Tag Archives: Jermyn Street Theatre

OUTLYING ISLANDS

★★★★

Jermyn Street Theatre

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OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

★★★★

OUTLYING ISLANDS cast members

“The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling”

The atmosphere hits you like a bracing offshore wind as you descend into the depths of the small basement on Jermyn Street. Anna Lewis’ set: a semi-submerged, semi-derelict stone chapel, creates the mood. Tragic and sepulchral, yet some sort of haven from the cruel elements that sweep the remote Hebridean shoreline outside. Its owner, Kirk, is just as rough-edged. Living alone with Ellen, his niece, they live in quiet captivity until two young, hapless ornithologists burst through the door – literally knocking it off its hinges. The impulsive, emotionally detached Robert, along with the more moral but anxious John have arrived to study the local bird life. It is the eve of World War II, so there is understandably a more sinister motive behind the survey that leaves them stranded on the isle for a month. Less understandable is the fact that the two young men seem somewhat unaware of the pretext. Whereas the isolated, cantankerous Kirk has all the gen. Fully aware that his outlying outcrop is scheduled to be the subject of a biological weapon experiment, he sees the dollar-signs stockpiling in his compensation package.

David Greig’s lyrical play draws you in to this small world. It is claustrophobic but the confines are torn, allowing us to see the wider issues. Little, though, is made of the encroaching anthrax experiment and instead we are watching the social and romantic entanglements as avidly as birdwatchers study our feathered friends’ behaviour. Humans are much more complicated. Greig knows this only too well and the poetry of his language teases out the characters’ serpentine layers with rich dialogue and haunting monologues. The standout performance is Whitney Kehinde’s Ellen. Timid and repressed she swiftly replaces her dour mantle with swathes of lust, as a new-found freedom from her uncle’s tyranny is tragically chanced upon. Kevin McMonagle is wonderfully charismatic as Kirk. Acerbic and unashamedly direct, he tries to keep Ellen like a caged bird but cannot control her mind. The stage lights up every time McMonagle fires his lines with a wry sense of humour and a Chekhovian dramatic irony.

OUTLYING ISLANDS cast member

Bruce Langley and Fred Woodley Evans, as Robert and John respectively, also manage to spin out the humour that runs alongside the poignancy. Deliberate echoes of Laurel and Hardy break the solemnity in a play that is difficult to categorise. The comedy is subtle, like the Mona Lisa smile. It disappears when you look directly at it. The ambiguity is sometimes overdone, though, and confusion starts to set in as the show coasts towards its climax in a tangle of charged eroticism. Despite the shifts in mood, Jessica Lazar’s assured direction evenly paces the action. Clever use of the intimate space sets clear indicators for the interior and exterior scenes, enhanced by David Doyle’s suggestive lighting which evokes the bleakness, and ignites warmth when needed. The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling.

Politically and philosophically the play throws up some interesting questions while rooting itself in a story about human relationships. Desire is a complex beast. The male characters are more at sea than Ellen. We wonder whether she is playing the two outsiders or whether her passions are genuine. We are certainly given time to contemplate – the play does stretch itself out. Not every character makes it to the end. But, thanks to the writing and the wonderful performances from the strong quartet of actors, the audience is kept in thrall right up to the closing moments.



OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed on 11th February 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE MAIDS | ★★★ | January 2025
NAPOLEON: UN PETIT PANTOMIME | ★★★★ | November 2024
EURYDICE | ★★ | October 2024
LAUGHING BOY | ★★★ | May 2024
THE LONELY LONDONERS | ★★★★ | March 2024
TWO ROUNDS | ★★★ | February 2024
THE BEAUTIFUL FUTURE IS COMING | ★★★★ | January 2024
OWNERS | ★★★½ | October 2023
INFAMOUS | ★★★★ | September 2023
SPIRAL | ★★ | August 2023

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

 

THE LONELY LONDONERS

★★★★

Kiln Theatre

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THE LONELY LONDONERS

Kiln Theatre

★★★★

“a moving, funny and exhilarating play”

Bristling with excellent performances from an outstanding ensemble class, The Lonely Londoners is a powerful tale of migration, adaptation and the struggles of getting by in a cold and unwelcoming city. Director Ebenezer Bamgboye brings Roy Williams’ critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Sam Selvon’s seminal novel on the Windrush Generation to the Kiln Theatre for a second run with the original cast, following a successful debut last year at the Jermyn Street Theatre.

Central to the novel is its oral quality. Foregrounding the intricacies and rhythms of Caribbean English, the characters tell their stories of love and flirtation, experiences of racism, employment difficulties, and battles with the cold, and capturing this style and energy presents challenge to any adaptor, and the play meets this challenge successfully. The sparse stage setting (work of Laura Ann Price), consisting of six packing boxes – one for each character, centres the narratives told by the characters. Much of the action unfolds in the flat of lead character Moses (played brilliantly by Solomon Israel), a longstanding migrant from Trinidad living in London, who helps new arrivals and others find their feet. Within his house, his friends and acquaintances bum cigarettes and share stories, the minimalist staging focusing attention onto the language and storytelling of its characters.

This is reinforced by the innovative lighting design by Elliot Griggs, with a backdrop of lighted squares that change colour, brighten and darken, and flash in intense strobe-like patterns, echoing the narrative and this is supported by modern musical choices. Complementing the experimental lighting are sung sections performed with ethereal beauty by Aimée Powell – in the role of Moses’ partner in Trinidad – and interpretive dance sections which convey those emotions that the men struggle to easily express through speech. This expressionistic layer adds further depth to play.

All the performers are fantastic. Romario Simpson excels in the role of Galahad, a loud-talking new arrival determined to make London his. Gilbert Kyem Jnr shines as Big City, a physically imposing ‘hustler’ who struggles to remember places names, to great comedic effect. Shannon Hayes and Carol Moses are alternately moving and hilarious as mother- (Tanty) and daughter-in-law (Agnes), brought over to London on the back of stories of success from their son and husband, Lewis, played by Tobi Bakare. In placing Tanty and Agnes’ stories at the centre of the play, the new adaptation inserts female experience into a narrative which, in its original telling, was very masculine dominated.

Tobi Bakare’s performance deserves special mention, as Lewis provides an insight into the questions that are the heart of the play. We see his struggles most clearly as he battles against unemployment in a patriarchal society that places a man’s work as his purpose, racism in a country that told him it was his Motherland, his own misogynistic double standards that cause him to become jealous of his wife and finally alcohol, which he turns to quiet the inside of his head. Through all these profound emotional changes, Bakare is compelling to watch, especially in his struggle to write down his feelings when prompted by Moses.

The Lonely Londoners is a moving, funny and exhilarating play, and the difficulties and successes of its characters are a captivating narrative. Its final note is a love letter to London, a city that is as tough, beautiful, worn down and resilient as the characters themselves.



THE LONELY LONDONERS

Kiln Theatre

Reviewed on 16th January 2025

by Rob Tomlinson

Photography by Steve Gregson

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) | ★★★★★ | November 2023

HE LONELY LONDONERS

THE LONELY LONDONERS

E LONELY LONDONERS