DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO CRY FOR
Theatre Peckham
★★★½
“a complex and nuanced exploration of black boyhood, impressive for such a short piece”
Peckham Fringe – hosted by community-led Theatre Peckham, now in its fourth year – is hoping to bring some of that festival magic to south London. For two nights only, writer/performer Jerome Scott, shares his latest work, Do You Want Something to Cry For, also starring performer Abimbola Ikengboju. It’s a compact, 50 minute piece exploring themes of black masculinity, adolescence and friendship using a variety of performance styles to great effect. What can’t be expressed literally through dialogue is instead expressed through poetry, or movement, resulting in a curiously dynamic piece with a slow reveal of its pivotal event.
Scott’s non-linear approach to storytelling is apparent from the get-go. As the audience enters the auditorium, both performers circle a raised central platform shifting in and out of synchronisation, accompanied by an eerie, repetitive soundtrack (Jack D’Arcy). The stage is strewn with piles of dirt scattered with flowers, and an ominous ‘graveyard’ sign, creating a sense of foreboding even before the audience takes their seats.
The play opens with abstract, poetic verses that initially feel obtuse – with Ikengboju speaking of myths and black holes which proves difficult to follow. Then, fairly suddenly, both performers become young children, boasting about who has the latest bed time, playing cops and robbers, and rap battling – serving as a corollary to the poetic introduction.
As the piece moves ahead, Director Mya Onwugbonu uses the set to distinguish between the prosaic ‘reality’ and a poetic liminal space. The central raised platform, and subtle changes in lighting (Jahmiko Marshall) denote a sort of shared dream state where the boys can communicate in a way impossible for them to do in front of the judgemental eyes of others, or even themselves. Scenes of dialogue and action are interspersed with music and movement, functioning as emotional breaks. There’s a notable hesitation between the performers to physically touch, with near misses inciting an outward reaction of searing pain, suggesting an emotional vulnerability and hesitation to get too close or reveal their innermost thoughts.
Instead of expressing themselves to each other, both Scott and Ikengboju narrate their internal monologues – revealing anxieties over growing up as black men, whether they are just pretending, and questioning what is really the difference?
It’s in one of the fugue states that it becomes clear that the graves that have been surrounding them all this time are not literal but metaphorical – graves for all the boys who have been forced to become men too soon. Ikengboju refers to the dead surrounding them but Scott, as the more whimsical of the two boys protests – instead suggesting they are not dead, but “ungoverned and formless” able to call everywhere home – a poignant and uplifting way of conceptualising the past selves of the boys who have come before.
Under Onwugbonu’s direction, Do You Want Something to Cry For comes alive with bursts of movement, poetry, rap, and soundscapes that seek to hint at the multifaceted nature of black masculinity. Scott’s multi-disciplinary style offers a complex and nuanced exploration of black boyhood, impressive for such a short piece.
DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO CRY FOR
Theatre Peckham
Reviewed on 20th May 2025
by Amber Woodward
Photography by Kin Films
Previously reviewed at this venue:
RAPUNZEL | ★★★ | December 2023
