SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewLela & Co
|
"That's how it works here, women wake you up and put you to sleep, they bring you into life and then they ease you into death. Men handle the bits in between."
— Lela
|
 |
Although described as a monologue, it isn't strictly although for most of this play it is Katie West as the girl whose thoughts we hear. She muses on the lot of women starting with her birth and tells us about her two older sisters. She tells us that in her country it is a women's responsibility, "To sing the songs, the early songs and the late songs, the songs of sleeping and the songs of mourning."
This beautifully written play with its poetic feel had me wondering if what happens to this girl is a metaphor for a war torn country, but this is based on a real woman's story. It is a story about opression, the oppression of women by their menfolk.
Lela explains how on the eve of her thirteenth birthday someone, not her, peels off some of the icing on a magnificent birthday cake and she is blamed and beaten by her father. So physically abused by her father, her misfortune continues with Jay, her sister Elle's husband who seems like a sexual predator.
Jay arranges a husband for Lela on holiday when she is 15. The man is a business acquaintance but it is a mixed marriage as Lela comes from the mountains and her people are at war with her husband's people. Her husband repeatedly rapes her, confining her in a room to a mattress until he realizes he can exploit her by charging other men to sexually abuse her. As he does this he tells us how sexually rapacious she is while she contradicts him. The lighting grows dimmer and dimmer until we can see nothing, only hear Lela's account of the brutality and brain washing from her husband to destroy her sense of worth.
One actor David Mumeni plays all the male parts, father, brother in law, husband and peacekeeper. The performance from Katie West is exceptional as she explains the terrible life she had trapped in a brothel generating profit for her husband. She is charming, naïve and matter of fact. Katie looks like the young Maxine Peake and she speaks in a Northern accent. The words are beautiful, the images they paint cruel and disturbing
|
Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe,
E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to Curtain Up and from what part of the country. |
| Lela & Co
Written by Cordelia Lynn Directed by Jude Christian Starring : Katie Weat, David Mumeni Designer: Ana Ines Jabares-Pita Lighting: Oliver Fenwick Sound: David McSeveney Running time: One hour 35 minutes without an interval Box Office 020 7565 5000 Booking to 3rd October 2015 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 10th September 2015 performance at the Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS (Tube: Sloane Square) |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email . . . also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. |
