Tambo and Bones - Stratford East

[theatrescribe]

Tambo and Bones is having a 'Black Out' performance. The website says:

As part of the run of the show, we will be hosting our first ever BLACK OUT performance on Wed 05 Jul at 7.30pm.


While this performance has been arranged for Black audience members specifically, no one is excluded from attending.

WHAT IS A BLACK OUT?

“A BLACK OUT night is the purposeful creation of an environment in which an all-Black-identifying audience can experience and discuss an event in the performing arts, film, and cultural spaces – free from the white gaze.” blackoutnite.com

Thoughts?

[n1david]

The Almeida did Black Out performances of both The Clinic and Daddy.

[showgirl]

I subscribe to an organisation which often emails me about these performances; now they sometimes have a discussion afterwards and a discount ticket code. However, for one thing they're (understandably) always on the less popular evenings, eg Monday, but for another, even though this specific announcement says no-one is excluded, I've never felt it would be appropriate or fair for me to attend.

[londonpostie]

So 'white gaze' is about the creative process, at least as conceived by Toni Morrison.

This is another American writing about his experience with it, several years ago:

www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/04/515790514/writing-past-the-white-gaze-as-a-black-author

[cirque]

My god. Imagine if any other theatres start doing white out events,….what terrors would be unleashed.This move is divisive and helps no one create a unified arts culture.

[Jan]

My comment is why are they staging a play about 300 years of African American history ? Why not something more specific to their local black community ? UK theatre’s absolute obsession with all things American is odd - they’d no doubt be quick to condemn American cultural imperialism in other contexts but they (and audiences) seem happy to be subject to it in the theatre. The same thought occurred to me walking past the Book of Mormon theatre, subject matter of absolutely no relevance to UK audiences at all.

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

May 21, 2023 14:55:49 GMT Jan said:

My comment is why are they staging a play about 300 years of African American history ? Why not something more specific to their local black community ? UK theatre’s absolute obsession with all things American is odd - they’d no doubt be quick to condemn American cultural imperialism in other contexts but they (and audiences) seem happy to be subject to it in the theatre. The same thought occurred to me walking past the Book of Mormon theatre, subject matter of absolutely no relevance to UK audiences at all.

A fair enough position to hold, but minstrelsy was on British TV until the late seventies (or the mid-2010s if we want to include Little Britain and Come Fly With Me...) so this play might not be such an unreasonable import.

[londonpostie]

Can't quite join-up the thoughts here anymore. Anyway, I'd forgotten Little Britain! >>

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006q2zd/little-britain

[max]

May 21, 2023 14:55:49 GMT Jan said:

My comment is why are they staging a play about 300 years of African American history ? Why not something more specific to their local black community ? UK theatre’s absolute obsession with all things American is odd - they’d no doubt be quick to condemn American cultural imperialism in other contexts but they (and audiences) seem happy to be subject to it in the theatre. The same thought occurred to me walking past the Book of Mormon theatre, subject matter of absolutely no relevance to UK audiences at all.

The revival of 'The Big Life' will play a part in reflecting local community history.  For anyone that doesn't know it, it's a ska musical using the template of 'Love's Labour's Lost' to tell the story of young men and women of the Windrush generation coming to the UK - and trying to concentrate on studiously 'making it'.

[crowblack]

May 21, 2023 14:55:49 GMT Jan said:

UK theatre’s absolute obsession with all things American is odd - they’d no doubt be quick to condemn American cultural imperialism in other contexts but they (and audiences) seem happy to be subject to it in the theatre.

I agree, it's weird - these are fascinating times politically in the UK and theatre should be nimble enough to interrogate that and commission local writers dealing with resonant subject matter (especially as American giants now dominate our cinemas and TV production), but instead many London theatres for some years now seem more interested in staging work from the USA, as though you could simply read across from their very specific, and more divisive, political situation and ideologies to ours. 

[joem]

I will free the Theatre Royal Stratford East from my gaze permanently. Sure they'll breathe a sigh of relief.

[jr]

I saw this at yesterday's matinee. I didn't like it much. Both actors are great and even with 1/3 (or less) of the theatre full, they gave it all.

As for the play, it has some good ideas but I found it disjointed and uneven. The central section doesn't add much. The last third could be much more interesting (it made me think of Mr Burns by Anne Washburn but that was weird and original, this isn't). The ending is a ripoff of Fairview (interestingly, Rhashan Stone was in that too).

At the end they say you can stay up to 15 minutes to reflect/recover/whatever. Could you get more pretentious? Thinking that your work is so powerful and affecting that the audience needs to recover? Maybe authors should think that audiences are at least as intelligent as them, if not more.

[Dave B]

Jun 25, 2023 6:03:33 GMT jr said:

At the end they say you can stay up to 15 minutes to reflect/recover/whatever. Could you get more pretentious? Thinking that your work is so powerful and affecting that the audience needs to recover? Maybe authors should think that audiences are at least as intelligent as them, if not more.

This is very common for shows that deal with heavy themes/issues, if it isn't something that you need or want then nothing stops you from heading straight off and leaving the space for anyone who might want it. I've seen space like that used on a pretty regular basis.

[jr]

I understand that but still think it is pretentious. Why assume the audience might not able to deal with things that the author/director/actors deal with? Are we less capable than them?

[max]

Jun 25, 2023 13:46:20 GMT jr said:

I understand that but still think it is pretentious. Why assume the audience might not able to deal with things that the author/director/actors deal with? Are we less capable than them?

But they've had at least a year writing/developing it, and the Cast a process working on it - so all shocks have had the edges knocked off them for Writer and Cast.  Not so, an audience.  Even if an audience member has experienced what's on stage, and processed it in the past, it's not often we think about anything for two hours straight - that's one of the points of going to the theatre, isn't it?  So reactions could hit harder / deeper after that.

[Steve]

Saw today's matinee and thought this was great!.

It wasn't what I thought it would be and was all the better for that. I've seen Rhashan Stone (Tambo) many times on stage, and always liked him, but this is a career highlight, as he's asked to do so much and does it all so well, and astonishingly, Daniel Ward (Bones) is every bit his equal. Tour-de-force performances in a really good play, that could maybe use a tiny bit more development, but is otherwise surprising, revelatory and brilliant.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Given the play's title, I was expecting some kind of deconstruction of the history of minstrelsy (the practice of white people dressing up as black people to feel superior by making the other look stupid). That is not what I got.

Rhashan Stone's Tambo is way too smart to be anything to do with minstrelsy, and while Daniel Ward's Bones is very much the base comic stereotype, he is no different from any white base clown character, such as James Corden's lead character in "Man with Two Governors," although where Corden wanted sex and food, Bones wants money.

This is more a time travel play, set in three different times, but where, like in a Caryl Churchill play, or an Alistair McDowell play, or like in "Faustus:That Damned Woman," or like in "Orlando," the characters seem to live impossibly long lives, so that their existence can comment on historical developments.

The first third is like a period piece "Waiting for Godot," where the intellectual Tambo is dreamy and politically savvy about racist societal roadblocks, though essentially directionless, but the earthy Bones knows exactly what he wants: the American dream - money - and is willing to do anything to get it. Their differences result in many very funny interactions, but with Tambo's smarts and Bones's determination, it may be that they are stronger together. . .

In the modern day, Tambo and Bones are a pair of awesome but individualistic rappers, with Tambo's Kendrick Lamar style smarts again in conflict with Bones's 50 Cent style materialism. Once again, their differences result in many very funny moments, and once again, it may be, that like the visionary Chuck D pairing with hype man of Flava Flav to become legendary hip-hop band, Public Enemy, Tambo and Bones may be stronger together. . .

In the third section, we discover whether capitalism is indeed the cure to racism, and what at first looks like a lot of telling-instead-of-showing cleverly becomes showing-through-telling. Unfortunately, some hoops in Tambo's intellectual development are skipped, so the ending feels slightly unearned if pleasingly ingenious.

Rhashan Stone is utterly compelling and loveably unpredictable as Tambo, and raps better than anyone I've ever heard on Britain's Got Talent! Daniel Ward is a force of nature, his electric insistent delivery ever puncturing the status quo of the play to snatch big laughs.

For those who don't like rap, the middle section may be a trial, but all in all, this is an amazing, perceptive, entertaining work that could only exist as live theatre.

4 and a half stars from me.

PS: Incidentally, there are plot reasons within the play that make the Black-out day seem less a precious avoidance of a scary white gaze, and more of an important and interesting exploration of the themes of the play.

SPOILER: Click to show

in the future, white people are all dead, and the performers and audience are described as non-white - this means the play would feel distinctly different and eerie if no white people were present, as described, whereas there is a more comic effect when the majority of the audience are in fact white, as was the case today.