This was a late addition to the schedule, but a very good one. I wasn't aware of Ms. Mayne's previous work and I was initially unsure about this one given the title and presumed content but gave it a go (it's the Fringe after all) and I was pleased I did.
She introduced her set thanking us for all coming to see "... the only solo show from a black woman at the Edinburgh Fringe" which surprised me (plenty of folks of Subcontinent or Far East heritage but none of African heritage). Her theme, which came up again in a later show, was stereotypes and expectations. She started with a hilarious yet troubling tale of how she had been put off Africa for ever by having an awful holiday with a friend in Morocco. I can't quite remember all the details but she received considerable racial abuse from the locals and highlighted she had been offered more drugs in one day than she ever had in her whole time in London. The tale concluded with her and her friend breathing a sigh of relief on leaving with the line, "On the plus side we didn't get abducted or raped".
She followed with a video compilation of how black women are routinely portrayed in media - all sassy dance moves, backside-shaking, attitude and carefully-managed, sanitised and packaged-for-white-audiences Beyoncé - then proceeded to highlight how different people are, using her own history and background as the main example. Her history was interesting - she and her brothers were fostered and ultimately adopted by a white couple living, as she said, not in an urban inner-city environment but in a leafy suburb in a nice house with a conservatory. Holidaying in Devon, listening to the Archers ... not the typical upbringing according to the media for someone with her background.
As she became a teen she wanted to head to America as her cultural touch points were Salt 'N' Pepa and the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, but after spending some time in New York where people just could not seem to understand she was black and British, including a line from someone, "You mean there are black people outside America? Where else?" To which she replied, "Ummm .... Africa? There's a whole continent of them ..." Later she spoke of embracing her heritage, including going with a political hairstyle - she illustrated this with a picture of Michelle Obama, noting how black hair does not naturally look like that then photoshopping various "ethnic" hairstyles to show how clearly she had been sanitised for white consumption.
The set concluded with quite an impassioned plea, very similar to the one Shazia Mirza had made the previous night, for the feminist movement to recognise that not every woman is a white, middle-class Guardian-reader and should represent far more experiences and cultures than just what is deemed acceptable to this self-selecting privileged group.
I've probably made the show sound more "worthy" than it actually was. Ms. Mayne was funny, witty and engaging and there are plenty of genuinely funny moments. But plenty of thoughtful moments too. It was a good show from an interesting new talent.
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