Simon Ward reviews Beige at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre

Written by Jessica Nlabu, who also plays Joy, this feels like an all-too realistic insight into what it must be like to be a performer today. How does she present herself to be most acceptable to an audience. She is mixed race and Swiss-German – both potentially challenging characteristics, or so The Marketing Guru (Shannon Kurlander) would have her believe. Joy appears to have decided that she needs to seek advice from the Guru in order to further her career. She is nervous and unsure, but seemingly willing to do anything, however absurd, if it will help.

The Guru wears a grey trouser suit – the signifier of a smooth executive, who has all the answers. But she is willing to work with her subject to coax exactly the right attitudes from her – she needs to be edgy but not threatening. Should she, perhaps, lean in to her Swiss heritage – after all, she can deliver a mean yodel? This makes for an uncomfortable watch. Whereas the Guru’s outfit exudes confidence and power, Joy’s costume, on the other hand, in shades of beige, seems designed to make her fade into the background and disappear. She knows she has to find her own way to be seen in the world. And if that means pretending to milk a cow while yodelling, then so be it.

Director Catherine Mieses does not shy away from images of cruelty, torture and slavery. We begin to question the Guru’s intentions, but she makes us complicit – all she is trying to do is to make Joy acceptable to an audience, namely, us. Whether by design or not, Joy begins to fight back and start to find her own voice. She tries to shake off the constraints of expectation and just express herself authentically. It is touching to learn that she has only recently discovered how to pronounce her own surname – disconnected from her paternal heritage, she is struggling to find a way to fit in where she is.

The two performances are impressive. Nlabu’s ability to shape-shift seamlessly in response to the slick demands of the Guru is remarkable. Kurlander’s ruthlessly efficient and unruffled manner is effectively chilling. The power struggle between the two will go on. We wonder whether this is really all in Joy’s head, a kind of fever-dream of the possibilities for acceptance and success swirling round. In a world of instant feedback and snap judgments it gets increasingly difficult to know who you really are, let alone how to get that across. We see that she is anything but beige – she is fierce, raw and strong and we hope that she can carve out a niche for herself. But the nagging voice of the Guru will not go away, and is all too irritatingly close to the truth.

Beige is running as part of the Camden Fringe at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, 42-44 Gaisford Street, London NW5 2ED until Saturday 29th August