RUNAWAY DIAMONDS. To 18 March.

Young People

RUNAWAY DIAMONDS
by Joe Williams

West Yorkshire Playhouse Tour to 18 March 2005 school performances only
Runs 1hr No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 10 March at West Yorkshire Playhouse (Courtyard Theatre)

Physical expression of narrative history works a treat.Catching this at a brief stop-off in the West Yorkshire Playhouse's Courtyard Theatre towards the end of its schools' tour meant seeing a performance with maximum technical facilities. Yet the piece doubtless works even better in its intended setting of a school hall, encouraging a closer performer-audience interaction and a different sense of occasion as the event invades' the audience's familiar daily environment (and workshops are available in schools).

Even so, the value of this dance-drama for 9+ about escaped slave Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), involving the Playhouse and Phoenix Dance Theatre founder David Hamilton, is clear.

A slave with a white father (it happened a fair amount on the plantations) Douglass was brought up by grandma and had the fortune to be owned' by a kindly woman who taught him to read. She's carefully created by the positioning of a shawl and rocking chair. Gary Simpson's Douglass moves steadily towards the chair, cringing as the slave-master shouts at him before oleaginously excusing himself to the mistress and explaining why it's dangerous for a slave to read.

The stage's full diagonal is used for this; the space continues fully used in more overtly active scenes as Douglass escapes, becoming a journalist, public speaker and politician. (He gained office in the US government and came twice to speak in Leeds - local audiences can decide which is the higher achievement).

These events are introduced by a trail back from the performers' introduction, implicitly connecting modern Black experience with this segment of history. The link's significant. Joe Williams is not writing sentimentalised history. Only the title's metaphor seems blurred. Its point is labour's forced from the slave as diamonds are prised from rock. The sense of extreme effort's strong but seems to make the labour, not the slave, the Runaway.

That apart, the strength of images and a focus on a born slave as active and influential rather than victim make this, both thematically and stylistically, a piece of progressive performance for schools. Director Gail McIntyre knows this sphere of theatre inside-out; it shows in a swift, clear and detailed production.

Frederick Douglass: Gary Simpson
Others: David Hamilton
Voice-overs: Sheilah Cuffy, Ellen O'Grady

Director: Gail McIntyre
Designer: Emma Williams
Lighting: Tim Skelly
Sound: Mic Pool, Mat Angove
Choreographer: David Hamilton

2005-03-13 12:17:02