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Dark and Lovely
Birmingham Rep Door
**** SELINA Thompson is a black British woman.
She has a desire to share her life stories with reactions to culture,
history and identity on the most accessible level. Through her art, Thomson hopes to give an
analytical approach to hair in specific cultures as she explores the
Black British Female identity through the avenue of hair. Weaved with research and personal exploration,
she analyses the bold and questionable statement that ‘hair is just
hair’ and what hair means to women of today. Having seen Thomson’s previous work, I had an
idea of what was to be expected from this show. I was wrong. Thompson
has a unique and enchanting way of making everyone in the audience feel
as welcome as possible. We were greeted with a warm ‘hello’ as we were
invited to explore the interactive set, an enormous mound of hair and
weave in the middle of the space. The performance Thomson herself is a performance artist. Her
method of presenting what she has learned within the creative process is
something that is wondrously imaginative and perhaps not seen before.
Her delivery is open and friendly, and almost gives the sense that she
might as well have been talking to a group of familiar friends in a
social location.
This made the audience feel incredibly relaxed
within her presence and sometimes it was hard to believe that Thomson
was performing. On multiple occasions throughout the piece,
audience members would talk directly to her, asking questions and
recalling their own life experiences of their past with hair and she
greeted this with open arms, happy to receive enthusiastic
contributions. It could be said that the performance was merely
a continuation of Thomson’s creative process and the audience were
adding to the experiences from her research. Thomson fuelled her performance with that
research and stories. A particularly powerful and intimate moment was
when she invited us into her mounded set, which became a small den to
house us all. With the audience snuggled inside the small and
intimate space she recalled stories of the part that hair played in her
childhood, talking about her mother untangling her hair and showing us
pictures of various hairstyles from the past. This was when the audience contributed most. Nods
of recognition and familiar giggles were seen all around as they related
to Thompson’s stories. In her scene of telling us about the past, hair
was made into a universal commodity and united the audience. The
atmosphere of nostalgia was thick within the tumble weave and Thompson
created vivid images when she asked an audience member to take on the
role of her mother. The willing audience member was told to massage
Thomson’s head and untangle her hair as the scene evolved. I also played
my part in this performance, I was asked to make a hair care product of
butters and oils that Thompson would later use on her hair. Thompson also has a great talent for the spoken
word. When she is not talking to us directly, Thomson delivers
poetically charged and culturally engaging speeches, talking to us about
the significance of hair and what it means to the Black British Female
of today. This shows the audience the significance of hair and its
importance within British society today. Thomson is a delight to watch and creates an atmosphere of inclusion throughout the piece, perhaps this is because she stated that she struggled to feel included in different communities throughout her adult life. Her analytical approach to a cultural identity is integral to the performance, letting the audience know that hair is so much more than ‘just hair’. To 14-11-15 Elizabeth Halpin
11-11-15
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was a promenade piece and for some audience members, this may be an
unnerving experience but Thomson immediately dispelled any fears by
encouraging us walk wherever we liked and explore every inch of the
space.