Do I Raise My Hand?, The Pen Theatre Review

Reviews

20 Feb

Written by Emmie for Theatre and Tonic

Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review

Content warnings: swearing, suicidal ideation and description of self-harm

Do I Raise My Hand? is a new show, debuting at the Pen Theatre. Performed by Akin Wright, this is the story of Temz Thomas who has been sent to therapy despite having ‘a perfect life’. It’s this or he has to start paying rent.

Temz is not particularly likeable from the get go. He makes it clear that he doesn’t think that the therapist has a ‘real job’ and that they were only working as a therapist because they didn’t get into medical school. He is cocky, spending the therapy sessions sleeping, sure he doesn’t need therapy as his life is perfect as it is. We hear about his success as a poet, despite his sister and dad’s reservations and dropping out of university.

As the sessions go on, some of which are missed by Temz, we see a lot more of Temz than he initially thought he would share. We hear about his isolation from people he thought were his friends, his suicide attempts, and the struggles of being a poet. This is then flipped to discuss his popularity in the group chat and having his poems published in an anthology, a great achievement. He explores the Black Lives Matter movement and how he is still waiting to see change; one particularly funny moment was when he said he wouldn’t go on a date if the girl had posted a black square on her Instagram profile..

Some parts of Do I Raise My Hand? were funny where I genuinely did laugh out loud. Other parts were slightly more forced, with jokes/comments that felt quite cheap. Waitrose, for example, is used to describe white, middle/high class privilege. In all honesty, I find that sort of joke to be quite tiring now. Jokes around smoking weed and masturbation also didn’t appeal to me but to be fair, most of the other audience members did laugh at them.

With that in mind, Do I Raise My Hand? isn’t billed as a comedy so it would be unfair to base a review solely on some jokes that I found forced. Do I Raise My Hand? does a great job in discussing mental health, particularly that of young black men, and talk about suicidal ideation. The descriptions of self-harm were gut wrenching, and shocking considering how Temz was sure his life was perfect. These are themes that continue to be vital in being brought to life on the stage, and so I applaud Akin for doing this.

The Pen Theatre is a tiny venue – I counted 28 seats! The show was brought to life with Akin’s brilliant stage presence and engaging performance. The set comprised on only a single couch, and a projection of what number session Temz was at. The lighting varied between the bright lights of a clinical setting, to much darker depending on whether Temz was being cooperative with his sessions or not. The small space certainly felt much bigger.

Do I Raise My Hand? is great in the way it candidly discusses mental health of young black men and not afraid to discuss suicidal ideation. I could see this being a show that could do really well going forwards and reaching bigger audiences, perhaps with a few tweaks here and there.

Playing at The Pen Theatre until 24th February 2024