News stories about racism in the fashion industry and the fact that glossy magazines don't sell well with black models on their covers were the catalyst for NITRO (formerly Black Theatre Co-operative) to commission poet Malika Booker to write a piece set behind the scenes at a catwalk show.
You'd need to have read the programme to know this, however, as what's up on stage is a moderately entertaining, very moderately thought-provoking hour which comes to the hardly staggering conclusion that the "back-biting world of fashion" (as one character helpfully annotates for us) is full of publicity seekers who are out for themselves. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the doings of Naomi, Kate and co will not be gasping at this revelation.
Salisha is the supermodel who is causing all the problems here, first by her non-appearance for a crucial show, then by her altered state when she finally does arrive. Five characters, including Salisha's mother and a rival model, give their own spin on events in a series of interlinking monologues. The weakness of this structure is that Salisha, the absent focus of everyone's attention, is quickly revealed to be deeply unpleasant, which leaves the actors struggling to inject life into their own underwritten personae.
Even if the script isn't up to much (the make-up artist reports seeing Salisha in a heap on the floor: "My instinct screamed out that something was really wrong."), Kristine Landon-Smith and Derek Richards's high-tech production certainly looks good. Spilt screens at the back of the stage project a series of visuals, and Rita Ray's "soundscape" provides suitable accompaniment for each character, from pounding beats for the DJ to new-age birdsong for the mother who is irritatingly full of folk wisdom about crows. Style triumphs over substance, an apt metaphor for the fashion industry itself.
Catwalk
