There’s Sherelle. She’s exhausted. She’s a Yale PhD, but that doesn’t matter because she’s black and a woman and there’s no way she could have gotten to where she is today with only brains and talent.
Sherelle is tired. So tired, from people always asking things of her. The worst part is that no one seems to notice when she starts to disappear, fold in on herself, dissipate from loneliness and exhaustion.
Sherelle is just one of the women in Trey Anthony’s “ ‘da Kink in my Hair”. Set in a Toronto hair salon, “ ‘da Kink in my Hair” is performed through a series of monologues. The monologues are at times heart-wrenching, at times full of laughter; always complex.
It is so rare to see black, women characters written with the same level of intricacy and detail as white characters – which is why we need to see this play produced, in full, in Vancouver (it’s gone up in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, but never in Vancouver!). How cool would it be if “ ‘da Kink in my Hair” was a play that teenagers watched on field trips? If the characters in Anthony’s play were as familiar to high schoolers as, say, the March sisters from “Little Women”?
There’s Miss Enid. And Nia and Patsy. Shawnette and Sharmaine and Stacey-Anne. Patsy’s lost a son. Miss Enid’s lost a husband. Sharmaine, who’s queer, struggles with her mother’s homophobia. Stacey-Anne is a survivor of sexual abuse.
Producer Mariam Barry and director Gavan Cheema are a duo to watch. Their staged reading of “ ‘da Kink in my Hair” will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And, maybe, with any luck, when “ ‘da Kink in my Hair” is finally produced in Vancouver, Barry and Cheema will be the artists behind it.
” ‘da Kink in My Hair” runs at Pacific Theatre till July 7th. Get your tickets here!
– Elana Mabrito