First staged in 2018, Melting Pan and Terra Nova Productions move Me You Us Them, co-created by Andrea Montgomery and Melissa Dean, to the screen.
Putting racism in Northern Ireland into sharp focus, this play is based on hours of real-life interviews condensed into forty minutes.
Starting with Constance’s school experience of ‘white hats – good, black hats – bad’, we are asked to reflect on a range of perspectives about race and what it means.
It isn’t just about ‘not on our street’, ‘blacks are dirty’ or black objectification, but also a mixed-race perspective on culture clashes and a couple of awkward interactions between a white man and two of the black women he regularly sees.
Janice is a nurse but is often mistaken for a cleaner. Howard is an Asian doctor who thrives on adrenaline and recognises fear. Both are professionals who find themselves mentally or physically abused because of their racial identity.
Originally on stage as a two-hander, the cast expands here to four actors playing nine characters. Chris Mohan is the only white participant, the other actors being Dean, Elizabeth Ayodele, and Aaron Teoh.
Some scenes appear to have an off-camera audience and are presented as direct interview answers, while others feel like short sketches. I preferred the first approach as it felt more powerful for me as a viewer.
With excellent production values and captioning, Me You Us Them contributes to the debate from an Irish v British perspective as well as Black v White.
It dramatises the lived experience of these people, whether racism is conscious, unconscious, or – a term I have never heard – reversed.
A thoughtful, if broad, piece of theatre to film, Me You Us Them is available here on a Pay What You Feel basis, starting at 1p, through February.
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