Actor and playwright Natasha Gordon was born in north London in 1976. Her stage credits include Red Velvet at the Tricycle theatre, Mules at the Young Vic and As You Like It at the RSC. She has also appeared in Holby City, EastEnders and Line of Duty. Her first play, Nine Night, which premiered at the National Theatre in April and saw her win the Evening Standard award for most promising playwright, is currently on at London’s Trafalgar Studios and runs until February.
1. Podcast
The Poetry Exchange
I’m passionate about this podcast created by the poet Fiona Bennett: it’s a conversation with people about a poem that has inspired them. They interview prolific poets and well-known writers but also everyday people who love poetry. I particularly enjoyed the episode with Roy McFarlane about Langston Hughes’s poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers. I’m not especially into poetry, but through listening to this I’ve grown an appreciation for the simplicity of words and how within 10 lines someone can take you on a complete journey.
2. Project
Idle Women, Lancashire
This arts and social justice organisation, run by theatre-maker Cis O’Boyle and artist Rachel Anderson, reaches out to women and girls in deprived areas, running workshops in spaces they wouldn’t normally inhabit. They have created a “tool library” and are working with film-makers to produce a series of feminist DIY films for YouTube, covering anything from how to lay bricks, change a lightbulb and hang a chandelier to empowering women to take up that practical space. My daughter and I are going to go up next year to hang a shelf together.
3. Audiobook
Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
I haven’t had much time to read recently but I’ve been listening to these essays on Audible and they’ve become an incredible resource of spiritual wealth for me. We all know how formidable Maya Angelou was: she was so clear about who she was as a woman of colour in this world. I garner so much strength from listening to her – there’s something about her reading voice that is incredible: it’s like your mother, your grandmother, your godmother giving you words of advice.
4. Film
Imitation of Life (dir Douglas Sirk, 1959)
I was nine when I first watched this film and it’s probably why I am an actor. It’s a melodrama, starring Lana Turner and Juanita Moore, and it’s so theatrical. It covers race, the relationship between mothers and daughters, friendship, class. On one level, it’s about the journey of a mixed-race girl struggling with black identity and how she separates herself from her mother in what she feels is the only way to get on in the world. But that’s just one strand of the story. It’s incredible and has me in floods of tears every time.
5. Theatre
The Convert, Young Vic, London
I’m pleased that this play by Danai Gurira has come to the Young Vic. It’s about a young girl who is trying to get away from a difficult marriage, among other things, and confronts the links between Christianity and colonialism. I was blown away by Gurira’s performance in Black Panther and in interviews that I’ve seen since. As a performer and writer, I’m interested in other performers and writers, especially if they’re women, and if they are also black women, that’s incredible to me.
6. Music
Catch a Fire by Bob Marley and the Wailers
What are the chances that a second-generation Jamaican is going to be interested in Bob Marley? There’s one track on this album in particular, Concrete Jungle, that has been a sort of motor behind my determination to keep powering through, keep knocking through the concrete to get to the palm trees. I remember a few years ago when I was going for part after part and things felt particularly hard, something about those lyrics about finding inner strength would make me feel like no matter how bad it gets, there’s always an upward trajectory.
