EDINBURGH 2021: Review: AS BRITISH AS A WATERMELON, Summerhall Online

As British As A Watermelon begins with mandla rae explaining that they gave themselves their name. It means power. rae goes on to describe migrating to Scotland and says they didn't know they were illegal.

rae describes relatives being deported and living with people who pretended to be rae's parents. Throughout the piece, rae moves around the stage carving up watermelons. Some are delicately sliced, some obliterated and others repeatedly stabbed.

Born Bridget, rae questions "how colonised do you have to be to name your African baby Bridget". The monologue is poetic and beautiful, weaving together rae's fragmented memories of migration and how they came to carve out their own identity. As British As A Watermelon also looks at queer identity and the intrusive questions rae has had to face.

The quality of the digital production is exceptional. Before publishing my review, I had a brief look through some that were written about an in-person performance in early 2020 and it seemed the smell of the watermelons had a strong impact. However, I didn't feel like anything was lost during the translation to digital production as this comes across as a very powerful piece.

As British As A Watermelon is available on demand from 6 August.

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