MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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PETER MASON suggests that someone should fulfil the dreams of a talented (and privileged) British Nigerian actor
WANNABE SHAKESPEAREAN: Temi Wilkey in Main Character Energy
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Main Character Energy
Soho Theatre, London
FOR a flamboyant, self-confessed “attention whore” such as Temi Wilkey there could be no better thing than a one-woman show, which is presumably why she wrote one for herself.
As the focus on a stage-in-the-round, unaccompanied by anything other than a soft pink ottoman from which she draws objects from her past, Wilkey’s role in Main Character Energy is to allow all eyes to fall on her, which is the way she likes it.
Her teenage wish, she says, was to go to Hollywood “where I could have the severe eating disorder I dreamed of.” Now 32 and with her Nigerian genes taking shape in ways she never bargained for, she reflects on the story of her life-in-drama so far, seeking to find out why she’s failed to make the breakthrough she’s been looking for.
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