Source: The List
Date: 3 August 2014
Written by: Anna Burnside
A black woman who bears a disconcerting resemblance to Nina Simone
is having what we would now call a detox. No booze, fags or phone, just
her, an imaginary piano and a handy suitcase full of props from her
life. Via a conversation with her father, Apphia Campbell
telescopes the pianist-singer-civil rights activist's career into an
intense hour of character, exposition and highlights from the Simone
song book.
It is a tribute to the strength of her performance
that, despite the whirring air con, sub student theatre set and
Poundland musical budget, this show glows. As the pace picks up and
Campbell transforms from a little girl determined to be the first black
classical pianist to the political firebrand who plays the devil's music
with the black power movement's lyrics, it gets better and better.
***
(Gilded Balloon, 0131 622 6552, until Aug 25 (not 13), £9.50 (£8.50).
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