Opening the tour of Danesha at The Lowry must be nostalgic for the cast members who studied at Pendleton School, Salford, The Arden School of Theatre, Manchester and Rose Bruford, Wigan. A sense of community is an important theme in Stefanie Reynolds’s Danesha, a teenage version of Small Axe.
Seventeen-year-old Danesha (Talia Rae Smith) has been raised to think of herself as white, although her mother was from the Caribbean. She feels out of place in Preston where the dance clubs do not meet her high musical standards and she is aware her style of dancing is not appreciated in her college dance class. At least in her imagination, she can conjure up a full backing troupe to support her efforts to emulate her idol, Rihanna. But when she is unable to answer questions on the Caribbean side of her heritage, Danesha is deserted by even her imaginary supporters.
Needing a new challenge, Danesha sneaks off to the bright lights of Manchester where she encounters Leonie (Kelise Gordon-Harrison), whose dance moves are even more daring than her own. Leonie exposes Danesha to Caribbean culture for the first time, but her motives are not entirely altruistic, being sexually attracted to her new friend. As well as widening her awareness of her culture and sexuality, Danesha must cope with racial prejudice, while Leonie encounters her community’s intolerance of homosexuality.
Danesha is told entirely from the viewpoint of the somewhat naïve central character. Director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder, therefore, sets a fantasy atmosphere. A spirited cast regularly break-off to become imaginary backing dancers, and the stage set designed by Sascha Gilmour and Marina Diamantidi merges a mundane living room with a dance floor.
The dialogue in Stefanie Reynolds’s wide-ranging script is engaging: "I was raised a Christian", "I was raised on chips". The manner in which Danesha was brainwashed to reject her own heritage is explored with sensitivity. Occasionally, however, the author skimps on details. It is unclear why Danesha’s father, Paul (Liam Grunshaw), who expresses racist remarks, would form a relationship with a woman from the Caribbean, and we are never told why Danesha was abandoned by her mother.
The cast is excellent, but the evening is dominated by Talia Rae Smith who is in every scene. She captures Danesha’s confused, and at times infuriating, efforts to work out her own identity while throwing in some fine dance moves.
Danesha is struggling to work out her place in the world, so it is understandable she makes some errors along the way. She does not appreciate her need for a mother-figure makes her act like a cuckoo in the nest and ingratiate herself with Leonie’s mother Lianne (Janelle Thompson) to the extent she becomes an alternate daughter.
Danesha is extremely broad-minded, being undeterred by unexpected exposure to different foodstuffs, sexualities and drugs. It is possible, however, Danesha’s innocent assumption everyone else shares her non-judgemental attitude makes her insensitive to the impact her actions have on others. When she carelessly reveals Leonie’s sexuality, it destroys the relationship between Leonie and her mother. The climax of the play suggests Danesha is content, having persuaded her father to widen his outlook. On the other hand, Kelise Gordon-Harrison, whose face appears onscreen for a final message, looks physically and emotionally devastated, making Leonie a casualty in Danesha’s quest for identity.
Danesha is an ambitious play communicating strong messages in a lively and engaging manner, although the journey of self-discovery undertaken by the central character does make her at times seem less sympathetic than may have been intended.