New Montreal play uses spoken word to examine modern love

A new play that combines hip hop culture, music and spoken word performance explores the intersection of modern love and race.

Montreal's Black Theatre Workshop willpremiereShe Said/He Said by Canadian playwright Anne-Marie Woods this week.

Mariah Ingerplays asingleblack woman who meets a man at a club andshe thinks he'sher dream lover.

Christian Paul'scharacter is a sensitive, emotionally open young black man who feels his partner is more in love with her own pride than him.

It's a love story that gets complicated when she realizes he's still seeing his former girlfriend.

"I mean what woman hasn't been there?" says Inger.

It'sa universal experience todiscoverthe person you thought was your soulmate is not that into you. But Inger says it's even more complicated when you're black.

"You would assume theywould be a lot more connected. But that's not always the reality and that is a race thing, a culture thing, what we are still living today," she says.

Christian Paul feelsyoung blackmen suffer too as they try to develop their own identity independent of social pressures and media stereotypes.

"It'show you build your own identity and how it comes from you and other people's perception of you as well," he says.

Both actors say the playhas challenged them to get comfortable incorporating music and spoken word rhythms into their work but think those elements make the play a modern, accessible work.

The Black Theatre Workshop's production of She Said/He Said by Anne-Marie Woods gets its world premiere this week at the MAI, MontralArts Interculturels,3680Jeanne-Mance Street. It runsfrom April 13 toMay 1.