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by Trey Anthony; direction, music and lyrics by Weyni Mengesha

Mirvish Productions, Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto

January 18-February 27, 2005

‘Da Kink in My Hair, a fringe Festival hit from 2001, has the honour of being the first Canadian show to play the Princess of Wales Theatre.  Set in a hair salon in a Toronto Caribbean neighbourhood,  it celebrates the communal power of black women while exposing the suffering individual women experience.  Director Weyni Mengesha deserves credit for successfully re-imagining the show for a large venue.  Ultimately, though, it is the production’s unbroken stream of strong performances that fills the large space with the largeness of its heart.

According to hair-stylist Novellette (the deliciously wry Trey Anthony), the hair is where black women “carry everything--all our hopes, our dreams, our pain.”  In the midst of the everyday goings-on in the salon, Novelette reads the true nature of her clients, seven of whom step downstage centre to tell their tales in monologues interspersed with Mengesha’s music inspired by all corners of the African diaspora.  Except for Satori Shakoor’s comic turn as an elderly widow newly discovering lust, the monologues are too predictably structured, first describing the outer appearance of happiness then ending with the hidden pain.  Yet all glow with insight into the female black Canadian experience.  Ngozi Paul forcefully relates her character’s story linking colourism to family favouritism.  Truly shattering is d’bi.young as a Jamaican girl innocently detailing how she has to adjust to a cold climate and to sexual abuse.  The show is more than the sum of its parts.  Its elements combine to celebrate that kink, that difference, that makes up identity.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-01-20.

Photo: Cast of ‘Da Kink in My Hair. ©David Laurence.