Some things are just meant to be special! Take The Almighty Sometimes for example. It’s an award winning play from an award winning playwright in Kendall Feaver. It boasts a stellar cast that includes Julie Hesmondhalgh and Norah Lopez Holden. It’s produced by those folk at the Royal Exchange, who just cannot seem to put a foot wrong these days. So it’s no surprise then to find that The Almighty Sometimes was a stunning success.
It was inevitable that race would be put under the microscope in Eclipse Theatre Company and Royal Exchange Theatre co-production of Black Men Walking, which started its national tour at the Royal Exchange this week. Written by Testament, it’s a story of Thomas, Matthew and Richard, three black men, who walk the first Saturday of every month. They walk and they talk and inevitably the subject of their skin colour dominates their conversations. Yet, it is more than that, it’s a story of shining a light on Britain’s forgotten black history.
Mancunians know a thing or two about protests. We’re famous for it. The city still remembers the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, where the city’s inhabitants had gathered to campaign for reform. The resulting tragedy, in which 15 people died, was enough to prompt change in the folks that sit in the Houses of Parliament.
I remember saying “I don’t do classics”. It was somewhat indignant of me. In a room full of strangers, I laid out my stall. No ordinary strangers it has to be said. Assembled for their prowess of all things theatrical, including classics no doubt. Yet, here I was, with the same set of strangers only a few days later, watching a bona fide classic of the greek variety no less. How did I end up like this?