Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine review – turgid tribute to pioneering star

Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, a 100-minute performance about Josephine Baker and racial discrimination, has made its UK premiere at London’s Barbican Hall. The review finds soprano Julia Bullock compelling, but says the piece is slow-moving and often lacks intimacy.

Created by Bullock, composer Tyshawn Sorey, poet Claudia Rankine and director Peter Sellars, the work combines spoken text, music and reworked Baker songs. Its six musicians include Sorey, while amplified performance and prolonged instrumental passages are criticised for making the show feel bloated. A dance evoking Baker’s “danse sauvage” is described as disturbing and hard-hitting.