Review Shedding a Skin: An ode to the Aunties

Shedding a Skin, is a play written and performed by Amanda Wilkin, winner of the Verity Bargate Award 2020 and in my humble opinion a living legend in the making.

The one woman act follows the journey of our protagonist Myah as she navigates inner city life. Wilkin masterly uses her body and her voice to break up the play into an immersive journey. She tactfully leans into the supporting characters and brings them alive with enough vigour to break away from Myah and give the supporting characters depth. The backdrop takes the audience through a visual representation of Myah’s state of mind, moving from green (chaos) to white (neutrality and blandness) and ending with various shades of brown (depth and complexity).

The play starts with Myah at work, she is clearly ‘going through a lot’,  her thoughts are erratic, hectic and confusing. As you listen and watch it’s easy to feel the tiredness and exhaustion that Myah is going through. 

The events that unfold are unbearably disastrous to watch as Myah’s life crumbles before our very eyes, but you can’t help but keep looking, covering your eyes like you’re watching a horror show. And so, fully invested we follow Myah’s emotional rollercoaster that takes the audience on a voyage of a young lady who has not learned to own her voice. 

Events unfold and Myah ends up at the door of Mildred. Mildred, is an older Jamaican lady who is renting out her spare room. Wilkin skilfully reimagines the trope of the elder auntie. Mildred is the opposite of Myah, she is living her life with fullness and is well known within the community, she has what the kids call ‘street cred’ and street smarts. An activist who opens Myah’s eyes to look at life and enjoy life with the fullness and joy that it has to bring.

I can imagine that a lot of critics will say that Shedding a Skin is a coming of age journey for the protagonist Myah, taking the audience on a journey full of joy, laughter, pain and forgiveness. And they would be right. But Shedding a Skin is more than that; it is an ode to ‘aunties’. I am not just referring to the family relative kind, I'm talking about the women who are the bedrock of so many communities and families. I am referring to the auntie who listens with no judgement, to the dreams of the young people who live next door to her. The auntie who will tell young people to put their phones down and live in the moment. The aunties you can talk to about dates and give advice. 

Shedding a Skin is a play of our times, a story of rebirth, an ode to aunties that is full of joy, passion and friendship. 
Shedding a Skin is showing at Soho theatre until 17th July 2021 and there is a live streamed performance on the 15th July 2021 - it deserves to be seen.