Temi Wilkey is chasing the highlight – actually. She scurries to delight in its beam because it threatens to elude her earlier than her “groundbreaking one-woman present” has even begun.
A fluffy white rug, velvet banquette and a feather-edged pink costume carry a boudoir, showgirl power to the area. The present will likely be a car for Wilkey’s skills and impeccable CV, she tells us, so she’ll lastly get the appearing elements she deserves. And Wilkey’s actual CV is spectacular, her first play The Excessive Desk gained awards, she’s written on hit sitcom Intercourse Schooling, and carried out reside in her drag king persona.
Essential Character Vitality units itself up as a severe drama, however the arch punchlines and deconstruction of stage tropes begin rolling in instantly. We meet eight-year-old Temi, carrying her talentless classmates within the faculty play, then 12-year-old Temi, dreaming of a task within the Black sitcoms she watches each afternoon, craving consideration from her physician dad and mom, scribbling her secrets and techniques in a fluffy purple diary. Lastly, grownup Temi is a classically skilled actor – so why is she all the time sidelined into supporting roles?
Wilkey is co-founder of Pecs drag king collective and brings the messy, attractive power of a late-night cabaret to Summerhall’s Roundabout. She lipsyncs to Shakespearean monologues, cavorts to a soundtrack of Anastacia, Amerie and Princess Nokia, and performs with the viewers (a protracted staring competitors is a hilarious spotlight) because the facade of the present artfully crumbles.
Within the managed chaos, her internal ideas interrupt: why does she crave consideration? Is she all the time interesting to white establishments? Why is she nonetheless determined to play Juliet even after the racist abuse geared toward Francesca Amewudah-Rivers? However Wilkey catches herself; the present should go on: “This isn’t a present about race or oppression, it’s a present about me!”
Essential Character Vitality is the proper send-up of the one-woman present – a playful, understanding and delightfully overdramatic hour.
At Roundabout @ Summerhall till 26 August.
