The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Strange Fruit at Bush Theatre

Strange Fruit at Bush Theatre | Theatre review
18 June 2019
Connor Campbell
Avatar
Connor Campbell
18 June 2019

In The Unpassing, Chia-Chia Lin has her main character, the child of Taiwanese immigrants in the US, state that “it was a kind of violence, what my father had done. He had brought us to a place we didn’t belong, and taken us from a place we did. Now we yearned for all the places and found peace in none.” Such sentiment haunts the sons in Caryl Phillips’s Strange Fruit. One desperate to return to the “homeland”, to escape the boot of racist Britain; the other, back from the worst two weeks of his life in the West Indies, rejected by the people who are meant to be his family, at a loss as to what his black identity means.

Errol (Jonathan Ajayi) is desperately awaiting the return of his brother. In his absence he berates his mother Vivian (Rakie Ayola) and white girlfriend Shelley (Tilly Steel) while planning a strike as part of the Black Front, lecturing on his leadership aspirations, envisaging himself a Malcolm X or Huey P Newton. But when Alvin (Tok Stephens) does arrive he comes burdened by secrets and a shattered sense of self, incompatible with Errol’s aims.

There is a lot to, and of, Strange Fruit. The play is broadly made up of a series of long, dense two-handers. Director Nancy Medina hasn’t found a good way of theatricalising the script, instead presenting the lengthy tête-à-têtes pretty much as is. The only real flirtation with something more is the use of a shallow carpeted pit at the centre of Max Johns’s space, a visual indication of the power dynamics of each scene.

It’s not that the contents of the piece is lacking, especially when it comes to Errol. Ajayi fully makes the contradictions of the character felt. He (not unjustly) hates white society but has a white girlfriend, a fact that dominates their conversations. His every interaction is filled with a virulent strain of misogyny. Yet it is also clear he has mental health issues rooted in his treatment at the hands of a country that doesn’t want him, not so much close to a breakdown as actively experiencing one. He is an unpredictable, deeply sad and difficult character, matched in every way by Ajayi’s performance.

He’s not alone. Stephens is particularly great in the scene that takes up the first half of the second act, a believably brotherly reunion that sours as Alvin’s newfound uncertainties are voiced. As Vernice, Debra Michaels goes beyond neighbourly comic relief. Steele captures the youth and misplaced love of Shelley. And Ayola – nervous and fearful in front of her sons, clinging onto a lethal idea of white respectability – has a multitude of devastating moments as Vivian, not least the story of the first time she saw snow.

However, even with some great acting, it’s hard to shake the sense that the three-hour play might work better on paper. That, or in a production more willing to liven up the presentation of its weighty dialogues.

★★★★★

Connor Campbell
Photos: Helen Murray

Strange Fruit is at Bush Theatre from 12th June until 27th July 2019. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Related Itemsfeaturedreview

More in Theatre

Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Evelyn at Southwark Playhouse

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World at Theatre Royal Stratford East

★★★★★
Natallia Pearmain
Read More

King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

This Is Not Who I Am/Rapture at the Royal Court Theatre

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

“Flamenco is a race where there is no end – you never stop learning”: An interview with Manuel Liñán on ¡Viva! at the Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival 2022

Jessica Wall
Read More

Jitney at the Old Vic

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More

“The fact a play as relevant as Jitney is not known outside of the US is criminal”: An interview with Sule Rimi on starring in August Wilson’s Jitney at the Old Vic

Jonathan Marshall
Read More

The Car Man at the Royal Albert Hall

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Connor Campbell

Strange Fruit

★★★★★

Dates

12th June - 27th July 2019

Price

£15-£20

Links & directions

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Eagles bring a nostalgia-laden evening to the BST Festival in Hyde Park
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • “He used to spit at the audience, roll on the ground, he did, in fact, hump that plastic dog – he was the original punk rocker”: Baz Luhrman, Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge and Alton Mason on Elvis
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Princess
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Terminal List
    ★★★★★
    amazon
  • Baymax!
    ★★★★★
    disney
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Kelly Jones charms the Hammersmith Apollo with a wondrous collection of songs and anecdotes | Live review
Napoli, Brooklyn at Park Theatre | Theatre review