‘Ramalama Ding Dong’ is a one-woman show presenting Roshi Nasehi‘s lived experience of racism in the UK, in a mixed media evening of storytelling, poetry, animation and music.
A woman of Iranian heritage growing up in Swansea, and now raising a child in London, Roshi presents scenes which are all-too-familiar to British people of colour – slurs in the schoolyard, the conflating of POC from different cultures, and hostile, racist taunting. But this painful, gritty subject matter, in Roshi’s skilful hands, is delivered with beauty and humour – a genuinely funny evening. A vile racist’s jeering chant is transformed – via Roshi’s sweet voice and clever use of looping and effects pedals – into a sonic joke sent straight back at the the perpetrator.
It feels uncomfortable laughing at points – and intentionally so. Roshi begins the evening by wryly suggesting that if the white people in the room are not sure whether or not something she says is OK to laugh at, they should look to the POC in the room for guidance. I went with an Iranian pal and we roared together!
If you missed the sold-out London show there’s another chance to see the show on 19 April at Colchester Arts Theatre – which operates on a pay-what-you-can-afford basis. If you can get there, don’t miss it.