FORM-Idea

In our ever more polarized world, one which, is often dominated by an increasingly toxic media environment, it’s lovely to celebrate work which brings light into our lives.   Recently three creative works have done just that, one Netflix series, one Amazon film and finally one opera.  All adapted from literary sources, two books and one web series.  And all three shine a refreshing fresh light on communities which right now are having to respond to global intolerance.

Red, White and Royal Blue is a charming rom-com adapted from Casey McQuiston’s mega hit novel. The film charts the same sex relationship between the closeted third in line to the British throne Prince Henry (played with sweet bewilderment by Nicholas Galitzine) and the gorgeous biracial son of the American first female president Alex (played equally charmingly by Taylor Zakhar Perez).  The two men start has enemies but both to their astonishment go on to become fast friends and then something far deeper emerges. What could have so easily become a Hallmark film is transformed into something quite astonishing and profound, in the hands of celebrated playwright and first-time director Matthew Lopez.  Has a playwright Lopez wrote the acclaimed The Inheritance for which he won both an Olivier and Tony award for and here Lopez brings an informed light touch to McQuiston’s novel.  While watching the film you find you totally believe in each character’s emotional journey with love scenes which many in the queer community have said are revolutionary for their honest depiction of gay love.  What though shines the brightest in this charming film is its inclusivity as well as its desire to embrace the romance in this relationship.  Helped no end by the electric charisma between the two actors.  Homophobia is there but it is not the story’s focal point.  The film of Red, White and Royal Blue has become an instant hit and remains at the top of Amazon’s list of most viewed films demonstrating that a queer romance can in fact capture a global audience.

Joining Red, White and Royal Blue in terms of both themes and success is on Amazon’s competitor Netflix, and it is the adorable and deeply moving adaptation of Alice Oseman’s smash hit web comic Heartstoppers.   The story is of a love affair between a much-bullied gay teenage boy and his crush the school’s rugby star.  Surrounding the couple is their assortment of school friends, Chinese student Tao, trans student Elle and the world’s most adorable lesbian couple Tara and Darcy.  It’s hard to put into words exactly why this series works so well and particularly why this second season is so affecting.  Perhaps it’s just that Heartstoppers shows us humanity at its very best as we embrace each character and watch the emotional journey they all make.    In the shape of Joe Locke as Charlie and Kit Conner as Nick we watch this lovely central couple on their discovery of each other and the journey of falling in love.  Also, for Charlie coming to terms with how he has internalized trauma after being badly bullied for being gay, while Nick struggles initially upon realising he is not in fact the heterosexual he thought he was but is in fact bisexual.   Their friends are there at every turn and are always on hand to offer support.

The production values are sublime, Oseman acted as one of the executive producers for the series, as well as being the sole writer for all sixteen episodes and it absolutely shows, since Heartstoppers feels very much a whole.  From the beautiful animation which appears at various points throughout the season along with the scorching soundtrack which complements every scene, Heartstoppers is just beautiful Oseman has created something which although is realistic, is also genuinely magical.   Among the supporting cast is the great Olivia Colman, who plays Nick’s mom and the scene in which he comes out to her should be shown to every parent of a queer child anywhere in the world.    During the scene she apologizes to Nick for perhaps unintentionally ever having made him feel that this was a difficult conversation to have. It’s simply beautiful.  When you finish both seasons you simply want to go out and fall in love.

The final piece is in many ways very different from the other two but in its own way it too charts its own loving journey.  The piece is an opera composed and written by folkloric composer and musician Rhianna Giddens and it’s called Omar.  Omar is based on the biography of an enslaved scholar and multi-linguist Omar Ibn Said, a wealthy man in his native Senegal who was stolen from his home at the age of thirty-seven and lived the rest of his life as enslaved in America.  And yet his story is extraordinary.  Escaping from his first brutal owner, Said was re-captured and imprisoned.  In his tiny cell he covered its walls with Koranic verses which astonished all who saw it since it contradicted the prevailing view that slaves were somehow blank intellectual slates which their owners could imprint on.  Omar’s life challenged this erroneous concept.  Subsequently bought by a compassionate owner James Owen who hoped to convert him to Christianity, Said was given an Arabic translation of the bible.  Said decided instead to write his own biography and by doing so pointing to the fact that between a quarter and a third of those captured and taken across the ocean during the middle passage were in fact Muslims.   Said was offered several opportunities to return to his native home but chose to remain in America since he did not know if his family were still alive.     Said died in his nineties and it’s been debated if he ever did convert, many at the time thought he had but scholars now on examining the artefacts he left behind including the bible Owen gave him, doubt it since inside is written koranic verses.  What Giddens focuses on in her beautiful opera was not the trauma of Said’s station in America but rather on the fortitude he demonstrated which despite the harshness of his condition ensured that he maintained his own personal dignity and a very strong sense of self.  The love maybe this opera celebrates is the love Said felt for himself a love which served him well and gave him the courage to carry on.  With some American schools in conservative states in the process of legislating against the teaching of an honest reading of African American history, this opera arrives at a very important moment.  Along with both Heartstoppers and Red, White and Royal Blue, it shows perhaps that the best way to fight intolerance is simply to tell your story.