Barbershop Chronicles
Readers:
Vladimir Alexis, Peter Bailey, Andrew Broderick, Matthew Brown, Beau Dixon, Daniel Ellis, Cameron Grant, Sébastien Heins, Tawiah Ben M’Carthy, Araya Mengesha, Andrew Moodie and Leighton Williams.
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Length of play: 1Hr 45Min
Cast: 12M
arber Shop Chronicles follows the various (and varied) conversations of black men in, what is for most of them, their neighborhood safe space: the local barbershop.
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The scenes jump from setting to setting, allowing us to take in the perspectives of African men, young and old, and those of UK barbers and their clients. Through these men, presented for the most part at their most authentic, least reserved, proudest, and at times their most humorous, the playwright offers us a variety of interpretations of Black male identity, and leaves us questioning
"what it means to be a black man."
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The play’s form allows it to move effortlessly, ebbing and flowing with the natural ease of contemporary dialogue, allowing the play’s content to sneak up on its listeners.
“Seeing a true representation feels impactful.”
- Vladimir Alexis
“Its almost as if the haircut is the by-product of the fact that (they) want to be in the Barbershop talking—its a great stage for the playwright to create this narrative".
- Araya Mengesha
"This play offers up a different perspective of the Black man--there is a space between the Giants and the outcasts. Its hard to live up to the icons and the flip side of that (are) black men in jail. There isn't a lot of representation of the men in-between.”
- Cameron Grant
"(When you bring) a variety of black men into the room, the perspective expands: since they are all black men that no longer is the focus. We can now engage in the conversations about the intricacies that make all these men different-- which is beautiful to talk about."
- Tawiah Ben M’Carthy
“Even within this group of men and the perspective and representation that this play offers, there is a whole demographic of black men who didn't grow up in these spaces or felt comfortable in them or felt accepted."
- Sébastien Heins
“The theme of the strong black man isn’t mentioned until the end of the play but before you realize it you’ve already experienced a variety of “strong black men.” The young boy Ethan at the end of the play asks to sit in the barbershop to listen in the conversations and like us he gets to listen and decide for himself what it means to be a strong black man.”
- Tawiah Ben M’Carthy
As the conversations unfold, we witness various opinions—not all of them strongly held. These “contrary opinions allow the issues to really be talked about.” A “multiplicity of opinions mean there aren't just two outcomes” and allows the play to avoiding becoming a “preaching space.”
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Thank you to all the lovely men who all graciously donated their time to be a part of this reading.
The honesty they brought as they tackled this play allowed us to witness the impact it had on them not only as actors, but as members of the theatre community and, beyond that, of society.
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