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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewFanta Orange
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Regina, is it because you can’t speak or won’t speak?
— Ronnie
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Jessica Ellerby as Ronnie and Kehinde Fadipe as Regina (Photo: Francis Loney) |
Set in Kenya, a white farmer in his mid forties Roger (Jay Villiers) stumbles across Ronnie short for Veronica (Jessica Ellerby) an English girl and much younger, who is researching Geophagy, people who are so hungry that they eat earth. Ronnie and Roger argue over the drinks, vodka for her, the local beer Tusker for him. Ronnie has everything — she is bright, she is beautiful and she is rich. She is particularly outspoken and her conversation is not only frank but explicit and Roger is instantly smitten.
Roger and Ronnie end up in bed together and eventually, after Roger proposes marriage, they go to live on Roger’s farm where his pregnant house girl Regina (Kehinde Fadipe) was very recently his bed warmer. Soon both Ronnie and Regina are pregnant and they have a lot more in common than Ronnie is aware of. Ronnie’s mission is to get fresh milk for herself and for the local African villages but we are told that the women don’t want nutritious milk, they want the Western Fanta Orange, full of food colouring, chemicals, E numbers.
I love the way Roger’s part is written. He is the original ambivalent man. Time and time again asked a question by Ronnie, his instinct is to lie but no sooner has the lie been uttered than he qualifies his answer. When Ronnie asks him whether he has slept with Regina, Roger tells Ronnie it was to restore Regina’s faith in men and sex, to comfort her after she had been raped by British soldiers. This man reinvents history to paint himself in the best possible light. He even asks Regina to only speak in Swahili in front of Ronnie and she conforms.
This conundrum of a play is beautifully directed in a small space, the sliding double bed disappearing back into the space like a drawer with lighting and natural wood conveying the Kenyan farmhouse with views of Mount Kenya in the distance which we only hear the characters talking about. Jessica Ellerby plays the rather abrasive and unsympathetic Ronnie, a spoilt girl with a mission to tell Africa what to do. Her intentions are obviously of the best even if her methods are not consultative. Jay Villiers is perfect as Roger, conflicted and confused about who he finds the most attractive and of course selfish and duplicitous. It is Kehinde Fadipe as the only character who comes away with honour as the patient and lovely Regina.
I did find Sally Woodcock’s play interesting with the nutrition issues alongside the ethical relationship ones and the exploitation of African women and it is good viewing if slightly uneven. Sally was raised in Kenya and gets inside the minds of the Kenyan servant and the Kenyan farmer. It is the English charity worker who gives out mixed messages and this may be the way it is. This is Woodcock’s first full length play and shows promise and I will be happy to see her next play.
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| Fanta Orange
By Sally Woodcock Directed by Gareth Machin Starring: Jessica Ellerby, Kehinde Fadipe, Jay Villiers Designed by Alex MarkerNeill Brinbkworth Lighting: David Plater Sound: Tom Gibbons Running time: Two hours with an interval Box Office: 0844 847 1652 Booking to 26th November 2011 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 3rd November 2011 performance at The Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED (Tube: Earls Court) |
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