The date is 1765. Llanrumney is a slave plantation in Jamaica, established by Captain Henry Morgan, a privateer and former lieutenant governor of the Caribbean island, who named it after his supposed birthplace, now a suburb of Cardiff. This is the setting for Azuka Oforka’s drama The Women of Llanrumney. Rooted in the truths of slavery, the play tackles its horrors with verve, energised by anger and laced, unexpectedly (if not always successfully), with broad humour.
The action is confined to a Georgian-style plantation mansion, with realistic period furniture and costumes (precise designs by Stella-Jane Odoemelam). It opens with light-skinned, long-serving housekeeper Annie introducing dark-skinned, pregnant Cerys (a field slave and the lowest of the low in the island’s hierarchy – skin tones matter here) to her new duties as an indoors maid. Annie proudly declares herself the “one true friend and confidante” of their mistress, the white-skinned, Welsh-born Elisabeth (harridan-like Nia Roberts). “Her slave,” corrects clear-sighted Cerys (Shvorne Marks, strong in her stillness).
These three women embody extremes of Jamaica’s putrid, slavery-based society, where everyone is either inherently corrupt or is corrupted by a brutal system. The only exceptions are those enslaved people who dare oppose it, in thought, word or deed. “Rebellions aren’t just fought in battle,” Cerys tells the appalled Annie (chameleon-like Suzanne Packer), who has spent a lifetime schmoozing in the hope of winning the “gift” of freedom. “Love is a revolutionary act… we will dance to the drums they try to ban.”
Intricacies of the island’s social strata are conveyed via characters off stage (the nouveau riche creole hostess, the torture-devising overseers) and on stage (the Irish indentured labourer, liberated and now rich; two landowners, one English, one Jamaican – all three distinctly rendered by Matthew Gravelle). The plot follows Elisabeth’s (mis)fortunes and the men’s efforts to obtain mastery over her body and her plantation, with all its “livestock” of animals and enslaved people, including Annie and Cerys.
There’s a lot going on here; at times, too much. In information-packed scenes, characters interact schematically while the tone veers between Restoration-style bawdy, broad-stroke humour and incisive psychological revelation, interspersed with accounts of appalling atrocities. Powerful characterisations from the four actors and assured direction by Patricia Logue bring out the strengths of Oforka’s text, but cannot hide its flaws.
That said, this is a daring, ambitious debut by a playwright who promises much if she develops the dramatic craft to match her imaginative scope. This production premiered last year at Cardiff’s Sherman theatre; Oforka’s women deserve to be seen by audiences across the country.
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North By Northwest was presented on stage by the Australian Melbourne Theatre Company in 2015, using a combination of live theatre and film effects. This new version, adapted by director Emma Rice for her company Wise Children (in a co-production with York Theatre Royal, Home Manchester and Liverpool’s Everyman and Playhouse theatres), delivers the multiple famous scenes (from the UN building in New York to Mount Rushmore, via train stations and carriages) through the adroit movements of six multitasking actors, manipulating elements of set and props, supported by an excellent creative team. This emphasis on performance will come as no surprise to fans of Rice’s other acclaimed stage adaptations of films, including the much-produced Brief Encounter.
For the most part, the core chase and suspense elements of Hitchcock’s classic, cold war-era thriller are sidelined by Rice in favour of a presentation that emphasises period style and a vaudeville-like format, with the action interrupted for character asides, lip-syncs to classic crooner numbers, dances, random acrobatics and audience participation (Katy Owen as the Professor, making sure we are following the plot).
The love triangle of hero (Ewan Wardrop in the Carey Grant role, less suave but just as charming), heroine (cooly blond Patrycja Kujawska) and chief baddie (lip-curling Karl Queensborough) is interestingly extended to include the unrequited passions of Simon Oskarsson’s murderous henchman for his chief, and of the henchman’s wife (Mirabelle Gremaud) for her husband.
One big question – “How will they do the famous crop-duster scene in the cornfield?” – was answered by Rice in an interview published before opening night: “With paper and a pair of scissors, an aerosol can and some suitcases.” It’s accurate, yet gives nothing away. The effect is still surprising – and delivers one of the production’s few really satisfying dramatic moments. Another big challenge, the Mount Rushmore cliffhanger, is less adroitly managed, leading to an extraneous conclusion with historic speeches on war and peace – not so much spine-shivering as toe-curling.
Star ratings (out of five)
The Women of Llanrumney ★★★★
North By Northwest ★★★
The Women of Llanrumney is at Theatre Royal Stratford East, London, until 12 April
North by Northwest is at York Theatre Royal until 5 April, then touring until 22 June
