophical and comedic treatise on food and people through the lens of a kitchen worker and his colleagues.
Star-crossed lovers: Love in Gravitational Waves at the Talawa Theatre features Kamilah Storey and Anyebe Godwin. Pic: Bettina Adela
The show is a series of interconnected monologues, some crude, some thoughtful, all interesting. In one of the best, Parkins-Brown soliloquises on vanilla, the second most expensive foodstuff after saffron, so valuable that its farmers sleep with guns on their knees to be able to protect their crop, while also being “the most disappointing ice cream flavour”.
His paean to blue roll is very blasphemous and very funny but I won’t spell it out here because you should go and hear it from the man himself. Not all of the humour lands as hard as it should, but with an audience of only 18 people, he created what atmosphere he could. Parkins-Brown is naturally funny and has a playful way with words that deserves a much bigger audience.
Like last week’s Love Steps, Love in Gravitational Waves is a play about modern dating, and like last week’s Love Steps, Love in Gravitational Waves is delivered by two actors playing more than one role. You thought our marketing was bad? Look at our programming!
Are we missing something?: The sparse audience at last night’s Talawa Theatre performance
The premise, set by Kamilah Storey’s character, Bronwyn, is that the world will be a better place if we step outside our bubbles and engage with people who think differently, so rather than try to match with people who are compatible, she tries to do her bit for world peace not by dating a highly educated middle-class person like herself, she opts for the ex-junkie libertarian misogynist Ishmael (who turns out to be quite personable and complex, and adeptly portrayed by Anyebe Godwin).
They strike up an unlikely friendship and each encounter reveals a little more about them and helps to explain their behaviour.
The supporting characters are less interesting, one appears to be a merely a device to move the plot forwards and the other, the lovelorn bad singer, appears to have no value at all. The bad singing is funny the first time round, less so the third.
That said, the dialogue in the majority of the scenes, which act out a battle of the sexes and explore our differences and similarities, our acts of kindness and meanness, lifts this performance and forces us to confront our own values and certainties. While the themes run deep, the dialogue is fast-paced and easy on the ear, testament to the fact that the words are provided by award-winning hip-hop artist and beatboxer… Testament.
The tragedy is that so few people were there to experience it.
Let’s change that. These writers and these actors deserve to be seen and heard.
Tickets are available here: https://www.fairfield.co.uk/events/talawa-firsts-on-tour-2024
Read more: Amalgam of rap and Shakespeare in search for perfect partner
Read more: Musical therapy that can leave us all feeling much better
Read more: No ‘soft focus filter’ applied to latest exhibition at Art Space
Read more: £67m arts centre – with no art gallery and few performances
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
FREE ADS: Paid-up subscribers to Inside Croydon qualify for a free ad for their business, residents’ association or community group, just one of the benefits of being part of our online community. For more information about being an iC subscriber, click here for our Patreon page
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our near 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, which is featured on Google News Showcase and followed by 16,000 on Twitter/X, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Sadly, we are unlikely to go to the Fairfield Halls again, because of the lack of parking. We are pensioners, and although not disabled, one of our friends cannot walk very far. The only nearby carpark is small, we cannot guarantee getting in, and it and requires Ringo to use it. Alders carpark has now shut. We do not want parking to be an endurance test. What happened to the wonderful underground carpark?
Sadly, it looks like Croydon Council has once again shot itself in the foot and possibly finished off Fairfield Hals by removing the parking.
The Fairfield Halls has its own car park, which does require use of RingGo.