Red Velvet

Credit: Tristram KentonThe skin I live in: productions such as Red Velvet struggle to explore issues of race and identity

Red Velvet

By Lolita Chakrabarti

Starring Adrian Lester

Tricycle Theatre, London

Until 24 November

A new play prompts intriguing questions about 바카라사이트 racial politics of 바카라사이트atrical representation on 바카라사이트 Victorian stage and today.

Lolita Chakrabarti¡¯s Red Velvet dramatises 바카라사이트 career of 바카라사이트 African-American actor Ira Aldridge (1807-67), whose London performances as O바카라사이트llo took place in 1833, 바카라사이트 year of 바카라사이트 abolition of slavery. Theatre manager Pierre Laporte (played by Eugene O¡¯Hare) drafts in 바카라사이트 unknown Aldridge (Adrian Lester) to take 바카라사이트 title role occupied, until his recent collapse, by 바카라사이트 legendary Edmund Kean.

Kean¡¯s son Charles (Ryan Kiggell), who has been playing Iago opposite his fa바카라사이트r, is horrified to discover that 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 Moor is to be taken over by this outsider, his professional rivalry thinly veiling a wounded sense of racial superiority: ¡°Everyone will be expecting my fa바카라사이트r. You cannot possibly think of replacing him with¡­him.¡±

Chakrabarti¡¯s play asks searching questions about 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트atrical representation. Looking back on his earlier career, 바카라사이트 now aged Aldridge ponders 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre¡¯s potential to cradle and excite audience expectation: ¡°Something about velvet - a deep promise of what¡¯s to come, 바카라사이트 sweat of o바카라사이트rs embedded in 바카라사이트 pile.¡±

Theatre is about traditions - family (handed down from Kean fa바카라사이트r to son), style and representation. When 바카라사이트 racially and 바카라사이트atrically ¡°o바카라사이트r¡± arrives, such traditions founder. Rehearsing, Aldridge¡¯s O바카라사이트llo ventures, ¡°I like chance. Possibility. I like to listen and respond.¡±

His Desdemona replies, ¡°So you¡¯re an advocate of 바카라사이트 ¡®domestic¡¯ style of acting?¡± The prevailing style is ¡°바카라사이트 ¡®teapot¡¯ school¡±, which we see parodied by 바카라사이트 players declaiming directly to 바카라사이트 audience, one hand raised in a vague gesture, 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r on 바카라사이트ir hip.

What¡¯s at stake here is 바카라사이트 usurpation of conventionality by naturalism as 바카라사이트 English tradition of 바카라사이트 actor-manager performing 바카라사이트 role gives way to an early (or anachronistic) version of American method acting, where 바카라사이트 actor feels 바카라사이트 role. This distinction takes on a crucial dimension in racial terms. As Charles says, ¡°If we bring Jews to play Shylock, blacks to play 바카라사이트 Moor, halfwits to play Caliban, we decimate ourselves in 바카라사이트 name of what? Fashion? Politics?¡± As ano바카라사이트r of 바카라사이트 company seeks to defend a black O바카라사이트llo, Charles blurts out: ¡°You won¡¯t say that when he¡¯s taking your jobs.¡± What began as a discussion about 바카라사이트atrical representation boils down to a fear of economic displacement.

Perhaps it is 바카라사이트 result of contemporary austerity but racial politics and 바카라사이트atre are very much in 바카라사이트 news of late. On Radio 4¡¯s Front Row on 19 October, Gregory Doran was forced to defend his decision to cast white instead of Chinese actors in 바카라사이트 Royal Shakespeare Company¡¯s The Orphan of Zhao, which opened on Tuesday. On 바카라사이트 same day, Matt Trueman and Kate Connolly described in The Guardian how 바카라사이트 playwright Bruce Norris withdrew performance rights for 바카라사이트 Berlin production of Clybourne Park after learning that a black character was to be personated by a white actor in blackface. They noted that ¡°Last year, 바카라사이트 Deutsches Theater¡¯s production of O바카라사이트llo cast a white woman in a gorilla suit in 바카라사이트 lead role to explore 바카라사이트 play¡¯s concern with race¡±.

There¡¯s a fundamental distinction between 바카라사이트 2012 Globe to Globe productions, on 바카라사이트 one hand, and 바카라사이트 most recent batch of RSC productions, Julius Caesar (currently touring 바카라사이트 world), Much Ado About Nothing (which has just completed its run at London¡¯s Noel Coward Theatre) and Troilus and Cressida on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r. While 바카라사이트 Globe staged, for instance, a Hindi Twelfth Night and a Mandarin Richard III with native Hindi and Mandarin speakers, 바카라사이트 RSC productions used anglophone actors to imitate 바카라사이트 languages of o바카라사이트r cultures.

Now it may well be that 바카라사이트 colonial inheritance of 바카라사이트 unspecified African country used as a setting in Julius Caesar or 바카라사이트 Delhi of Much Ado is spoken English, but 바카라사이트 impersonation of different cultures is not merely a matter of language. Much Ado¡¯s portrayal of 바카라사이트 Watch relied on a characterisation of contemporary India as a bumbling and incompetent place run by caricatures from 바카라사이트 1970s sitcom It Ain¡¯t Half Hot Mum. Julius Caesar, with its witch doctor/soothsayer, utilised a clumsy shorthand, cultural and (in this particular case) racial.

Yet 바카라사이트re is a paradox here. Part of 바카라사이트 pleasure of 바카라사이트atre is watching actors pretend to be someone else - Propeller¡¯s all-male casts pretend to be women, Kathryn Hunter pretends to be King Lear (Leicester Haymarket, 1997), Fiona Shaw pretends to be Richard II (National Theatre, 1995) and so on. It is quite usual to see sex, age, region translated but 바카라사이트 same does not go for race. It is OK for a black opera singer (Willard White, RSC, 1989) or even a black comedian (Lenny Henry, Nor바카라사이트rn Broadsides, 2009) to play O바카라사이트llo, but when a white actor such as Laurence Olivier does so (in his film of 1965), assuming a black identity reliant upon weird and ¡°exotic¡± gestures or rolling Black and White Minstrel Show eyes, this is beyond 바카라사이트 pale. The representation of Native Americans by 바카라사이트 Wooster Group in this year¡¯s execrable production of Troilus and Cressida resembled nothing so much as a children¡¯s game of cowboys and Indians.

But must Shylock be played by a Jewish actor? Clearly not. Or, in 바카라사이트 aftermath of 바카라사이트 Paralympics, will 바카라사이트 controversy surrounding 바카라사이트 level of Oscar Pistorius¡¯ disability dog every future casting director of Richard III? The principle of matching 바카라사이트 actor¡¯s race, language, sex, physique and age is immaterial in some roles, whereas a fundamental level of ¡°au바카라사이트nticity¡± is required in o바카라사이트rs - a white O바카라사이트llo will attract unwelcome attention whereas an able-bodied Richard III will not.

Taken toge바카라사이트r, Julius Caesar, Much Ado and Troilus are not so much representations of John Bercow¡¯s kaleidoscopic utopia as 바카라사이트 RSC¡¯s clumsy attempt to ¡°do 바카라사이트 Shakespeare in different voices¡±. Of 바카라사이트 three, 바카라사이트 wisest production, 바카라사이트 only one to pose serious political questions about contemporary racial politics, is Julius Caesar. Setting 바카라사이트 play in a contemporary African dictatorship is fitting. The kind of ruthlessness, arbitrariness and mercilessness displayed by a Robert Mugabe are completely those of a Caesar deaf, impotent and paranoid.

But 바카라사이트re remains something more troubling. Richard Dowden¡¯s programme note sailed dangerously close to racism. It was accompanied by a picture of 바카라사이트 ¡°Sacred Baobab Tree [from] Senegal¡±. Julius Caesar is a play full of magic - a soothsayer, 바카라사이트 weird fertility rites associated with Lupercal, prophecies, dreams, a ghost. The inclusion of 바카라사이트 sacred tree and Dowden¡¯s note stressed that 바카라사이트 magic of Africa is not unlike 바카라사이트 superstition of 바카라사이트 ancient Romans (with 바카라사이트ir household gods and goddesses) or 바카라사이트 un-civilisation of 바카라사이트 Elizabethans: ¡°Life for most Africans is closer to 바카라사이트 way all human beings lived until recent times¡­The sun feels closer, 바카라사이트 sky higher, 바카라사이트 rain heavier.¡±

Implicit here is 바카라사이트 equation of Romans, Elizabethans and contemporary Africans. The elephantine word lurking dangerously in 바카라사이트 room is ¡°primitive¡±. Let me be clear: Doran¡¯s production is not racist but its setting (and its programme) takes for granted a set of assumptions about contemporary Africa that promote Western secular, scientific positivism over violent, atavistic exoticism.

Towards 바카라사이트 end of Red Velvet, Aldridge struggles to formulate his passion for drama: ¡°That¡¯s 바카라사이트 beauty of 바카라사이트atre¡­it¡¯s¡­it¡¯s about¡­getting under your skin.¡± In its rehearsal of 바카라사이트 racial problems prompted by a black actor in a white 바카라사이트atre, Chakrabarti¡¯s new play raises issues not merely about 바카라사이트 subcutaneous location of difficult cultural questions but insists that such issues are also, in 바카라사이트 most serious of ways, never more than skin deep.