Identity Crisis Theatre & Performing Arts

Phina Oruche is perhaps best known as supermodel Liberty Baker
in the 2006 final series of ITV's Footballers' Wives. She was named Favourite Female TV Star for the role in the Screen Nations Awards.
She has a had a media career spanning many years, which has taken her from her working class roots in Toxteth, Liverpool to the glitz and glamour of life as a fashion model in New York.

'Identity Crisis' is a fascinating piece of theatre and storytelling which takes the audience on their own journey of self-discovery whilst being simultaneously entertained. Although the through line of the show was Phina's own identity crisis; being a young, black, British woman making her way in the world of showbiz, the characters she portrayed also had their own struggles and both of these enabled the audience to empathise with the other characters' inner tussles. The show began with Phina recounting the tragedy of hearing about the death of her 2nd cousin nearly 5 years ago. Phina then described her attempts to break into the entertainment industry.
Through its low-key staging, the show provides a perfect vehicle for Phina’s larger than life characterisations. From Amy Tan, a working class white girl with a Scouse brow and a taste for spray tans and black lads to Antonio de Silva, a football crazy Italian living in LA who misses his mum, Phina brings a colourful cast of eight characters to life, all of whom are having their own identity crises.
Meet Mary Middle Class, widowed in her 50s, she now picks up men at funerals, Rasta, mixed race, dreadlocked, Liverpool born and bred but talks like a yardie and Mama Nukku, loosely based on her own Nigerian mother. It was a tale that highlighted that no amount of money, fame or attention could fill that inner void and minimise the insecurities which almost all people can relate to. Phina's ability to gauge just the right level of humour when re- enacting painful experiences was sublime throughout. Quite often the interactions Phina had with the other characters were met with raucous laughter and quickly countered with gasps of disbelief and heartfelt sympathy. It was story-telling at its finest. A roller coaster of emotions which documented the highs and lows of life as well as the lengths people go to become someone or something that they think they should be, only to find when they get it, it's not what they want at all.
"Embodies Nine Characters...Imaginative and Intriguing"...FringeBiscuit
North West End Rating: ★★★★

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