A guide on how to make fun of English people in front of English people
You could hear the murmur from outside the theatre. That familiar sound and yet so foreign and out of place. The language gets more intense as you venture inside the venue, into the queue and finally as you land in your seat.
Almost begs the question: Is this show in English or Portuguese?
Only the English drama students in the last row loudly debating Meisner’s technique while we all wait for the show to begin would remind you that you’re still in London.
The phone rings as the show starts. Josh Hinds, the director of Spicy White demands the audience’s undivided attention straight away when Elena the main and only character on stage directly addressed the audience.
From her own perspective, the character Elena, played by Marta Bonito, guides us through her decision to move to a new country, what led to that decision, the stereotypes a Portuguese woman faces in London and the differences between dating Portuguese men versus English men. The seemingly light-hearted show even manages to tackle the deeper issues behind all the “spicy and exotic” jokes Elena faces exposing it as systemic xenophobia in a world pre and post-Brexit.
The show made its premiere at Backstage Theatre and moved to The Golden Goose Theatre this summer. It was brought back for two nights with Theatre 503 in London.
At first glance, one can assume this to be a self-written piece of work given the way Marta Bonito portrays the story in such a personal way and since the holding device is a one-person show. However, the words came from Carina Simões, who puts on the hat of both writer and producer of Spicy White.
Carina Simões wants to create a platform for under-represented people in the arts in the UK and she achieves it with this easily relatable story to every immigrant in the United Kingdom while still giving a special nod to southern Europeans who find themselves invisible in the big city of London.
The performance of Marta Bonito is speedy and witty as Elena quickly shifts from herself and her point of view of the world to multiple characters that surround her. Being her family and Portuguese friends with very strong accents or clients and co-workers with their respective posh accents. She manages to change very organically from Elena to other characters and still keep the energy levels up thought-out the 50-minute show.
Being able to encapsulate the most light-hearted jokes about the atrocity of putting milk in tea while still being able to fit in some social commentary on xenophobia and racism is nothing short of a challenge.
“They might say I’m exotic or spicy but I am still white so I’m still a part of the problem”.
And while Spicy White does an amazing job at making fun while speaking to these greater issues, it lacks in the sense of resolution or at least the attempt of that. In depicting her own struggles, the character stereotypes the English middle-class man and incentivizes the classic “do as I say not as I do”.
In the last scene, the character has a phone which is made in Portuguese and never translated to English, possibly highlighting the cultural divide that exists today and probably tomorrow.
Bringing to question if we are not all the same in the way we are defensive with our cultures and judgemental of others even if white or not white or spicy white.