TOM WAITS FOR NO MAN

Tom Waits for No Man, Emergen-cee and Basic Training at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London

First off, the Tom Waits tribute was entertaining, quite essential, an interesting, charged event in its own right. Stewart D’Arrieta takes the audience through the Tom Waits oeuvre. Although I’m not keen on tributes and tribute bands, this one did stand out as being exceptional, original and having both momentum and soul.

Basic Training and Emergen-cee were plays shaped from similar material but performed in slightly different ways. I preferred Kahlil Ashanti’s work because it seemed the more genuine, rooted, more down to earth of the two.

Both playlets consider the consequences of slavery and the historical roots of racism. Both are sustained in similar ways, one-man shows lasting just over an hour.

I liked Ashanti’s courageous little man, being just another Kunta Kinte, (he references Alex Hayley’s novel Roots in the play) a beaten up, down at heel black everyman. This is a play definitely worth seeing.

Paul Murphy, Riverside Studios, London

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