Latest news with #TheWomenofLlanrumney
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in theatre: The Women of Llanrumney; North By Northwest
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
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wales' slavery legacy explored in new play
It is important not to forget the "atrocities the British Empire was involved in," a playwright has said as her debut hit play heads to London. Azuka Oforka, 43, was one of two winners of the best writer at the Stage Debut Awards last year for The Women of Llanrumney. It explores Welsh links to slavery and the role of Sir Henry Morgan - the Welsh plantation owner and later Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. Azuka was inspired to write the play after a visit to Cardiff's Llanrumney Hall where she first learnt about Wales' connection to the Atlantic slave trade. Azuka Oforka grew up in London but moved to Cardiff in 2012. The English actress is known for her role in Casualty but has gone through a "whirlwind" 18 months writing her play. "It's a debut that many writers would dream of. Hopefully it opens the door to tell many more stories," she said. Welshman recognised in USA for anti-slavery work Slave owner Picton's portrait removed from museum From slave to slave owner She was inspired after seeing a portrait of Sir Henry Morgan in Llanrumney Hall, the man who set up the Llanrumney sugar plantation in 18th Century Jamaica. "It was captioned Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. I just knew that grandiose title had obscured a real brutal legacy of slavery," she said. The Sherman Theatre in Cardiff was looking for stories that spoke to a Welsh audience at the time and representatives contacted Azuka, who felt it was her "call to arms" to explore Wales' links with slavery and the British Empire. Sir Henry Morgan (1635-1688), the Llanrumney-born Caribbean buccaneer and one-time acting governor, became a plantation owner on the island and is commemorated in Morgan's Valley in Clarendon, a parish in Jamaica. Azuka said she was "completely unaware" of his links to slavery, despite him being "a founding father of a slave colony". "I would not have written this play had I been based anywhere else," she added. The Women of Llanrumney will be played at London's Stratford East Theatre before returning to The Sherman in April. Azuka said it has resonated with audiences who she was keen not to "patronize". "This hidden history is brought to life in a rich electric, thought-provoking and thrilling night of theatre," she said. The Atlantic slave trade "still shapes the modern world" according to Azuka, which makes this story relevant, despite it being set hundreds of years ago. "It built vast wealth for Britain and it's left a legacy of economic, racial and social inequalities," she said. Azuka would like to see more schools have an "honest conversation" about British history with their pupils. "We don't really learn about the 400 years of immense wealth that it built for Britain and the people's lives that it affected generation after generation." Azuka is "really excited" about the future and said she was brimming with ideas for her next play. "I'm inspired to tell stories of marginalized women, working class women, black people," she said. She is also keen to uncover more of Wales' hidden history. Chris Evans, a history professor at University of South Wales and author of Slave Wales, said the nation had a "quite intimate relationship with the Caribbean". "It had a niche role to play in that it supplied particular inputs to the wider Atlantic economy and to the Caribbean economy." Demand for copper and brace led to the creation of the copper smelting industry in south Wales, leading to the district of Swansea becoming "Europe's leading copper producing region by the end of the 18th Century". He said people would "become wealthy in the Caribbean then invest their money in real estate in Wales". One person who benefited enormously was Sir Henry Morgan. "He goes to the West Indies because he's not somebody who has many prospects in Wales or in England," said Prof Evans. "He makes his money there and, like most people in the 17th Century, he reinvests what money he has in enslaved human beings. "Caribbean planters were simply stupendously rich, I mean they were the oligarchs of their day." While the planters have a past that is enshrouded in exploitation, their impact on Wales is still visible today. "People of African descent in Wales tend to be one of two sorts. One is that they are children of Caribbean planters, that's to say, of a Welsh father and an African or Afro descendant. "We can think of people like that, like Nathaniel Wells, who inherits a major estate in Monmouthshire." Prof Evans said it was a "critical part" of Welsh history. He added: "The more we look the more the linkages between the 18th Century Atlantic world, Britain as a society and a culture become apparent." 200 memorials linked to slave trade in Wales Welsh weavers 'implicated in slave trade' Wales' hidden slave trade links
