Review: This Kind of Black at HOME - "Black excellence is in the artistry of this piece"

Helen Clarke

This Kind of Black: Requiem for Black Boys is exactly that - a homage to young black boys who have lost their life and a celebration of the life lived before.

An honest and important piece that showcases both the variety and commonality of black experiences and deals with difficult subject-matter such as racism, violence, and poverty with the eloquence of Reece Williams' poetry.

As a one-man show, flowers must be given for Williams' outstanding ability to command a stage and captivate an audience in both moments of comedy and stillness, as both performer and writer.

Black excellence is in the artistry of this piece, from an exploration of poverty so accurate you feel the working-class child inside yourself screaming 'yes, exactly' when hearing "this kind of poverty hides this kind of poverty" - alongside a representation of playground racism so well defined it feels all too familiar to those that know, and devastating to those of us who will never experience it.

This Kind of Black isn't a piece about despair or anger - it is a piece about reality.

About how one person's experience can't match another's but how the threads of community, friendship, humour, and suffering are all there - how the experience of young black boys is a human one, and one that needs to be shared, and to be represented accurately.

Directed by Matt Fenton, with Julie Parker's lighting design and Yussuf Maleem's musical accompaniment, a world is created on a sparse stage where friendships are forged, memories are shared and loved-ones remembered.

A world stands as complex and treasured as your own, a world at times peppered with the uncertainty or getting home okay, of getting away, of finding a safe space at a time of sadness, a world punctuated by brave and bold characters.

There are characters you recognise, moments you've shared in, and recollections written in a way that the audience feels as if they're being played out right in-front of them.

Whether you know about North or South Manchester, Moss Side, Bury, Cheetham Hill or not, you'll know this family, this community, and this story is rooted in warmth, support, and resilience.

This is a production about black experiences, and whether they are your experiences or not - you need to see them.

This Kind of Black runs at HOME Manchester from Wed 19th Feb - Sat 22nd Feb as well as further shows planned in Liverpool, Lancaster, Brixton, and Oxford.