Reviews – What The Critics Are Saying:
“Author-performer Tayo Aluko’s one-man show about the great Paul Robeson is at its best when it is being most political…Aluko also sings a number of songs associated with Robeson and discusses his personal life, but these elements don’t work as well, largely due to the fact that although Aluko is a good singer, he can’t begin to fill Robeson’s shoes, he is physically nothing like the towering original, and his acting tends to be on the stiff side, under Olusola Oyeleye’s perhaps too-respectful direction.
Phil Newman’s metaphorical set of scattered pieces of Robeson’s life never quite coheres dramatically, but Dennis A. Nelson does a fine job of accompaniment on the piano. Robeson’s battles are far from won, and “Call Mr. Robeson”…stirringly reminds us of exactly that.”
Backstage
“As a famed singer and actor persecuted for his radical politics and civil-rights campaigning, Paul Robeson has the dimensions of an American tragic hero. And, even if a 90-minute one-man show can’t encompass the whole of Robeson’s extraordinary rise and fall, Tayo Aluko does a fine job in evoking his dynamic presence and in reminding us of the inhospitable attitude to dissent in the land of the free.
For those who know little about Robeson, this touring production offers an admirable introduction to a great pioneering performer.”
Guardian.co.uk (4/5 stars)
“this is no shallow “biopic”, and we are left with a rich portrayal of a man of astonishing intellect who, in his time, had a great following…a moving introduction to a life that should be rediscovered.”
Islington Tribune
Remaining Performance Schedule
VENUE #13: Bowery Poetry Club
Wed 24 @ 7:15
Thu 25 @ 6:15
Fri 26 @ 9:30
Sun 28 @ NOON
