Sunday 28 October 2018

REVIEW: Nima Séne Beige B*tch - Z-Arts, Manchester.



Before I begin, I have to comment on how undeniably fantastic the set was. We had arrived at a remote, fantasy island with piles of sand all around the stage. There were mini palm trees, weights on the ground for a workout, bottles of water, and a gold painted treadmill. This was the kind of luxury treatment Séne’s sassy TV alter-ego deserved.

Nima Sene's 'Beige B*tch', presented and produced by The Contact Theatre Company was a fabulously fiery fusion of live art, movement, and film that told the story of a black woman’s quest for cultural and aesthetic belonging. Expressing herself through her alter-ego with a pony tail longer than Ariana Grande, she asked what it means to be both ‘beige’ and black, deconstructing and challenging conventional ideals of beauty throughout.

The underlying themes pointed towards the idea that a lot of what we understand about and how we perceive other cultures comes from a white person’s perspective. This performance examined the representation (perhaps lack of representation) of people from other races and cultures in the media, news, and fashion industry. In the process, the show looked at conservative models of beauty.
Present in the performance were society’s misconceptions of various races and cultures. The show was about Séne’s journey for cultural and aesthetic belonging in a “white privileged” world. There was a monologue which referred to the notion of “cultural ambiguity”, the scenario presented someone’s confusion regarding which country a person came from. An anecdote explained how a woman chooses to wear her Hijab by her own free will. Finally, there was a story about how a white woman patronisingly commented on how delicious Séne’s caramel skin was.

We never really get to know the real Nima Séne: most of the time she performed as her alter-ego and we never got the chance to look into her eyes because she wore sun glasses. This appeared to be an intentional artistic decision relating to the representation of ethnic groups. How many times have particular groups of people been represented as a collective or as a number, rather than been characterised as individuals each with a vivid and comprehensive story to tell?

I liked the metatheatrical speech, which made reference to the devising process of the show. Séne spoke of the fragmented nature of the narrative and putting her life onto the conveyer belt on the treadmill. Slowly but surely, she took off parts of her character’s costume and dropped them onto the conveyer belt, revealing more of her personality each time, but not completely. When Séne walked forward on the treadmill it became her effortful journey towards her sense of belonging. The times she walked backwards on the treadmill could easily be symbolic of the world going backwards to the racist attitudes of the past.

Breaking up the performance was a series of spoken word pieces, unfortunately the writing was metaphorical to the point where it was rather difficult to make sense of it in the context of the show. It was only the very last poem which made a clear link to the performance narrative. These dark, lonely, and colder scenes effectively felt worlds apart from the glitz and glamour of her reality TV show. 

Verdict: an eye opening performance, leaving the audience with lots to think about.

Reviewer – Sam Lowe
On – 26/10/2018   


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