Allow Me To Gather What Is Left Of Me - On Reading SALT by Selina Thompson 😭

Never have I been struck this hard by the weight of sl*very—by the history, by the loss, by the echoes that still linger.

When I was assigned this book for a group presentation at school and had to present on it, it took everything in me not to break down in a room full of people mid-presentation.

Never have I been struck this hard by the weight of sl*very—by the history, by the loss, by the echoes that still linger.

Allow me to gather what is left of me.

In Salt, Selina Thompson embarks on a deeply personal and poetic journey aboard a cargo ship. She traces the Transatlantic Slave Triangle—Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean—and navigates the waters that carried millions into bondage. As she confronts the weight of history, grief, and identity, she questions what it means to belong.

I don't read plays often but this play has left a hunger in me, a hunger for solo performance plays. I don't want to just read them. I want to watch as many as possible.

Blending raw emotion with powerful storytelling and “ritualistic” performance (made clear in the written directions), Salt is an excavation of the past in search of healing, a reckoning with the legacy of slavery, and a meditation on home—both real and imagined.

The part that got to me was “The Second Point: Africa”. I have journeyed along that same route in Ghans as the playwright and reading about the recollection, so well told, brought back memories—of how I felt on the day of my tour, how my skin crawled when the tour guide passionately recounted the plight of our ancestors, unaware of the effect his vivid retelling was having on us—was having on me.

Why I enjoyed Salt was beyond its subject matter. It was the storytelling itself. The way Selina Thompson wove together personal narrative, poetry and ritual felt both intimate and expansive. Talk less of the breaking of rock salt on stage with a sledgehammer!

Though I am no expert in solo performance plays, I am certain this was not a conventional piece. And yet, there was something grounding about it.

This play was honest and vulnerable.

This was a really good one-person play to read and I can’t wait to grab any opportunity to watch it in person.

Selina Thompson is an artist and performer whose work has been shown and praised internationally. Her practice is primarily intimate, political and participatory with a strong emphasis on public engagement that leads to joyous, highly visual work that seeks to connect with those often marginalised by the arts. Her work is focused on the politics of identity, and how this defines our bodies, lives and environments. She has made work for pubs, cafés, hairdressers, toilets and sometimes galleries and theatres, including Spill Festival of Performance, the National Theatre Studio, Birmingham REP, East Street Arts and the West Yorkshire Playhouse as well as theatres in Europe, Brazil, Canada, the US and Australia.