Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Low Down
A show that’s all about Temi – not about me, not about you, it’s all about her.
With outrageous humour and ferocious energy, Temi Wilkey’s Main Character Energy looks at the quest for fame and fortune as a sassy black girl in a white world. This uproarious cabaret-like show has you falling off your seat, even as it faces you down with more uncomfortable realities
Review
Main character energy is when you act like you’re the main character in a story, acting with confidence, prioritising your own needs and confident in who you are.
From the moment Temi Wilkey flounces onto the stage she makes it clear that this is all about her – not about me, not about you but “all about me”. Resplendent in flamboyant pink satin robe and shorts with fur trimming, flashily flaunting her wares, Wilkey seems the embodiment of main character energy – until we notice the trimmings of her outfit are unravelling and she herself doesn’t seem to be far behind. This is a drama queen on a mission and she’s taking no prisoners.
This is Temi’s moment in the spotlight and she’s determined to shine. “Criminally undercast” from an early age, she tells us of her journey from the childhood stardom that evaded her thorough adolescent angst and dreams of her own show to adulthood and being passed over for serious classical roles. That role in the school play she missed out on at the age of eight when she got a hernia – too much heavy lifting carrying her fellow child actors apparently. The adolescent dreams of a show of her own accompanied by the obligatory ‘eating disorder’ to an adulthood where the serious acting roles continue to evade her.
This is a deceptively messy, chaotic show. Tightly written and directed, it makes more serious points than merely the ‘me, me, me’ of its initial premise. Wilkey’s beautifully paced show, while parading the trials and tribulations of this seemingly self obsessed drama queen, raises darker questions about what lies behind the desire for main character energy and the obstacles in the way, particularly in the way of black women. Which comes first the insecurity or the desire for main character energy? What’s the problem with black women playing serious classical roles? Wilkey’s lip syncing performances of famous portrayals of Juliet lead back to the racist reaction to Francesca Amewudah-Rivers casting as Juliet. For all Wilkey’s protests that this is “all about me”, Main Character Energy has so much more to say, with a bite that goes beyond its high energy drama queen vibe.
Ironically, of course, Wilkey is anything but underlooked and comes with an impressive CV – as well as writing for the sitcom, Sex Education, her debut play, High Table, won the Stage Debut Award for Best Writer in 2020 and she was a regular performer in Pecs, the drag king company she co-founded. The audience seems familiar with her work and ready for a laughter filled hour. Right from the outset, the dynamic between Wilkey and the audience is electric with laughter rapidly moving up notches to uncontrolled belly laughter.
Main character energy, Temi Wilkey tells us is about being able to express your feelings, feeling good in your body and being a bad bitch. Along the way in her show, Wilkey poses questions about all of these but ultimately arrives at a place where she has real main character energy, facing down the audience as they eat out of her hands – and indeed any other part of her body she decides to display.
Temi Wilkey sure as hell is one bad bitch with total main character energy.
