An immersive and thought-provoking journey on a train that delves into the complexities of race, identity, and unity
‘14%’ delves into the clash of perspectives and the bonds that build the British identity. Upon entering the Contact Theatre, I was given a ticket for the late train. The show was made up of two ‘trains’ and the audience was split on arrival. The ‘late’ train whcih I was on started with Nadia’s perspective and the audience boarding the ‘early’ train to start saw some football fan’s perspective first. Both halves of the show were set almost entirely on a post football match train.
Nadia and her unnamed baby took us on a journey of what it felt like to be ‘English English.’ For Nadia this was being British by birth with West African and French heritage. Her baby encouraged her to open her heritage DNA results. 14% British the results read, and she seems disappointed, like she did not want to be or feel comfortable being ‘that British’. Over the tannoy, we hear a number of events take place including an unscheduled stop to allow the removal of passengers who were racially harassing a guard. This adds to the rising racial tension we were feeling as the show builds its message.
I was unsure of what to expect when the tickets said ‘expect to be standing for 30 minutes’ however this made total sense when the perspectives switched over and we ‘travelled’ to the standing carriage. The standing carriage of the train was told from another perspective, eavesdropping on the same experience, but this time as a group of English men. Conversations felt more light hearted, more camaraderie though with themes of race and identity remaining a focal point. The walls had questions such as ‘What does race mean to you’ where we could answer with chalk. As much as I liked the idea, I didn’t join in myself as I wanted to keep focus on the story as it progressed.
For the final scenes we reunited both early and late trains within the same room. This felt very symbolic of the journey we had been on, as we had heard experiences from both sides and now came back together. Nadia gave an incredible monologue. She truly summed up the feeling within the room ‘No division, no numbers’.
14% was down-to-earth and gritty. It tackled a lot of uncomfortable conversations, but had a underlying sense of humour and ease. Being a one woman show, with the other characters being only heard on audio, it made the connection stronger to Nadia and her story. The ending of the show felt a little rushed, and I wanted more insight into how events escalated. Everything felt very intentional and with a deeper meaning behind it that meant I left feeling I would need to re-watch to understand the ending fully myself.