The African Company Presents Richard III To 28 March.

Tour.

THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III
by Carlyle Brown.

Collective Artistes Toiur to 28 March 2009.
Run: 2hr.
Review: Alan Geary: 26 March at Lakeside Arts Centre Nottingham.

Clear evidence that a right-on message won’t carry a play.
In the New York City of 1821 slavery is illegal. But there’s an institutionalised pecking order with the Blacks right at the bottom. This play gives us the true story of an all-black theatre troupe’s staging of Shakespeare’s Richard III. At the instigation of a visiting English company doing the same play, they’re raided by a corrupt constabulary and closed down. But the troupe survives.

Perhaps it’s a deliberate decision on the part of director Chuck Mike, perhaps not. But that florid style of acting we associate with the early nineteenth-century stage seems to spill over into the outer performances. Nearly everyone in this production seems to address the audience instead of the character he/she is supposed to be talking to. Krystle Hylton (Ann) is far too declamatory; so is Charlie Folorunsho, as Jimmy Hewlett.

To be fair, Folorunsho is responsible for the best moment of the evening, when Jimmy is re-living a past humiliation in the hands of a white audience in up-state Saratoga. They wanted him to stop being uppity and get back to the regular plantation minstrel stuff and he was forced to oblige.

Antonia Kemi Coker makes Sarah into a dreadful caricature: she’s the faithful old Black servant straight out of a forties film. But Maxwell Hutcheon’s performance as Price, the hammy and ruthless English theatre manager, is well observed and credible.

It’s an uplifting story to be sure, but it’s told here in a one-sided way. This rather ragged Collective Artistes production is clear evidence that a right-on message won’t carry a play.

Stephen Price: Maxwell Hutcheon.
Sarah: Antonia Kemi Coker.
Ann Johnson/Lady Ann: Krystle Hylton.
James Hewlett/Richard III: Charlie Folorunsho.
Papa Shakespeare: Shango Baku.
William Henry Brown: Chris Tummings.
Constable: Simon Ryerson.

Director: Chuck Mike.
Designer: Kate Unwin.
Lighting: Rachel Francis.
Composer: Juwon Ogungbe.
Choreographer: Ukachi Akalawu.

2009-03-31 01:45:53