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A moon shining bright
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl
Birmingham Rep **** ERROL John has that wonderful ability of
a John Steinbeck to write about those at the bottom of the social pile
with humour and humanity. There is no patronising of the poor or any hidden
social message to prick our more privileged conscience, just a story
about the lives of the have nots, or at least the have very little but
hope. The Cannery Row end of Trinidad in the late 1940s and 50s.
Thus we have Esther, daughter of Sophia and
Charlie Adams who has won a scholarship to High School. Esther, played with youthful enthusiasm by
Tahirah Sharif, is all excitement. She loves poetry but her dreams of
High School and a good education look like being shattered because the
scholarship only covers her schooling and books and her parents cannot
afford all the rest. They live in a yard, a collection of shacks, and
mother Sophia is the matriarch of the little shanty town with a tongue
that could slice steel. This is a wonderful performance from Trinidad
born RSC actress Martina Laird, like Sharif, reprising her National
Theatre role. She is perhaps best known as Comfort Jones in Casualty but
this shows she is a stage actress of some considerable stature. Sophia, who has a new baby to care for to add to
family pressure, is battling to raise the money to send Esther to High
School but knows she is really just battling to keep her family’s body
and soul together. She befriends the orphan resident Rosa,
beautifully played by Alisha Bailey, who has no one in the world except
Sophia. The stunningly attractive Rosa works in the local
café owned by Old Mack and spends her life fighting off his ever hopeful
attentions. Old Mack, played with obsequious charm by Burt Caesar, also
owns the yard and, white suited and decked in fashionable Panama is the
local wealth. His gifts to Rosa, dresses, shoes, gold ear rings
and so on embolden his ardour, and as Sophia tells her i Rosa’s affections though are for another
resident, her first and only lover, Ephraim, played by Okezie Morro,
again form the National production. Morro gives us a brooding, troubled
and angry Ephraim, a trolley car driver who is about to be offered a big
step up in like as an inspector. But he wants more, he sees the poverty around
him, and at one point tells of his treatment of his grandmother in his
past which shows the corrosive power of his ambition. Sophia ( Rosa has a secret she needs to tell him but
Ephraim seems unable to feel anything but ambition and does not want
anything to prevent him from his dream of leaving Trinidad for
Liverpool. He sees Charlie Adams, a broken drunk of a man,
and is frightened that is his future if he stays in Trinidad. Charlie, a role reprised by Jude Akuwudike in a
fine performance, is a man with a future that never happened. One of the
best fast bowlers in the West Indies he challenged authority in an
almost gentleman and players scenario to be seen later in England. That
was in 1927. He should have been picked for the 1928 tour of England but
his career was effectively over. He was never again picked for even the
inter-colonies team. Now he ekes out a living oiling and maintaining
cricket bats, drinking and dreaming. And then there is the fallen women, Mavis, a lady
of the night with a penchant, or perhaps more a price list for American
salors and GIs. Welsh actress Bethan Mary-James gives us a blousy,
noisy, aggressive Mavis and her delight when boyfriend Prince proposes
to her is palpable as she pushes her now ring laden finger under every
nose in sight. Prince is a likeable idiot who proposes to Mavis
in an effort to stop her working her way through the US armed forces –
and to make up for laying her out with a punch aimed at a GI customer.
Ray Emmet Brown, another from the National production, gives us a lovely
performance as the lovesick boyfriend. Mavis perhaps has the strongest Trinadadian
accent of the cast and perhaps a little toning down might help those
less attuned to pick up more of the words. Her acting was certainly good enough to know
exactly what she was saying in every scene, but it would have been nice
to make out more of the words. With other actors some words were lost amid the accents – not helped by the fact the Rep does not have the best acoustics – but hardly detracted from a fine overall production. Director Michael Buffong, artistic director of
Talawa Theatre Company, has managed to give both an impression of an
easy paced life in the heat of a sun drenched Caribbean island, yet
still make sure the production never dawdles along the way. He is helped by Soutra Gilmour’s simple but effective set giving us all four homes without the stage appearing cluttered and by a wonderful script that tells a simple story well crating characters we actually care about. Buffong wants to put Talawa, now in its 27th
year on the map, the name means small and feisty in Jamaican
patois. It is regarded as the leading black theatre company in London
but little known outside. With productions like this one, in association
with the National Theatre, word of the feisty little company deserves to
spread rapidly. Quality theatre will always make its mark on any map. To
22-02-14 Roger Clarke Moon on a Rainbow Shawl opens in Malvern for a week long run from 25-02-14.
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f
she accepts and wears his gifts then “he is right to seek his rights”.
It is an admonishment and a warning.