Theatre / bristol university
Review: Check the Label, Old Vic studio
On Saturday night, Eno Mfon’s Check the Label served as a more polished second half of a double bill with Miles Chambers’ and Edson Burton’s enjoyable and thoughtful Curried Goat and Fishfingers (see our review here). A Bristol University undergraduate and an accomplished writer, Mfon’s recital was consummate, and her challenging message extremely well delivered.
Earlier, we’d heard Stephen Lawrence’s tragic death invoked as an infamous example of how racism continues to blight so many lives – almost 23 years on, and a criminal inquiry into how the police may have shielded his killers has only recently begun. Mfon’s work, though, explored a particular nuance of black, female identity that most of us rarely, if ever, contemplate.
Societal pressure to behave and, in particular, look a particular way may be a universal female experience, but if your hair is naturally thick, black and curly and your skin dark, it seems it is impossible to meet such demands without submitting to terrible emotional and physical harm. Hair products with the doublespeak title ‘relaxant’ contain a concoction of chemicals that not only inflict unbearable pain but also tangibly increase the risk of contracting a dreadful disease.
As we learned from Mfon’s use of video clips – this performance too was unconventional in style, albeit more persuasively so – women even apply chemicals, including bleach, to their skin in an attempt to make it lighter. Mfon revealed the hardship that so many black women endure, living as they do under a constant, unyielding weight of expectation.
There was no comfort here, either, for those who might seek to dismiss this voice as merely the chatter of some marginal and near-spent racist force. Mfon played hip hop videos and quotes from a particularly prominent black US rapper that confirmed the prevalence of the conception that black female physicality is essentially defective. Most uncomfortable to process were her impersonations of the young men she has encountered who seek, exclusively, to find wives of dual heritage – and thus spare their own children the perceived curse of thick curls and dark skin.
The performance was therefore a revelation in its truest sense. Racism may be at its most apparent and widely felt when black men are stabbed to death by thugs in SE9 or choked to death by policemen on Staten Island, but Mfon demonstrated clearly that its effects can be ubiquitous, quotidian, relentless – and deeply personal too. Energetic, funny and compelling, I expect we will see more from her soon.
Check the Label was at Bristol Old Vic Studio from Thur, Feb 25 to Sat, Feb 27. For more BOV shows, visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk/shows.htm
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