SUGAR MUMMIES To 23 September.
London/Bolton/Birmingham.
SUGAR MUMMIES
by Tanika Gupta.
Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Downstairs) To 2 September then tour to 23 September 2006.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3.30pm no performance 28 Aug.
BSL Signed 16 Aug.
Post-show talk 15 Aug.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7565 5000.
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 10 August.
Caribbean comedy with reality checks attached.
Tanika Gupta’s written something unusual in modern drama (certainly in recent Royal Court plays): a love scene. Not a sex scene, though there are several of those on the Jamaican beach and in the hotel-rooms where affluent European and US women loaded with cash pay for sun, sand and the slim black bodies of local young men.
From Manchester, London and America they bring cynicism and fantasies. The men, meanwhile, have it worked out. Middle-aged Reefie controls much of the business, and he has his rules. Female fantasies are to be indulged and the women treated well. There are compliments to suit every type; comments about wonderful eyes are apparently always effective. But it becomes clear there are boundaries where fantasies have to stop.
Young Antonio wants to join Reefie’s men, but first he has a bad experience while freelance, for which Reefie takes a revenge nicely suggested in a late scene. And the boundary between paid-for fantasy and actual love emerges clearly in a relationship where White racism comes to the surface.
Whenever she approaches this subject, Gupta’s writing slips into Issue mode. It seems planned into the playwright’s scenario and forced on the characters, rather than emerging naturally from the situation.
A shame, for usually comedy, human sympathy or, indeed, anger emerge realistically. Sympathy’s there in Lorna Gayle’s sensitive, detailed old Angel practising massage and hair-braiding on the beach while near-silently suffering the loss of her husband to AIDS (something that could easily have the rude clarion-awakening of an Issue, but which the play handles with graceful ease).
And mixed-race young Naomi’s search for her Caribbean heritage gains from the youthful optimism and underlying intensity of purpose in Vinette Robinson’s performance. While the play requires him to make some heart-on-sleeve declarations to the other men about real love, Marcel McCalla gives her new-found love Andre a similar mix of affection and moral concern.
Strongly acted, with attractive beachside set and projections, Indhu Rubasingham’s production brings out the best in a play where the more lumpy moments are outweighed by comedy and a penetrating exploration of a rarely-discussed subject.
Reefie: Victor Romero Evans.
Angel: Lorna Gayle.
Sly: Javone Prince.
Naomi: Vinette Robinson.
Andre: Marcel McCalla.
Antonio: Jason Frederick.
Maggie: Lynda Bellingham.
Kitty: Heather Craney.
Yolanda: Adjoa Andoh.
Director: Indhu Rubasingham.
Designer: Lez Brotherston.
Lighting: Rick Fisher.
Sound: Paul Groothuis.
Video: Mesmer.
Composer: Paul Englishby.
Dialect coach: Sally Hague.
Fight director: Philip d’Orleans.
Assistant director: Natascha Metherell.
2006-08-11 10:51:54