REVIEW: Dreamscape by Rickerby Hinds at Arcola Theatre until 8 August
‘Ever had one of those dreams, when nothing comes out when you try to scream?’
-Myesha ★★★★ ½
Opening on the classic ‘Dreaming of a white Christmas’, Myeisha (Kim Blanche Adonis) dances across the stage, floating around gracefully, a radiant smile illuminating her face.
Dreamscape retells the tragic and true story of Tyisha Miller, a 19-year-old African American woman, who was one of the many victims of police violence and racial injustice. In 1998, she was shot dead by four police officers in California, while she was unconscious in her car. But in Dreamscape, Myeisha isn’t a victim, she is a young woman full of hopes and aspirations. She laughs, she jokes and dreams of becoming an MC. She takes us through snippets of her life, a life cut short, by what can only be described as revolting injustice.
In a mix of spoken work, beatboxing, hip hop and dance, the writing of Rickerby Hinds is dazzling. Rhymes and humour are on point, different characters always appear very clearly. The joy and mesmerising energy Myeisha relate to us is faced with the cold and desensitised autopsy report of her death. But no bullet is strong enough to kill Myeisha’s spirit, who resuscitates with an anecdote of her life for each of the different body parts she has been shot at. This echoes professor Saidiya Hartman’s work on ‘critical fabulation’: an account of history written ‘both with and against the archive’, fighting against years of documentation through the eyes of outsiders, and now writing from ‘within the circle of black diasporic culture and thought’.
Here, Myeisha isn’t defined by being a victim of racial injustice, and Rickerby Hinds makes sure we celebrate Myeisha’s life, which ultimately leaves us with the emptiness, sadness, and anger of her story and dreams cut short.
Opposite Kim Blanche Adonis, Kgwadi Tshwarelo Selolo embodies the police officer and coroner while beatboxing throughout the show. Both performers are incredibly captivating, and excel in the multiple artforms used within the shows. When Kgwadi Tshwarelo Selolo is beatboxing along Myeisha’s singing, they complement each other perfectly. And when he is icily describing the bullet wounds, Kim Blanche Adonis’s hopeful smile adds perfect contrast to the picture on stage. The choreography by Carrie Mykuls is flawlessly suited to the piece: Myeisha either travels the stage as if she had wings – her dreams, her life - or is being pulled by a dark force she’s trying to resist – her death.
After of brief introduction of Myeisha’s character, the audience is thrown into the car scene where Myeisha’s cousin Toni calls the police for help. This scene was the most gripping of the show, as we realise by that point that Myeisha is uncounscious in her car, and is telling us her story from this place of dreamlike coma. The gunshot sequence which takes up most of the rest of the show can feel at times repetitive but overall the pace never drops and the story is nonetheless engaging.
Dreamscape is a beautiful, urgently important story, and masterpiece of hip hop theatre – a must see!
Dreamscape by Rickerby Hinds at Arcola Theatre 28 July - 8 August 2026
BOX OFFICE https://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/dreamscape/
The Company
Kim Blanché Adonis
Myeisha Mills
Kgwadi Tshwarelo Selolo
Coroner / Beatboxer
Rickerby Hinds
Writer & Director
Mxolisi Masilela
Co-Director
Gabrielle Williams
Project Manager for Hindsight Productions
Andy Jordan
London Producer
Chris Corner
General & Production Manager
Andy Jordan Productions
London Co-Producers
