TORN. To 28 July.
London
TORN
by Femi Oguns
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 28 July 2007
Mon-Sat 8.15pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 July
Pride, prejudice and love in an unusual airing.
So, what’s Femi Oguns being doing lately? Well, apart from writing this play and rehearsing a central role in it, he’s been acting as Torn’s producer. It’s a hefty commitment to his script, which comes over in the Arcola’s smaller space with considerable force if not as a perfectly-wrought piece.
It includes several briefly seen, little-developed characters, suggesting the style (and economics) of screen rather than stage. But at its centre, where the best performances are, it’s a kind of sad yet comic Romeo and Juliet. For two lovers, Natasha and David, are divided by their families’ prejudices.
These are racial, but the discord’s between strands of Black British society. David’s Nigerian sister views Caribbeans as drug-dealers, while Natasha’s brought up by a father who finds Africans (particularly, of course, Nigerians) arrogant.
Malcolm’s hostility shows towards an African work-colleague and an inoffensive passing hoodie before he meets Natasha’s intended. And David’s sister is determined to prize him from Jamaican Natasha, lining-up a good African wife instead.
In this world the non-Black characters (neither White British) get little look-in, avoiding the usual Black and White issues, to the play’s benefit.
Anouke Brook’s production repeatedly loses energy in the silent changes between the shortish scenes and doesn’t quite focus the climactic conflicts. But it gives space to Oguns’ humour, which offsets and heightens moments of tension and revelation.
He still needs to let his themes speak more naturally through his characters; at present many scenes begin with realistic chat before skidding inevitably into the next part of the thematic demonstration. But scenes involving David (Oguns, his face showing detailed reactions to others), his sister and her partner, or Sheri-An Davis’s energetic Natasha, have life, as do the collisions between David’s ineffable politeness and Malcolm’s obstructive prejudice, which Brad Damon puts forcibly across.
There’s a lessening of force when each prejudiced party has produced, like rabbits from hats, personal motivations for their views. And the ending is insufficiently strong for its abruptness. But, if it’s not perfect, there’s enough here to make it a good thing Oguns didn’t hang around until it was.
Natasha: Sheri-An Davis
David: Femi Oguns
Malcolm: Brad Damon
Kemi: Yetunde Oduwole
Bayo: Lovelace Akpojaro
Freddie: Chris David Storer
Bola: Bikiya Graham-Douglas
Kirsty: Emmy Margaret Fyles
Dominique: Juanita Chantelle Graham
Kofi: Akpore Edigbe Uzoh
Young Boy: Tobi Bakare
Director: Anouke Brook
Designer: Victoria Johnstone
Lighting: Vivienne Clavering
Sound: Dominic Thurgood
2007-07-10 00:25:12