Tania Camara doesn’t utter a single word. Not one. Instead for the whole hour of the production of Oreo, she gives a tour de force of a performance in captivating the audience to her every whim. Oreo is part of HOME Manchester’s now established PUSH Festival, which not only showcases the best the region has to offer but in my humble opinion, brings a little bit of sunshine in this bleakest of months.
I’m not sure exactly when the word “dramedy” entered the popular consciousness of people’s lexicon but it seems that dramedies have been around for a lifetime. Mixing comedy and drama has become vogue and that is certainly the case for the heavyweight production from HOME and the National Theatre of Scotland, Red Dust Road. A play that centres on the memoirs by Scots Makar Jackie Kay, it tells the story of Kay’s journey from being an adoptive mixed race child to her search for her real parents, bringing into sharp focus issues such as race, sexuality and parenthood.