CALL MR. ROBESON

Corn Exchange, Dorchester

A SINGER, actor, sportsman and political activist, African-American Paul Robeson was a big man in more ways than one.

In his day he raised the stakes across the world for equal rights, taking his campaign to Spain, France, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union where he was so enamoured of their socialist policies that he sent his son to be educated in that country.

In this illustrated and musical tribute to the great man, Nigerian born Tayo Aluko not only wrote but also performs his one man show which has since travelled the world enlightening people to this largely forgotten forerunner of the civil rights movement.

His fine baritone voice, accompanied by Philip Blandford on the piano, illustrates some of the gospel songs associated by Robeson such as Ole Man River, which made him famous when he starred in the 1930s film Showboat, but it is the star’s livelong campaign for justice that is the main focus of Tayo’s moving story about his hero.

Living and working in Britain for a number of years, Robeson supported the Trades Union movement and especially the Welsh coal miners in their fight for workers’ rights, this passionate drama bringing to the fore the price Robeson often paid for his outbursts.

This emotionally charged piece of theatre gripped the audience with its message of exploitation of the disadvantaged and how one man took upon his shoulders their battle for equality, a fine example of theatre at its best.

MARION COX