Selina Thompson is a 28-year-old black woman who lives in Birmingham. But being a woman
of colour with ancestry from Jamaica and Montserrat, when asked where
she’s from, the UK is often not considered an acceptable answer. To explore her diasporic identity, Thompson bought a ticket on a cargo ship and retraced
one of the routes of the Transatlantic Slave Triangle, going from the UK to
Ghana to Jamaica, and then back.
In salt., Thompson poetically recalls this experience with
the audience while reminding us of the irreparable damage colonialism has had on her ancestors and how this grief will be felt for generations to come. Thompson also ties in her own
personal encounters with racism in all its forms, and we hang off her every word as she goes trough these incidents, reinforcing the fact that despite the passing of time, attitudes have changed very little.
In Search of Owen Roe is a story that begins from nothing. It is about Vanessa O'Neill's journey to discovering who her great-grandfather, Owen Roe, was. From a patch of grass on an unmarked grave in which he is buried under, O'Neill captivates us with her rich family history as she slowly begins to unravel the mystery of her great-grandfather.
O'Neill, is a wonderful storyteller and her ability to interweave various time spans into the show and play a variety of characters is quite masterful. Her use of some subtle but effective props strengthen the performance, especially Annie Edney's creation of O'Neill's family tree and the map of Ireland. It was extremely beneficial as an audience member to have these guides to refer to intermittently, to keep us grounded with all the characters and time periods.
I feel more emphasis was needed on Owen Roe himself however, as at times it felt like the story went off on a tangent. As touching and emotive as it was to hear about O'Neill's father's battle with Alzheimers, it was not what I ultimately wanted to learn about, as it did not do much to further Owen Roe's story. My attention was all on Roe and some refinement to ensure that he remains the focal point of In Search of Owen Roe is necessary.
