THEATRE REVIEW: Tapping into the thoughts of young black women through Nina Simone song
The theatre is packed and the audience enraptured and engaged as the cast of ‘Nina Simone Four Women’ speak to them with great gusto
With artistic director James Ngcobo’s tradition of commemorating Black History Month, his pick of this play starring mainly women is, as Nina Simone so aptly said, about “an artist’s responsibility to reflect the times”. With the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements in everyone’s consciousness (or it should be), the Simone-driven play is a clever choice with a cast of powerful young actors strutting the stage. And even halfway into the run, the theatre is packed with a young (mainly black) audience and they’re enraptured and engaged as these women speak to them with great gusto. It’s not for the lily-livered because in the main, women haven’t had a voice, and black women, especially, were seldom invited to speak their mind and tell their stories. It’s their time and it’s like it’s all spilling out with an anger that’s palpable but covering a pain that’s so deep and so sore, it breaks your heart while listening. When Simone slips into a quiet moment and opens her heart about her ow...
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