ON MY BIRTHDAY. In rep to 26 October.
Manchester
ON MY BIRTHDAY
by Aubrey Sekhabi
Royal Exchange Studio In rep to 26 October 2002
5.30pm 12,17,24 October
7.30pm 9,10,15,22,25 October
8pm 19,26 October
Runs 1hr 25min No interval
TICKETS 0161 833 9833
boxoffice@royalexchange.co.uk
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review Timothy Ramsden 7 October
Domestic trauma in a violent social context is given a magnificently understanding production with excellent performances.This second slice of the Exchange's Mandela's Land double may not have the sweep of its companionThe Dead Wait. Yet, after an opening where we seem doomed to a series of short, TV script scenes, it builds its own conviction. This is largely thanks to Michael Buffong's production and its strong cast. Seeing Karen Bryson as the abused, protective and eventually rebellious wife after her work as a dead ANC officer's daughter meeting her father's killer in the companion play, leaves the clear impression that here is one of the finest actors of her generation.
Lebo loves her husband Richard, and at first their poor township home seems the setting for a couple who are out to be upwardly mobile in post-apartheid society. The first warning comes with his casual expectation she'll fetch him a drink, and in her delayed response; the second in the suspicious glance and cold manner her father adopts to his son-in-law.
We soon find out why, as Ewen Cummins' character downs the lagers and takes out his frustrations and sense of humiliation on his wife, first in hurled words then soon in disfiguring violence.
Aubrey Sekhabi provides a realistic route through the family complexities, ending with a gun, logically produced if not actually smoking. Yet the most moving moments are played out in silence after a violent conflict, Bryson lies on the sofa, her eyes in a distant land of loneliness and regret as Cummins busies himself, talking to someone who's physically present but mentally no longer in his world - something he's unable to see.
It's the way such moments are allowed to breathe that makes this a powerful evening. That and the quality of performance. Longmore provides moral authority as Lebo's father, looking after the grandchild who wouldn't be safe with his parents. He's a cabman, facing street violence hence the protective pistol. His opposite rages in with Faz Singhateh's Strike, released from prison and out with his machete for Richard. As Strike's wife and Richard's lover Medina Ajikawo' lightness of manner suitably contrasts with Lebo.
Writer, director and actor all contribute to such a piercing moment as when Lebo, her face a massive bruise effortfully puts on her workclothes: a nurse's uniform. It's a moment of irony that speaks loud in this increasingly gripping production.
Thoko: Medina Ajikawo
Lebo Modise: Karen Bryson
Richard Modise: Ewen Cummins
Tshukudu: Wyllie Longmore
Strike: Faz Singhateh
Director: Michael Buffong
Designer: Gemma Fripp
Lighting: Richard Owen
Sound: Peter Rice
Fights: Renny Krupinski
Dialect coach: Lise Olson
2002-10-11 09:51:33