The ideal timeline we all envisage for ourselves; a line which, from birth, progresses rapidly and finally levels out at approximately 30-35 years old...and then we retire at 65 with a good pension to do whatever it is people do when they’re 65. We wish to throw building blocks together to create the most secure life possible, and settle (I know, it sounds ominous). And we always imagine those around us to always stay with us.
Remember I mentioned “ideal” because we all hope to achieve this, and as Millenials and Gen Z we barely think otherwise. Now I’m not writing to disparage all lives lead until now, however, I recently watched an expressive play which highlights THAT fear we don’t always acknowledge. The fear that settled can disappear overnight, and the sheer consequences this disruption can cause to our lives.
Close to the Edge, a play written by Viv Manjaro, is a semi-autobiographical story based on Manjaro’s own life suffering a snowball effect when she found herself unemployed, under financial stress, experiencing culture shock, all with ill health.
Close to the Edge is a one-woman play, starring actress Sharon Jones, focusing on Francesca, a middle-aged, black woman who had lead a settled life up until she found herself suddenly unemployed. Soon after this, she becomes prey to her rocketing bills, loneliness and depression. Despite her qualifications and experience and endless job applications, she remains unsuccessful until she falls into a job as a cleaning lady. Here, she becomes known as ‘Franki’; identifiable by her incredible jazz singing which appears as she cleans. To Francesca, her singing ability had never been recognised as a quality worth any attention. However, in her new job, she uses this ability to create an opportunity of her own, one which she wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. From here, the audience is left to wonder where this refreshing twist has the potential to take her.
Early on in the play, Francesca is seen to be in a limbo state where her efforts to progress are met with a constant institutional lack of opportunity for middle-aged, black women. Franki's character has an incredibly likeable quirkiness. She speaks with a jaunty Brummie accent and sports a sophisticated jazz voice. Yet, we see her fighting her urges to breakdown by transitioning between random acts of song and enthusiasm, and spontaneous outbursts of sadness. The viewer is coerced into believing everything’s fine – I mean – Francesca’s singing and smiling so everything MUST be fine. This duality awakened me as to how strong she is forcing herself to be, and the battle she goes through to grip that mask of “I’m fine...everything’s fine” onto her face.
Throughout, Close to the Edge made me aware of the insufficient official practices to help middle aged, coloured women – actually, the play made me question to what extent they exist altogether. Her high level of experience and abilities weren’t taken seriously by employers as, to them, her skin colour pre-determined the type of job she should be limited to; a cleaner. Francesca had to forge her chance to escape without support, and through laborious methods; it came from completely within herself. Even then, her opportunity came as a stroke of luck. However, in the end, the play leaves you with some hope concerning Francesca’s predicament. From this, I realised that although obstructions can befall you at any point, they reveal the chance that hope can also coincidentally come during that time. Basically, it’s not all doom and gloom, which I was thankful for.
There were multiple layers to this play to which a diverse audience can find an aspect to relate to. In the theatre, I looked around to see women from different ethnic backgrounds – whilst the majority were black, there were brown and white women who had also attended (and men were present). Viv Manjaro has previously mentioned (in an interview with MAC Birmingham) that although ‘the play is primarily targeting older, black women. [...] I strongly believe different people need to know how to relate to each other’. This viewpoint reinforces how as women, we can forget that as women we have experiences that we can each relate to and learn.
Being a young, brown woman in the audience, I found Close to the Edge educational as to how a lack of support both socially and professionally can lead to a steep fall. How ignoring issues can be incredibly difficult, but standing up to them on your own is near impossible.
The Q+A session after the show featured writer/director Viv Manjaro and the actress starring in the play, Sharon Jones. I asked the question of ‘what should be changed socially as to prevent situations as Frankie’s when we get older?’ As a young woman, watching Close to the Edge, although it cruelly can happen to anyone at any point, I wanted to know how we can avoid it and if there is anything we can change at a root level so that when we arrive to our 40s and 50s we know how we could help ourselves.
The answer: to support each other. Manjaro and Jones both believed that although the answer is simple, there is a challenge in achieving it. They pointed out that we indulge in friendships and relationships without properly paying attention to each other. I could go out and have a coffee with a friend, we both voice any issues we have going on at the moment, and then we leave. If you leave that coffee noticing, ‘she sounded kind of worried’ or ‘maybe she’s not doing so well’, then there could be an underlying issue which is being concealed and needing to be tackled. We forget the importance of listening to each other and being involved in offering solutions to each others’ problems. This way can we ACTUALLY help each other.
Something else which stood out to me is how many women in the audience identified with Francesca’s “strong woman mask”, and the extent to which they hold onto it. I listened to various women’s stories of how that mask can kid themselves into thinking that they are okay, and is used as a defense mechanism against accusations of instability. One woman in the audience mentioned that she can be unintentionally harsh to her children as she, in fact, empathises too much with them. If she allows herself to be exposed to their feelings, she is afraid that her own feelings will spill out and take away that “strong woman mask”. I found this particularly poignant, and I’m still trying to figure out why.
Having this Q+A was important to confirm the related issues all women have, whatever their background is. When forcing a cohort of women to pay attention to a singular life which could potentially represent us all in some way, it creates a conversation on topics such as depression, loneliness, stress, which may not have happened otherwise.
You can see Close to the Edge in action again at the Legacy Centre of Excellence, Birmingham on Friday 17th January, 2020. Buy your tickets here!