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He had it coming: Burnt Up Love @finborough

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Out of the darkness and shadows, three characters emerge. Lit only with candlelight or flashlights, a gripping tale by writer and performer Ché Walker about crime, punishment, love, and loss emerges. The fast pace conveys a sense of urgency to make up for lost time, lost opportunities, and what might have been. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We first meet Mac (Ché Walker) in prison, serving time for a crime he committed. With only a photo of his young daughter, Scratch, to keep him company, he looks for her upon release. But Scratch (Joanne Marie Mason) isn’t the teacher, lawyer or dancer Mac imagined while incarcerated over the years she might be. Instead, Scratch is in and out of trouble, on the edge, angry and violent. A chance encounter one night with JayJayJay (Alice Walker) forms a loving bond and gives her a moment of stability. But Scratch’s demons and restlessness mean trouble does not seem far away. Scratch's random act of thoughtless violence against
Theatre: A patch of blue

Last week I decided to claim credit for F voting for the first time (it was all that incessant chatting about political processes that did it), so this week I taking credit for getting F and A to the Kings Head Theatre to see A Patch of Blue. I pointed out that apart from being a culturally enriching outing, we would be supporting one of the few surviving theatre pubs in London, before Wetherspoons or some other antiseptic chain moved in and took away its character and turned the theatre space into a restaurant… Well it may not get like that just yet, but the theatre's long-term future is hardly certain.

Anyway back to the play. It was originally a book, then a film with Sidney Poitier and Shelley Winters about a blind girl living in an abusive home meeting a black man and falling in love. Oh and it is the Deep South (America). The end result wasn't as predictable as all the situation might have alluded to however. The acting was also terrific which helped give everything some credibility…

The staging wasn't bad for the confined space of the theatre either. Although there were two issues I had:

  1. There was an extended sequence at the beginning where the blind girl is raped. It probably wasn't necessary to inflict the small audience with two minutes of screaming and rape… but we got it anyway…
  2. Towards the end of the first act, a clap of thunder which was part of the story had me jumping out of my seat and exclaiming "Jeeeezus", much to the amusement of F and A. In a desperate effort to regain some dignity, I tried to explain that I was just getting caught up in the drama but they didn't buy it.

Leaving the theatre I asked F and A if they were glad they went. There was general agreement that it was worth the effort, although F thought that the poster made the lead far more attractive than he was in real life. I disagreed suggesting that if there was a problem it was because he wore the same shirt and trousers throughout the play and we didn't get a good perspective of his range. A commented that as she prefers café au lait men more anyway she wasn't in a position to make a final call on this…

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