BIG WHITE FOG. To 30 June.
London.
BIG WHITE FOG
by Theodore Ward.
Almeida Theatre To 30 June 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3pm.
Audio-described 16 June 3pm (+ Touch Tour 1.30pm).
BSL Signed 27 June.
Captioned 19 June.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7359 4404.
www.almeida.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 May.
Politics and people come vibrantly alive.
For young Lester Mason, in the Chicago of this 1937 play, White-run society is the big White fog of Theodore Ward’s title. No Black person can see their way ahead. Ability and effort keep running up against institutional racism. So members of Lester's family each strike out in different directions.
Victor puts his money and his mouth with Marcus Garvey’s plans for a Black African nation. Brother-in-law Dan decides to beat White society by joining it as a landlord, evicting his Black tenants as coldly as any other. Vic’s daughter Wanda follows friend Claudine into the good-time. Meanwhile grandmother Martha sits proudly, recalling her part-White ancestry.
Ward, a major Black, Chicago-based playwright of the ‘30s, covers the decade 1922-1932 in his play, charting his characters from post-war Coolidge prosperity through the 1929 Wall Street Crash and its impact. So few years afterwards, there was no need to write events into the script; audiences would understand what was going on, seen from the left-wing perspective articulated by the main White character, red-tied young idealist Nathan.
Alongside the destruction of Black hopes there’s a story of poverty and idealism paralleled in other theatre of the time. The military uniforms and pompous bearing of Marcus Garvey’s lieutenants as they award Victor decorations and take his cash recall the paycock-nationalist strutting O’Casey drew; Vic’s return in his uniform’s remnants from an eviction hearing sums up the value of that splendour. And the impact of poverty, grinding lives, severing relationships, resembles Water Greenwood’s Love on the Dole.
Poverty brings bitterness and recrimination. Striker, entrepreneur and dandy are alike brought low, and society’s ultimate answer is deadly. Jonathan Fensom’s living-room and hallway setting suggests a comfort undermined when the rent is due; such property never belonged to a Black family.
Michael Attenborough’s production gives full weight to all the characters, showing Ward’s equal understanding of men and women: Jenny Jules’ strong Ella shows strain in her manner and hair, Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Wanda mixes teenage spirit with responsibility. The whole cast’s fine, round the forceful, pivotal contrast of Danny Sapani’s idealistic Victor and Tony Armatrading’s material-minded Dan.
Victor Mason: Danny Sapani.
Ella Mason: Jenny Jules.
Lester Mason: Tunji Kasim.
Wanda Mason: Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
Caroline Mason: Ayesha Antoine.
Philip Mason (younger): Victor Nyambe/Kedar Williams-Stirling.
Philip Mason (older)/Count Cotton: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.
Daniel Rogers: Tony Armatrading.
Juanita Rogers: Susan Salmon.
Martha Brooks: Novella Nelson.
Percy Mason: Clint Dyer.
Claudine/Sister Gabrella: Lenora Crichlow.
Nathan Piszer: Aaron Brown.
Marks/Lieutenant: Tony Turner.
Count Strawder: Al Matthews.
Bailiff: Glynn Sweet.
Patrolman: Martin Barron.
Director: Michael Attenborough.
Designer: Jonathan Fensom.
Lighting: Tim Mitchell.
Sound: John Leonard.
Music: Evan Jolly.
Dialect coach: Penny Dyer.
Fights: Terry King.
Assistant director: Vernon Douglas.
2007-05-19 10:13:40