JADAR

★★★☆☆

Danesha, the latest production by Box of Tricks, is written by Stefanie Reynolds and directed by Hannah Tyrell-Pinder.

Danesha, seventeen (Talia Rae Smith), lives with her single White dad in Preston. Her mother left when she was young, and therefore Danesha knows almost nothing about her and their shared Caribbean heritage, or the reasons behind her mother’s departure.

Danesha’s house is illustrated by a slouchy floor sofa and a working microwave – Danesha’s dad Paul (Liam Grunshaw), relies on her even for simple tasks, like preparing microwave meals. The character is so incompetent that he even refuses to heat up his own ready meals. I dread to think of how many shepherd pies that Grunshaw will have to consume on this tour – from my view, it looked as if he was actually eating them anyway!

On a more significant note, Danesha’s dad fails to teach her about the Caribbean side of her family, and she evidently struggles with her identity due to this lack of cultural education from her dad. Danesha reflects on her dad’s misguided words, recalling a time when her dad referred to her as “darker White” instead of mixed race or Black, during her childhood when she asked him why her skin was darker than her classmates. 

The drama of Danesha kicks off when Danesha drags her best friends to a club in Manchester, where she becomes captivated by a Black girl, Leonie (Kelise Gordon-Harrison), on the dance floor. They quickly form a close bond, hinting at something more than friendship from the very beginning.

The cast’s dancing on the elevated stage was electrifying. However, the music’s volume often fell short of creating the energetic club atmosphere. The lighting design, while colorful, also similarly lacked the necessary depth and shadows to fully immerse the audience in the Manchester club scene.

Danesha is later introduced to Leonie’s Jamaican family as their relationship develops. Danesha and Leonie have their first kiss and begin exploring their romantic connection, all the while connecting with Leonie’s family and learning about their shared Caribbean heritage – the delicious food and fantastic music, which was far more exciting to Danesha than the tunes her friends liked at Popworld Preston. 

Interwoven into the story is Danesha’s love for dancing and making Tik Tok videos – she often talks of her great love of Rihanna, Cardi B, Megan thee Stallion.

During these dance breaks, Black backup dancers join her on stage to move together; “Sometimes I pretend I’m in a music video. And that I have a backing group. And they’re always Black, even though I don’t have any Black friends, in real life”. These imaginary backup dancers disappear during times when Danesha tries to fight her growing sense of her own identity, namely when she blocks Leonie online after their first kiss, after it all becomes too much for her.

This element could have been elevated and used more, and potentially explored further in place of the TikTok references. Many of the songs and dance trends that Danesha performed felt dated and could have been updated to resonate better with contemporary audiences. Additionally, the ring light downstage felt simplistic and unneeded. However, Danesha’s celebration of dance and the power of imagination ultimately does make it a fun and thought-provoking part of the show.

Danesha and Leonie’s chemistry is powerful and refreshing to watch — one aspect that director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder and writer Stefanie Reynolds portray attentively is the intensity of young queer love and infatuation, along with the familiar lesbian dating trope of becoming quickly attached to a new girlfriend. This is amplified by the fact that Leonie also represents Danesha’s newfound connection to her lost Black culture, something she can’t find with her White friends or her father back home in Preston.

Drawn to Leonie’s culture and family, Danesha is pulled deeper into her world. As their relationship gets more serious, Danesha begins spending more time with Leonie’s family, even showing up at her house to hang out with Leonie’s mum without informing Leonie beforehand. 

The story reaches its climax when Leonie’s mum teaches Danesha how to care for her hair, while talking about hers and Leonie’s close “friendship”. During their conversation, Danesha reveals her attraction to Leonie, recklessly outing her. This revelation leads to a sharp shift in tone, as Leonie’s mum, who had previously treated Danesha like family, abruptly throws her out of the house. In a devastating turn, Leonie’s mother also kicks her own daughter out. It is later revealed that Danesha was unaware that they were meant to be seeing each other in secret. This felt unrealistic for a teenager always on Tiktok, and attending a school in the UK, where homophobia and a lack of acceptance among peers are prevalent issues that most LGBTQ+ individuals face during their formative years.

The production’s presence in schools is encouraging, however distressing this ending may be. The need for queer representation is vital for affirming and validating the experiences of queer children and young adults, allowing them to feel seen and understood in the often volatile, unaccepting place that is secondary school.

At any rate, Danesha and Leonie briefly plan to run away to Wales together, but this plan unravels when Danesha’s dad acknowledges his parenting mistakes and brings home Afro-Caribbean takeaway for dinner. The resolution felt disappointing — and even I was swept up in the fantasy of their escape plan, hopeful for their potential future.

Through phone screen projections, a video of Leonie on FaceTime is shown; she looks frightened and exhausted. She tells Danesha that she’s staying at a friend’s house and is trying to reach her mum to come home, hinting that the two have broken up. Danesha’s response leaves a sour taste — she beams with joy towards her phone screen, gushing about how they’ve changed each other’s lives for the better, and how they’ll never be the same, all while her ex-girlfriend is homeless, and her relationship with her mother is in tatters.

This portrayal of conservative family rejection of LGBTQ+ youth is unfortunately realistic and happens every day, but ending Leonie’s story on such a note felt unfinished and disappointing, especially when her character was so full of joy and light upon meeting Danesha. 

The context of this production being performed in schools is potentially troubling; it could have offered a more hopeful message for LGBTQ+ kids if Leonie had found safety and support, or Danesha to suffer consequences for outing Leonie’s sexuality without her consent. But ultimately every story doesn’t need to have a happy ending – but this one does nonetheless, for Danesha at least, with her and her dad making a Tiktok dance video together to finish the show.

Danesha’s journey of rediscovery, learning about her cultural roots, was a key and well-handled aspect of the story – many moments of Black and queer joy were beautifully portrayed by the cast.

Ultimately, regardless of the intricacies needing to be ironed out, seeing that Black queer representation in the arts is being shown in schools and theatres across the North is both exciting and necessary.

Danesha runs at The Lowry (Lowry Studio) last night until October 5 and tours the UK until October 26.

Photo: (c) Chris Payne