26th March 2007
White American dramatist Naomi Wallace tries to get under the skin of unemployed black labourer Tice and his young widowed daughter, Cali, in this Depression-era drama set in Alabama. She earns a pittance washing sheets, while he (with a bible in one hand and the Communist Manifesto in the other) fervidly, covertly, seeks potential converts. They live in dread of an unexpected knock at the door — but when it comes, it isn't the Ku Klux Klan but an illiterate white worker in need of sanctuary. Colin McFarlane's proselytising Tice and Lorna Brown's suspicious, feisty Cali are excellent, but though Wallace is to be commended for exploring an obscure aspect of American history, the result is too overwritten and over-symbolic for its own dramatic good.
Gate, Pembridge Road W11, 020-7229 0706. Until March 31
Louise Kingsley
No comments:
Post a Comment