Call Mr. Robeson: A Life, with Songs is a theatrical, biographical account of American singer and actor Paul Robeson, a champion of the early civil rights movement. Performed by the award winning Tayo Aluko and supported by pianist Thomas Saunders, the audience travels through Robeson’s life, music, demons, affairs and political presence. The script is written and produced by Aluko, who as a scholar in his own right, has a particular interest in the Black Resistance Movement. We meet Robeson in the fraught journey towards equal rights for African Americans, sharing an affinity with the trade unions and Welsh coal miners as a part of the battle for resistance.

Robeson was no angel, but through Aluko as the mouthpiece, his flaws as transparent. Due to expert characterisation and subtle evocative writing, the audience is left wondering who he is, as a man and as part of a bigger vision. Robeson was hard headed, but he was an ambitious leader and uncompromising figure in a difficult time of American history. The audience learns that the political forces at play were impossible to fight as one man. Perhaps this is what made his story so intriguing, in the scope of his lifetime, his personal achievement for justice and little victories were part of a larger process in history.

Aluko sculpts an engrossing and insightful tale of a larger than life character and slides effortlessly through time periods and countries, covering enormous scope. We have access to Robeson’s battle to understand his own identity and Aluko encapsulates this internal dialogue by leaving Robeson unresolved and open-ended. The use of song accents the action and his baritone is booming, effortless and flawlessly executed. The music, as often the case, does not disjoint the action, but is an addition to a deeply personal tale. In his portrayal of Robeson, Aluko is light hearted, passionate, intensely felt, and moves between emotional despair and ecstasy with great skill. Ultimately, Robeson’s story is important to tell, particularly in this way. Aluko delivers the quiet nuances which make up a life and a political movement from the inside, at its conception.