Get Out More..................................................Theatre Review

ANGEL HOUSE (Birmingham Rep, tonight and Friday)

21-02-2008

Birmingham Rep showcases the latest play by one of the best-known black British writers Roy Williams.  Paula Elenor is on the side of the angels.

It’s lucky for Birmingham audiences that the Rep can provide a venue for Eclipse Theatre’s latest touring show Angel House by the prolific Roy Williams.

Roy Williams takes an uncompromising look at a key issue for the British Black Community today:  the need for a reconstruction of a distinctively Black British masculine identity which is positive, empowering and socially responsible.

This sounds very “high-falutin’” yet Williams’ script brings the issues down to the basics of  kindness, mutual respect and recognition necessary in any healthy relationship, be it between husband and wife, parent and child or brother and brother.

The play centres on the lives on three generations of one black family in contemporary Britain. The neighbourhood is on the brink of seismic changes: it is being redeveloped – the established community are to be temporarily re-housed while their estate is transformed.

Hopes are high.   Stephen – the son who made good - is a key player in the development. He is making money and contacts. He may even become a parliamentary candidate.  The hard work of his  parents – the Windrush generation - seems to have paid off. 

But not everyone is celebrating.  Why?  Will the older, displaced generation be able to afford to live in the new, trendy apartments when they are complete?   Will the older folk be able to get in the new baths?   Stephen’s mother (and girlfriend) questions his motives, his materialism and selfishness.   His elder brother, Frank, resents Stephen’s success and realises that Stephen has betrayed him in more ways than one.

Common themes emerges in each generation:  men running away from commitment and responsibility; potential under- realised; and resentment towards the women who pick up the pieces and do not run away.  It’s not nice to be made to feel guilty!

The resolution of Williams’ play is uncomfortable, but also optimistic.  The second and third generations of African Caribbean men do achieve some sort of understanding and comradeship based on a simple recognition of each others’ emotional needs.

 If men cannot respect each other, how can they ever learn to respect their women?

The audience on Wednesday night responded positively to the cadences and language of Williams’ vibrant and convincing script. 

In a strong cast,  the performances of. Claire Benedict and Geoff Aymer as the older generation  Jean, Desmond and Lloyd  really stood out. (Aymer played both men – rivals for Jean’s affections).

I recall enjoying Claire Benedict’s performance as The Wife of Bath in the RSC’s Canterbury Tales –  both roles demonstrating her warmth of personality and the characters’ wisdom (hard-earned through experience)

I felt less positive about the dramatic structure of the play; I am not sure that the pacing was always effective and the transitions between scenes were a bit clunking.