AD | Tickets gifted in exchange in honest review. All opinions are my own.
TW: Strong language, instances of Homophobia, Discussion of racism and drug misuse, DANESHA also contains haze, flashing lights and loud music.
Theatre company Box of Tricks brings a world premiere of a new show to the stage. Danesha is a coming of age story that addresses subject matters that are not easily focused for the younger audience, Danesha is written by Stefanie Reynolds and is directed by Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder.
Described as a celebration of coming of age we follow Danesha from Preston, a young 17 year old studying performing arts at College, who loves dancing and idolises pop star Rihanna. Danesha and her friends decide to go out on a night to Manchester, and while out in Manchester she meets Leonie and questions who she really is from her black heritage and also navigating queer joy and friendship.
While a promising plot of finding yourself and a discovery of heritage alongside discovering young love, it is a story which definitely needs to be told, unfortunately the show just doesn’t hit the mark in some areas to be a fully successful piece of theatre.
Written by Stefanie Reynolds, Reynolds hits us with the majority of the show being told by breaking the fourth wall to the audience which is a clever choice for the show, it feels effective in certain places in the show which helped some of the shows direction but wasn’t necessarily needed as much as it was used. Reynolds describes and adds commentary to pretty much everything we see in direction and action in the piece, which to me is a little too much as it’s little things that are commented on, such as what food is given, it just felt not so necessary as we could see this visually. Though Reynolds does write some nice comedic dialogue which does make the audience laugh and has comic relief on some of the subject matters, Reynolds also writes some nice moments between Leonie ( played by Kelise Gordon-Harrison ) and Danesha ( played by Talia Rae Smith ) revealing their true friendship and connection. Reynolds also writes and handles themes of racism and homophobia very carefully with a straight to the point approach which is good to ensure it is understood for the younger sider of the audience. Danesha promises a story which will be relatable to many and also does carry enjoyment throughout, rather than focusing on some of the commentary. Reynolds needed more focus on the storyline of Danesha’s mum which felt like it lacked the important information which would have helped Danesha’s discovery of her heritage come to light more as to me some of the information given to us about her mum felt slightly blurry in places and not so clear leaving some questions. While Reynolds' writing certainly needs changes here and there, the show certainly is a young fresh new coming of age story for the next generation, being funny, has some good storylines and overall is a story for many younger audiences to relate to.
Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder, takes on the role of director, Tyrrell-Pinder’s direction is very simple and grounded but is also quickly paced, but it too does have its faults. Unfortunately some of Tyrrell-Pinder’s transitions between scene to scene don’t seem clear enough to establish the difference in location such as going from the club back to a bedroom, or even going from bedroom to bedroom you could only tell the change in setting if mentioned. To distinguish this it could have easily been done through lighting to make it clear to the audience. Tyrrell-Pinder’s simple direction does what it should and that is get the message across as best as possible.
With movement by Aiden Crawford, Crawford’s movement is energetic and strong, but maybe to also have better transitions more movement could have been given to also keep Danesha’s love of dance throughout.
Nerves did slightly show in the beginning but are eased as we went along, the cast of 5 do still do a great job in delivering this fresh new piece of theatre. Talia Rae Smith plays the title role, Smith shows Danesha’s energetic and fun side well, while also pushing to find who she really is. Smith's delivery of the character is engaging, you can see that Smith makes Danesha take in what she learns from those around her, and also shows the liveliness when dancing.
Kelise Gordon-Harrison plays Danesha’s new friend who opens up a whole new world for Danesha. Gordon-Harrison’s character goes on a slightly similar journey of self-discovery, you can see this through Gordon-Harrison’s delivery, the switch between being at her mum’s and then alone with Danesha you can see the real Leonie. Gordon-Harrison has a nice connection with Smith and is nice to see this being played out on stage.
Danesha is not hundred percent there, it does have good performances from the cast which perform well for the whole duration of the show. It is funny in places and carries something that could be relatable to a lot of people. For me with tweaks in the writing I feel Danesha could be quite heartwarming and really special.
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Danesha is touring until October 26th click below to book tickets.
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