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 The Theatreguide.London Review

The Song Project
Royal Court Theatre   Summer 2021

There is a terrible bleakness to 'The Song Project' in which eighteen songs by five writers are given a performance by the distinctive soulful voice of Wende.

The singer and an impressive group of musicians are the only things that link these songs that have no connecting storyline or common theme unless it is the theme of despair. The sadness expressed in the lyrics is usually vague, private and internal. Its cause is unclear, even if words like 'lonely' get a mention.

The character in Debris Stevenson's ‘Horror Story’ tells us ‘I can’t sleep in the dark, dark desert of the deep – But I weep in my sleep and I weep in between’. We don't find out why this happens. There’s simply the depiction of her unhappiness, the repetition of the word ‘dark’ being given a more menacing feel by the heavy drumming rhythms of Louise Anna Duggan.

EV Crowe’s ‘Lonely Bitch’ claims ‘It's okay to be bored and ugly… I’ve started to go to parties with no idea who I am. ….I’m a blank blank blank’. That nihilistic drift is in other songs. Stef Smith’s ‘Bones’ tells us ‘my bones lay on the bedframe, it’s the only thing I am certain of, ..there is nothing to believe in, after I die, pile up and polish my bones, As a monument to a life spent alone. ‘

The world and what you do about it has vanished beyond disturbing objects such as the dangerous water in E.V. Crowe’s ‘A Dark Black Pool’ where ‘a girl got raped’, another got killed and our narrator decides to swim, despite the warnings. There always seems to be the pull of the inevitable horror. As Somalia Nonyé Seaton’s ‘Beast Undone’ advises ‘let’s join hands and jump into the unknown Because there is nowhere else to go Nowhere else to go’

And if Stef Smith’s 'Let It Be' offers an ambiguously optimistic message with the lines ‘within you Lies the complexity to be everything you need If you let it be’, this still implies an acceptance of the way things are.

No surprise then that E.V. Crowe’s ‘Oh No’ says ‘I can’t tell if I’m awake Or drowning in lead weighted Question marks?’ I suspect that is a thought shared by a number of audience members.

Occasional lighter moments include Wende singing E.V. Crowe’s ‘Mother Fucker’ in which she gets most of the audience to join her in the chorus of ‘I’m not a good mother I’m not a bad mother. I’m a good enough mother And that’s good enough for me. ‘

Unfortunately, most songs feel similar and unmemorable. An exception is Somalia Nonyé Seaton’s ‘Where You Gonna Go’ with its haunting catchline: ‘Where you gonna go when the need bleeds dry When you’re ready to be seen but there’s nothing left to feel Where you gonna go when the need bleeds dry’ Its meaning may be unclear but it is moving and remains with you long after you leave the performance.

The world may be very bleak for the writers of these songs but ninety minutes of these nihilistic fragments can be wearing for an audience even if they are delivered by the stunning voice of Wende. They are also out of step with the hopeful engaged commentary on the world of the Royal Court’s ‘Living Newspaper’ or even the inspiring voices of protesters marching across London as I write these words.

'The Song Project,' which previously played at the Royal Court in 2019, will be returning to the Royal Court in June 2022.

Keith McKenna