Tag: leicester curve

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The Color Purple musical – review

Tinuke Craig brings concert version of The Color Purple alive

★★★★

The Curve production of The Color Purple is billed as a concert version of their staged production from 2019 but that gives a false impression. The cast don’t just stand in a line and sing. They are in costumes, and with director Tinuke Craig at the helm again they move around and mime, so it feels staged and very well staged, I might say. It helps that it has a strong cast who can both sing and act.

You might know the story, which is based on Alice Walker’s novel and Stephen Spielberg’s film, with a book by Marsha Norman. It centres on a black American woman in the early 20th century who suffers much abuse but eventually meets some strong women and finds love and self belief. As in the best musicals, the music which is written by Brenda Russell,  Allee Willis  &  Stephen Bray tells the story.

What you essentially have in this production of the Color Purple is a fairly empty stage with the vast emptiness of the auditorium around it. But it feels far from empty. Thanks to Tinuke Craig’s direction, the stage is filled with characters from the central unassertive Celie to her abusive father and husband to the strong women who inspire her. And the cast move with purpose and vigour.

The lighting by Ben Cracknell is like an additional actor enhancing each time. Even the camera editing adds to the experience by cutting in time to the music, and a restrained use of the superimposition of one face upon another.  You hardly notice the lack of touching in a musical in which physical contact- both abusive and loving- is actually an important part.

T’shan Williams is terrific as Celie. Before our eyes, she transforms from submissive to assertive, from doubt to confidence, while retaining an essential gentleness. And it is a joy to see her change from someone who describes sex as like her husband is going to the toilet on her and whom he undermines with the description ‘you black, you poor, you ugly and you a woman’. It’s a great performance.

The music begins in a gospel style in which the horrors of her life seem to go hand-in-hand with the domination of the church. Then light breaks through as Shug arrives, a joyous performance by Carly Mercedes Dyer, and with her some lively blues. Shug reassures Celie with a showstopping song Too Beautiful For Words and shows her for the first time that life can be about love rather than suffering.

I’d like also to pick out Karen Mavundukure as the forceful and funny Sofia, Danielle Fiamanya as Celie’s heroic sister Nettie, and Ako Mitchell who plays Mister, the husband who begins as abusive but eventually sees the error of his ways, he being very much a product of society, and finds redemption.

I myself am not so interested in the questions raised about whether God is to be blamed or thanked for the situation the characters find themselves in, even if I do share his apparently favourite colour. Nevertheless, I was happy to be carried along by this ultimately uplifting musical.

The Color Purple has streamed at curveonline.com

Click here to watch this review on YouTube

Click here for Paul’s YouTube interview with the director of The Color Purple Tinuke Craig.

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Poet In Da Corner at The Royal Court – review

Exciting drama from Grime poet Debris Stevenson ★★★★★

Production photo of MC Jammz, Stacy Abalogun, Kirubel Belay and Debris Stevenson in Poet In Da Corner at Royal Court Theatre in London
MC Jammz, Stacy Abalogun, Kirubel Belay and Debris Stevenson in Poet in da Corner. Photo: Helen Murray

Poet in Da Corner is the semi-autobiographical tale of Debris Stevenson and how she was inspired by grime music to become a poet.

Although the word ‘grime’ suggests ‘grim’, in fact it’s not. It’s an uplifting, exhilarating story of an adolescent woman struggling with her dyslexia, her sexuality and her strict Mormon mother. The teenage misfit makes friends with a young grime artist who encourages her to be real in the way grime artists are true to themselves and their background.

I really warmed to these two friends who love and respect each other and who are trying hard in difficult circumstances. Debris Stevenson plays herself and Jammz plays her friend and mentor.

It’s a show full of tempestuous relationships, lyrical language, and a lot of humour. There’s a moment both shocking and funny when her angry but nonviolent mother slowly pours a gallon of milk over her brother.

The title is a reference to the seminal Dizzee Rascal album Boy In Da Corner that was the spark that lit Debris Stevenson’s fire. The play uses an imaginary character SS Viper who represents grime artists and Debris’ best friend at school. He sees her as privileged because she’s white and her mum makes her sandwiches for school lunch. As an adult, he berates her for appropriating grime- and his work in particular- when she’s not from a black disadvantaged background.

But in the course of the play we see how she used grime as a pathway out of her own disadvantages.

Viper takes her to task for leaving the neighbourhood and losing contact with him. She responds: ‘Helped other people cause I couldn’t help you / took responsibility with privilege too. / But I ran away from me when I ran away from you.’ How she develops and whether the rift can be healed is the subject of the play.

Production photo of Debris Stevenson in Poet In Da Corner at Royal Court Theatre London
Debris Stevenson in Poet in da Corner. Photo: Helen Murray

The set, designed by Jacob Hughes, is a bare stage that uses minimal furniture. In a Brechtian way, it is made clear the scenes from the past are being acted out for us and the present day adults comment on them. So we don’t get emotionally involved with the characters. But we do care about them and we see the world of disadvantaged working class kids from a sympathetic perspective- not the gangs, aggression and crude misogyny which is the tabloid image of grime.

The talented Stacy Abalogun and Kirubel Belay play the mother, brother and other parts in this exciting evening directed by Ola Ince. The evening ends with the audience dancing as Jammz performs his excellent song Lemonade Man.

I have heard songs by Dizzee Rascal and Stormzy but I couldn’t imagine listening to whole album or going to a concert because my ears find the 140 bpm and the heavy bass difficult. After seeing this show, I now have a new respect for grime and the artists who produce it and I appreciate the quality of the lyrics. There’s a singular quote from Dizzee Rascal that is used in the play: ‘The skies are all empty because the stars are on the ground.’

If you have the opportunity to see Poet In Da Corner as it tours, please do. Even if you think grime (or poetry for that matter) is not for you, do it anyway.

Poet In Da Corner continues at Royal Court Theatre until 22 February 2020 and on tour to The MAC Belfast 26 – 28 Feb, Leicester Curve 6 & 7 March, Birmingham Repertory Theatre 10 – 14 March, Nottingham Playhouse 19 – 21 March, HOME Manchester 24- 28 Mar, Hackney Empire London 31 March – 4 April.

Click here to watch the review of Poet In Da Corner on the One Minute Theatre Reviews channel on YouTube

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