for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange
“this is not a love poem / so this is a requiem for myself / cuz i have died in a real way”
After her passing in 2018, Ifa Bayeza said of her sister Ntozake Shange, “I don't think there's a day on the planet when there's not a young woman who discovers herself through the words of my sister”. In the year of its 50th anniversary of the first broadway performance, this legacy lives on through the Yard Theatre’s production of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Shange’s seminal work, pioneering an entirely new genre in the choreopoem, is rendered in its truest form, stripping thec performance back to the bare bones of body, voice and colour. Advocating for the lives of black women striving for the end of their rainbows, for colored girls brings beautifully crafted poetry to liberating, all-consuming movement to create a portrait of black womanhood that is vulnerable, honest and personal.
The show features seven women, known only by the colors they wear, living in different cities in America. Their lives entirely separate, existing independently to each other, but bonded by the words conjured by Shange’s poetry, which turns them into sisters, solaces and confidantes of each other. They take turns to take center stage, each telling a different story that spotlights a different chapter in the life and times of the “colored woman”. As The Lady in Yellow (Tatenda Matzvai) leads a poem titled ‘graduation nite’ about having sex for the first time in the back of a Buick. The Lady in Blue (Nadine Higgin) tells a bustling story of leaving the world as she knows it for a life in Harlem. Ibiblola Rossi’s Lady in Brown speaks of running away with Toussaint L’Ouverture, while The Lady in Orange (Alex Thomas-Smith) wants nothing to do with poetry written in English and Spanish, and wants only for her thoughts and feelings to be made manifest through dance.
Through an array vignettes covering abortion, rape, sex, love, self-love, abuse, desire, each perfomer shines, and stands behind her fellow performer, allowing her to also shine. Cherelle Skeete as The Lady in Red tells the final haunting tale, detailing her abuse at the hands of the father of her children, losing her children in the process. Skeete holds the attention of every mind and heart in the audience, and for ten minutes gives a harrowing performance that becomes the standout of a series of extremely strong performances.
The choreopoem incorporates dance into its body and verses. The emphasis on movement is a reclaiming of control and autonomy that is so often taken from women, black women in particular. If trauma stored in the body manifests as pain and tightness in the hips for women, then the invitation to “come twitch hips” with the Lady in Orange is a call to embrace healing. Ingrid Mackinon’s movement direction incorporates different styles of dance depicting play, sensuality and liberation, working in tandem with Shange’s writing. Ali Hunter’s lighting design allows even the shadows of the women to have lives and stories of their own, etched onto the bare brick walls of the Yard’s amphitheatre, their silhouettes creating shapes that emote on their own. Hunter ushers us in and out of the ladies’ worlds, illuminating the stage with corresponding colours, blinding whites and blackouts and the effect is stunning.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
It is difficult to measure for colored girls against the standard of the average show for the mere fact that it is not a play, and has rules of its own. Overall, it felt somewhat underdirected, as the show feels more like a recital than a performance of a script. Additionally, as the show is made up entirely of poetry, with barely any dialogue its contents feel quite dense; it took a while to really get into the show, and it was easy at moments to disengage. It is at every moment however performed with intensity and the full force of each performer on stage.
The significance and legacy of Shange’s work cannot be overstated, and for colored girls is one of the best examples of it. A work like for colored girls breaks barriers for work being created today. It is the groundwork laid that allows shows like Issa Rae’sInsecure andMichaela Coel’s This May Destroy You to exist. Albums like Beyonce’s Lemonade and Jazmine Sullivan’s Heuax Tales can exist because of it. Work that portrays black women as tellers of their own stories, allowing them to be as messy, pained and broken as they feel, without taking away from the joy and light of the lives they lead.
Despite being written half a century ago, for colored girls feels fresh, and right at home in the brand new Yard Theatre. Architect Takero Shimizaki who oversaw its redevelopment and artistic director Jay Miller have expressed that where the former building’s focus had been temperance, the new building lends itself instead to permanence. This feels fitting for the legacy of a writer like Shange, and a show like for colored girls; a permanent fixture in the lives of black women writers, this production truly honors her legacy.
By Melody Adebisi
for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is showing at The Yard Theatre until 17 October