Shades of Brown

Published Monday 8 October 2007 at 13:05 by Evelyn Curlet

Rani Moorthy’s one-woman show explores the issues of skin-colour, beauty and identity. Moorthy plays four characters each with varying attitudes to their own skins - an albino Zulu in post-apartheid South Africa, an Asian scientist affected by vitiligo (a skin condition in which skin loses its pigmentation), a dark-skinned Indian bride and, finally, herself. It is a tremendous performance, intense and energised, and Marlowe directs well.

However, this cannot disguise the fact that the show lacks, ironically, much shade and tone. It has a tendency to sound rather one-note - plaintive or didactic - without humour or relief to lift it as a whole. The Indian bride is one exception to this, as her speech includes several charming and amusing moments, as is the tanning advert for the sun-obsessed pasty types. Unfortunately, these appear too late in the show to make much difference to the overall impression. The Asian scientist’s section is perhaps the weakest, as the character seems so unlikely - not as a vitiligo sufferer - but as a scientist who is so emotional, even hysterical, about her own condition. One imagines that someone with medical training, who has seen people lose sight, limbs or lives, would be a little less fixated on her own loss of pigmentation. Instead, the resulting one-note monologue of self-pity becomes incredibly wearing.

The premise of this show is a good one, the performance is laudable, but the writing requires more light and shade to make a success of the subject matter.