“Mordecai bring me up like I is his own and in a way I is his own. He calls me Hadassah. It means morning star; he say Hadassah shine a light where no light shine. My parents die when I am little, and that’s how Mordecai come. He is not uncle nor cousin to me, more like a father, more like father and mother. Days gone, I smile on my face when we stand by the river. I know my smile is same as Mordecai as he smile back. Look at us in the river, Mordecai say. The river know us. Then I imagine they have another life, the two people in the river; I imagine we leave them there. And when the men take us, and I lose Mordecai, it is there I go in my head – the time by the river.”
Ony Uhiara, who I’d loved at the Globe this year, was astonishingly good in this – making what could have come across as quite a simplistic character incredibly nuanced and entrancing. Her use of a variety of accents in particular meant that she could flesh out and make real the vast range of characters that appear in the piece and her vast charm and inner strength made you completely invest in the Hadassah’s battle. I also want to say that I really loved the idea of the power of words through this – words representing sex and control, freedom and knowledge and how they were all very linked together.
18. In the Land of Uz by Neil La Bute (Job)
“...the feel of my wife’s face beneath my hand... the snap of my fist against her... it comforts me to know her blood is the flood you’ve asked me to spill... that I am merely a messenger of God...”
Sigh... It wasn’t every very likely that I would enjoy this given I’m not a fan of LaBute. I’m not sure if I quite ‘get him’, or sometimes I think perhaps I get him too well. It always feels to me like he is being shocking simply for the sake of getting attention and there is nothing deeper underneath that. This piece does that in spades, but at the least it wasn’t long enough to truly enrage me and the actors were all good enough for me to focus on them rather than on the writing.
19. Notes for a Young Gentleman by Toby Litt (Proverbs)
“TOWN: A gentleman should never appear utterly entranced by anything other than a horse or his fiancée on the day their engagement is announced.
COUNTRY: A gentleman should greet with genuine warmth only the following persons – his sister’s daughters, his maternal aunts and his mortal enemies.
TOWN: A gentleman should never be seen to handle money, except in a brothel or a casino.
COUNTRY: A gentleman should have as deep a familiarity with the great religious texts of the world as is commensurate with not having read them.”
After two quite dark pieces, it was nice to have a moment of light frivolity from Peter Sandys-Clarke and Ben Righton. It was very funny and quite charming and more than a little silly, but I think it was just the refresher needed at this point in the evening (or possibly morning).
20. The Preacher, or How Ecclesiastes Changed My Life by Nancy Kricorian (Ecclesiastes)
“The Nurse’s round, pasty face, her cropped, copper-colored hair, and the gray-tinted glasses she was wore to protect her eyes made me think of nothing more than the larva I had found when turning up stepping stones in our back garden. She wasn’t fond of me either, especially after the conversion role-play exercises she had us do. I volunteered to be the non-believer, and rallied the Grand Inquisitor, Jean-Paul Sartre and the wiles of Satan himself in my arguments against the narrow path to Heaven that was proffered. I guess I was a little too convincing.”
This managed to be both funny and moving and lovely and more than a little cynical. Becci Gemmell was excellent and I loved both the story being told and the imagery it used, as well as its final message. There was also an awesome moment of glancing round and finding a fellow audience member had climbed up and was watching the performance dangling over the open window.
21. The Beauty of the Church by Carol Ann Duffy (Song of Solomon) *
"I am sick with love.
Turn away your eyes from mine,
they have overcome me.
You have ravished my heart with your eyes.”
This was utterly magical, the divine Juliet Stevenson speaking such beautiful, passionate, lyrical and private words in the dark of the night. It was glorious and it ached. A hymn to feminine beauty and with the previous piece a wonderful tribute to the love between women. Completely entrancing from the first word to the last. And with it’s ‘ravished’ it echoed for me Into Thy Hands at Wilton’s Music Hall earlier this year and the vast weight of history that brought with it.
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22. All the Trees of the Field by Ian McHugh (Isaiah)
“CRAIG: I don’t know... Waking up at the river, covered in mud, freezing. Laughing. Having a clear head. Having nothing but you in mind. In all of me. You know? The world bending around us. And everything just... smelled better, tasted better. I know it’s ridiculous but... strawberries, chocolate... cornflakes...
ASH: And?”
Definitely an interesting one and I’m still not quite sure I’ve grasped its nuances yet or how it related to Isaiah but it was fascinating to watch the exploration of the unhealthy intensity of a truly exclusive relationship. I wondered if Ash was in some sense supposed to represent God, though I might have been completely off base with the idea. Really loved both Pheobe Fox and James Northcote and both the energy and the emotional commitment they brought to the piece (and for reasons that should only be evident to a handful of friends was amused to see a coffee mug on the table).
23. A Lost Expression by Luke Kennard (Jeremiah)
“And anyway, it’s being built on a flood plane, the utopian housing solution. And being a low-riser, it’s at high risk. And anyway, my father, who owns the construction firm’s umbrella company, is about to pull the plug on the project. Umbrellas, plugs. What is it with me and water?
And anyway, my grandfather, who used to run the country, is about to start a civil war. So basically my utopian housing solution is going to be knee deep in septic water. And there will be bodies floating in it. That’s if it ever reaches completion.”
Alas that the text in the 66 Books Anthology (published by Oberon Books) is missing some sections that appeared in the performance or I would have been quoting above a whole diversion about a cattery (“some of the cats are dead”). Whilst the central metaphor is perhaps a little laboured in places it was nevertheless effective and very entertaining, plus I thought the flickering on and off of the lighting was a very interesting touch. Ralf Little was superb doing what he does best as a slightly nervous, slightly embarrassed middle-management type and he had me giggling throughout.
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24. When We Praise by Kwame Kwei-Armah (Psalms) *
“When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will dance like David danced
When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will dance like David danced”
‘When The Spirit Of The Lord’ by Fred Hammond
Kwame Kwei-Armah explains in the Anthology that he could not find a way, despite many attempts, to express the power and passion of the psalms better than the African-American Gospel music he’d grown up with, so instead he put together a play list of these songs and they got together a very talented group of musicians and exceptional singers to perform them with a slight soul/funk feel. It was superb, one of the most awesomely surreal parts of the night. Full of joy, talent and energy and exactly what we needed to re-energise us as it approached 4am. Plus it was a fantastic opportunity to have a dance.
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Part 4
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