Helen Murray Archives - Page 14 of 17

★★★★

“a tribute to the true soul of carnival, one that has us honour its significance while we dance in our seats.”

Carnival means many things to many people. Nadine hears the spirits of her ancestors reclaiming the streets they weren’t allowed to call their own. This year, they will guide her as she competes for her chance to be seen. Jade sees a community under threat. Persuaded by her activist friend Nisha, she plans to deliver a speech encouraging people to make their voices heard. But the carnival is not the safe and joyful place it was when they were children. As their big moment edges closer, Nadine and Jade are forced to confront the dark side of home.

Cramming the whole of Notting Hill Carnival into Theatre503 might seem like an impossible task, but Rebekah Murrell’s production manages it with ease. Writer Yasmin Joseph paints an evocative picture of busy streets and sensory overloads, with locals jostling for space among curious outsiders. There are snapshots of the carnival from all sides: belligerent neighbours, nosey journalists, street vendors holding the same spot they have occupied for fifty years. Although the stage itself is relatively plain – adorned with Caribbean flags and minimal set pieces – Joseph’s script fizzes with energy that fills every corner of the space.

There is plenty of social commentary, some overt and some extremely subtle. The girls are fetishised for their race (‘you two look proper tropical,’ says one charmer) and slut-shamed by the men they reject. Carnival goers since childhood, they lament the rising price of old favourites and the influx of rich white hipsters. Nisha prides herself on being politically aware but, next to veteran activists, she seems hopelessly naïve. Scenes will often pause to make way for soca music, or end with a sudden outburst of movement. The integration of real carnival atmosphere shows the value of incorporating seemingly non-theatrical elements into plays; not only does it elevate Joseph’s script, but makes the whole thing all the more enjoyable.

The acting is assured, the dynamic between Sharla Smith (Nadine), Sapphire Joy (Jade), and Annice Bopari (Nisha) is incredibly natural. Smith and Joy slip in and out of characters with ease, playing seventy-year-old street vendors with the same vivacity as they do their central roles. Bopari is endearing as Nisha, prompting laughter at her over-earnestness and sympathy for her isolation.

Of the three, Nisha feels a little underdeveloped, her story a little vague. It would have been great to hear more about her connection to carnival and motivation for her activism in greater depth. But this is only a minor criticism, one that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the performance. J’ouvert is a tribute to the true soul of carnival, one that has us honour its significance while we dance in our seats.

Reviewed by Harriet Corke

Photography by Helen Murray

Class

Bush Theatre

Reviewed – 9th May 2019

★★★★

“an evocative commentary on ever present class divides”

School can conjure up some of our best and worst memories from our lives. A microcosmic little bubble that can be supportive and caring yet also brutally totalitarian. In Iseult Golden and David Horan’s jointly written and directed award winning play, Class, they thoughtfully question how much the education system has truly changed and whether school can ever erase social divides.

Brian (Stephen Jones) and his estranged wife Donna (Sarah Morris) are back in their old school to meet with their nine-year old son’s teacher, Mr Ray McCafferty (Will O’Connell). With tension already high between the recently separated couple, when Mr McCafferty drops the bombshell that their son Jayden is struggling with the schoolwork and suggests an educational psychologist to determine any issues, the shock and fear riles up into heated discussion. Particularly as Brian and Donna have never liked school, and have never trusted men in suits who use long words instead of getting straight to the point. As the parent-teacher meeting soon crumbles, we cut to Homework Club where Jayden and classmate Kaylie (also played by Jones and Morris) are gradually improving their reading and writing, whilst innocently revealing snapshots of their home life.

Set in the classroom, with traditional wooden chairs and wall-wrapping chalk boards, the building is haunted with memories from the austere, ‘olden days’. This clashes with Mr McCafferty’s more progressive standards of teaching. The enclosed nature of the classroom, jumps from being the secure haven of Homework Club, where the pupils voice their doubts and fears, to a highly claustrophobic and tense environment between volatile parent and condescending teacher. Set designer Maree Kearns makes sure the space can enable this flip flop from the two which is an engaging, and excitable gear change to the story narrative.

Jones and Morris effortlessly shapeshift between playing parent and child that precisely demonstrates how adults and kids see the world differently. You easily forget it’s the same pair of actors. Hardly ever leaving the stage, their metamorphosis happens before the audience’s eyes but this is never jolting nor detracts from the believability. Jones and Morris’ accurate depiction of the funny things kids say and do are spot on, particularly Morris as the dance obsessed Kaylie.

Will O’Connell’s teacher Ray McCafferty is frustratingly caught between eagerly wanting to help his students and what, in this day and age, is deemed as a step too far. O’Connell skilfully navigates his characters ambiguous nature clearly filled with many complexities and hurt. All performances from this three-person cast are impeccable, generously playing off of one another.

Golden and Horan have created an evocative commentary on ever present class divides, and the stigma around learning difficulties, or ‘differences’ as Mr McCafferty would correct me to say. Written with a well-observed eye, and with perceptive performances given, Class is a concise exploration, that never tries to educate you on the issues acknowledged .

Theatre503

Reviewed – 6th June 2019

★★★★

“a tribute to the true soul of carnival, one that has us honour its significance while we dance in our seats.”

Reviewed by Harriet Corke

Photography by Helen Murray

J’Ouvert

Theatre503 until 22nd June

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Bush Theatre

Reviewed – 9th May 2019

★★★★

“an evocative commentary on ever present class divides”

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Helen Murray

Class

Bush Theatre until 1st June

Last ten shows covered by this reviewer: