‘The Light Catcher’

Inspired by the artist Grace Jones and her award winning album ‘Nightclubbing’ (1981), Rachael Young comes to the Camden People’s Theatre this spring to create a new piece triggered from an event that happened in 2015, when two young black women were refused entry into a London nightclub. She uses performance as a platform for expression; a tool for action against racial discrimination, social prejudice and gender inequality.

A silver curtain acts as a backdrop, while two DJs (Leisha Thomas playing electric guitar and Mwen Rukandema on the decks) fill the room with a hypnotic deep bass that pulses and reverberates. A black inflated bag begins to deflate and transform. It is not long before the shell starts to break, as Young breaks free from the bag. Contorting her body, she comes out from her shielded cocoon. The light hitting her glittered top, she arrives in the spotlight, her arms raised to the ceiling. She is a figure to be seen and to be listened too.

From the right beginning Young directs our attention, her eyes never leaving sight of each one of us. She owns the space. Using a hula-hoop, the repetitive moment acts a pulse as she begins to become trapped in a monotonous circle. It not long before her glazed eyes beginning to fill with water as she speaks a liturgy of apologies for being black.

Young transforms the space into this timeless world. She performs a series of dream-like passages that portrays a futuristic universe that looks to new beginnings. We are reminded back to Grace Jones’s empowering belief in identity and independence, as Young explains that it is only you that defines yourself not anybody else. Her slow, deliberate movement reflects ownership as she swishes her hips and uses her body to spiral. However, I was struggling to see how her movement reflected or communicated the message she was conveying.

With the performance being only 50 minutes long, it felt at times Young was flitting too quickly from one sequence to another. When this happens, the audience is left struggling to hold on to a theme, the context or even an image. However there is a powerful moment as we move towards the end of the piece, where Young composes a rhythmic sequence of rambling words and broken sentences that flow and freeze. A poetic protest, her voice erupts through the theatre and her physicality begins to echo the intensity of her emotions. She looses control and her raw, instinctive movement starts to become earthy and grounded as she pulls and claws at her dreadlocks. Her voice becomes coarse from her screams.

The piece would of have been clearer if we were given more of an understanding of who she is pointing the finger at. Who is she angry with and why does she think discrimination is shockingly still happening today?

As the piece comes to a close, Young pulls the material around her. A beautiful image, it acts as a protective cloak as she gradually begins to orbit across the stage. A planet in motion; the warm sandy light hits her face. She is a light catcher. Her dark skin soaks up the sun. As her arms begin to open, the fabric turns into golden wings that crackle and reflect. In Young’s search for freedom, she flies through socio- political landscapes to reveal and expose what is often left and hidden under the surface.

Nightclubbing played at the Camden People’s Theatre until 12 May

Photo: Camden People’s Theatre