Review: 'salt:dispersed' by Selina Thompson

This one woman show, presented as a film at the David Lean cinema in Croydon, is a very powerful and thought provoking piece, written by Selina Thompson. It follows the journey of Selina, who also performs the work, as she boards a cargo ship and retraces the route of the transatlantic slave trade. She experiences racism from the Master of the ship, who refuses to let them record their journey, showing us that the history and legacy of racism still resonates today. The route takes her through Ghana, where she struggles to reconcile what she sees now with how things would have been for the slaves.The journey ends in Jamaica where she reflects on what it means to be part of a diaspora. The spoken word poetry which intersperses this piece is impressive and returns to the same phrases such as “and we are still at sea in the morning” and “Europe pushes against me, and I push back” - reflecting the monotony of being at sea and the repetitiveness of the discrimination that Selena experiences.

The metaphor of salt is used throughout. Selina smashes big salt rocks as she recounts her experience, and as the salt particles scatter, we are encouraged, again, to think of displacement and the diaspora. The film is followed by a Q and A with STL Associate Director Toni-Dee Paul, Carolyn Forsyth, CEO of Talawa Theatre Company and Katia Del Rio Smith, Performance Maker. There are discussions about the film being shown in schools to inspire future generations, as well as the health and safeguarding of the artist and how to avoid reliving that trauma when performing. Altogether, the film and it's use of language and performance was incredible as a stand alone work, and the Q and A was useful to further contextualise what we had just seen.

'salt:dispersed' was screened at the David Lean Cinema on Wed 15 Oct as part of the Croydonites Festival.