Our primary criterion for Picture of the Week is this: does it make you want to see the play. This Keith Barker photo of Joseph Pierre and Sascha Cole from Obsidian's Shakespeare's Nigga certainly fills that bill. It has two elements which, to be blunt, are sure sells for a production: sex and violence. But it goes beyond and presents an unpleasant commingling of the two elements and adds themes of slavery (and, not to put too fine a point on it, sado-masochism), miscegenation and throws in a steam punk sensibility (look at Ms Cole's costume and Mr. Pierre's bonds). Now all of these motifs may be in the script, yes, but what goes beyond the text is how Mr. Barker has corralled them and then added an aesthetic. The white hand on the black chest, the mauve colours of the dress reflected on the skin of both actors, and all of it played out on a perfect blackness.
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