CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
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A CurtainUp London Review
Torn
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"It happened."
— Angel
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Adelle Leonce as Angel (Photo: Helen Maybanks)
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The family ties are complex and take some unravelling. Only three of the characters have names, Steve the stepfather (James Hillier), Brian, Angel's birth father (Roger Griffiths) now separated from her mother, and Angel herself. The other characters inhabit relationship titles and are 1st Twin and 2nd Twin, Brotha, Couzin and two Aunties. The family tree puzzled me for some time but the confusion adds to the fluidity of the roles and changes of time as the dialogue switches back to an earlier time with no obvious clues.
In this mire of mixed race families is the prejudice against those of darker skins as explained by the despicable Steve as he describes "field slaves" as being darker and "house slaves" as often fathered by the slave owner and light skinned. After all these years, the ultimate light skinned, white man is playing the racial supremacy game. It seems that Angel's mother has given up her dark children Angel and Brotha (Jamael Westman) to be cared for by Aunty L (Lorna Brown) and gone on to have two light skinned children, Sebastian and Mary whom we do not see, just hear about their achievements. Aunty J (Kirsty Bushell) recalls the terrible racism directed against her three mixed race children.
As family rivalries are exposed, Angel finds herself alone, vilified as a troublemaker. It emerges that her mother has exchanged her duty as a mother to her two eldest children in return for an affluent lifestyle with the odious Steve, which she then tries to persuade others to her way of thinking by reminding them of their indebtedness to her.
They play a game when one of a pair, blindfolded, has to find the other by only the animal noise they have agreed upon. Angel tries to find her mother by her vulture noise when all the others are imitating the sound. The effect is a cacophony of confusion.
Richard Twyman's direction wasn't perfect and there were times when, because of blocking, one couldn't see the face of either speaker. The audience sit round the circle of actors, apart from a few at a higher level.
Angel has been betrayed twice and now only her Couzin (Osy Ikhile) can get the truth from Angel's mother. The catharsis of Adelle Leonce's performance as Angel will haunt me for a long time as she brings to life the searing hurt of Nat Martello-White's terrific writing.
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PRODUCTION NOTES
Torn
Written by Nathaniel Martello-White
Directed by Adam Penford
With: Franc Ashman, Lorna Brown, Kirsty Bushell, Roger Griffiths, JKames Hillier, Osy Ikhile, Adelle Leonce, Indra Ove, Jamael Westman
Designed by Ultz
Sound Design: Gareth Fry
Lighting Design: Charles Balfour
Movement: Patricia Okenwa
Running time: 90 minutes without an interval
Box Office: 020 7565 5000
Booking to 15th October 2016
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 15th September 2016 performance at Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS (Tube: Sloane Square)
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