Split into a three-part anthology for love, Landé Belo’s That Four Letter Word at  The Bread and Roses Theatre is a contemporary spin on bell hooks’ idea of love as an action. 

Opening the production with the first story, Safekeeping, we follow a woman (Nicole Acquah) as she navigates a world from which she suddenly feels alienated after experiencing the end of her parents’ marriage at age 28. Belo raises questions on how we attach a sense of belonging and togetherness to our personal objects – an essential aspect of familial love carried eternally forward across generations. 

Along with the unravelling of the stability which once shaped her earliest memories, the main character finds that all of her childhood possessions have been lost in the crossfire of her parents’ relationship due to the sale of her family home. How do we rebuild a structure of love pulled unexpectedly at its hinges? Every individual’s internal love ethic is informed by the interactions we have witnessed in our youth.  Belo shows how removing that early foundation leaves us uncertain about how to find authentic love going forward, leading the main character to search for reconnection in a trip to Ghana. 

Today’s politically polarised climate makes creating a loving relationship seem like an untenable concept. bell hooks explores this further in All About Love, where she contends that younger generations are generally more cynical towards the concept of true love due to an absence of seeing love practised within their own families or wider communities.

To reflect hooks’ idea that love ‘requires a conscious practice’ and ‘willingness to unite the way we think with the way we act’, Heat goes on to portray a mid-40s couple (Ebony Skerritt and Steven Burrell) whose 20-year marriage has settled into monotony, heightened by the wife’s menopausal symptoms. Through rhythmic moments of back-and-forth dialogue, they realise together that love and change go hand in hand. Despite its slightly generalised depiction of menopausal suffering, the representation of a caring man wanting to understand and comfort his partner is a refreshing perspective throughout the story, seldom seen in mainstream narratives about long-term Black partnerships.

By further engaging with hooks’ rejection of the ‘culture of exchange’ in romantic relationships, Belo illuminates in Heat how the unpredictable development of marriage over time does not always end in sadness, as seen in the previous narrative, but creates a doctrine of honesty that allows a vulnerably authentic love to continue blossoming.

In Pivot, we encounter two ambitious entrepreneurs, Abiodun (Trisha Nabalayo) and Tolani (Tunrayo Tomori), taking the online dating market by storm through their app tailored for Black women users. Their friendship clashes over their conflicting interpretations of love and, by extension, their visions for the business’s future. While Tolani prioritises platonic love and sees the value of friendship as most vital in the shaping of the company’s next steps, Abiodun believes that the pursuit of romantic love is more fulfilling.

However, when a larger corporation offers them a twenty-million-pound deal to acquire their business, it becomes clear that pivoting back towards their original mission of protecting the community of Black women is the most sacred love of all.

That Four Letter Word weaves together seemingly unconnected stories in an effortless and intimate celebration of love in all its forms. A must-see production.

Personnel:

Director and Producer: Landé Belo

Assistant Directors: Trisha Nabalayo and Ebony Skerritt

Sound Designer: Anna Kidd

Light Designer: Venus Raven

Costume Designer: Landé Belo and Ebony Skerritt

Marketing: Simi Belo

Stage Management: Norma Hewins

Cast
Woman: Nicole Acquah

M: Ebony Skerritt

A: Steven Burrell

Abiodun Duartre: Trisha Nabalayo

Tolani Monroe: Tunrayo Tomori