In The Red And Brown Water *** & The Brothers Size **** - TNT
Young American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney scored a huge critical hit last year with The Brothers Size – a simply staged three-hander played out within the confines of a chalk circle and with an unobtrusive musician tucked away in a corner. Now Bijan Sheibani’s powerful production is back with a completely new cast but the same intensity that made it so memorable first time round.
Tunji Kasim and Daniel Francis are first rate as the two black Louisiana brothers – work-shy ex-jailbird Oshoosi Size and the older Ogun, an industrious car mechanic who once loved the unseen Oya. But it’s the relationship between the siblings – and the unsettling presence of Oshoosi’s former cellmate Elegba – which forms the core of this small scale drama, influenced by Yoruba mythology, in which the characters speak not only the colloquial, sometimes poetic dialogue, but also their own stage directions.
Though both plays are completely self-contained, Ogun (now a stuttering Javone Prince) and Elegba (cheeky John MacMillan) also appear in In the Red and Brown Water, a far more ambitious undertaking which focuses on Oya.
Walter Meierjohann’s production floods the main stage with several inches of water and the audience sits round like poolside watchers. The slosh and swish of water seems in some ways a strange accompaniment to the story of a girl who could run like the wind, but it adds poignancy (when her running shoes float, abandoned on the dark surface) and a dangerous sensuality (to a late night party).
Ony Uhiara is excellent as the athletic but barren Oya, Ashley Walters (formerly of So Solid Crew) is on convincingly swaggering form as Shango, the young man she can’t resist, and once again McCraney shows that his is a distinctive voice well worth listening to.
Young Vic, The Cut – The Brothers Size – Maria Theatre, £17.50. In the Red And Brown Water – Main Stage, £22.50. Until November 8.
Young American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney scored a huge critical hit last year with The Brothers Size – a simply staged three-hander played out within the confines of a chalk circle and with an unobtrusive musician tucked away in a corner. Now Bijan Sheibani’s powerful production is back with a completely new cast but the same intensity that made it so memorable first time round.
Tunji Kasim and Daniel Francis are first rate as the two black Louisiana brothers – work-shy ex-jailbird Oshoosi Size and the older Ogun, an industrious car mechanic who once loved the unseen Oya. But it’s the relationship between the siblings – and the unsettling presence of Oshoosi’s former cellmate Elegba – which forms the core of this small scale drama, influenced by Yoruba mythology, in which the characters speak not only the colloquial, sometimes poetic dialogue, but also their own stage directions.
Though both plays are completely self-contained, Ogun (now a stuttering Javone Prince) and Elegba (cheeky John MacMillan) also appear in In the Red and Brown Water, a far more ambitious undertaking which focuses on Oya.
Walter Meierjohann’s production floods the main stage with several inches of water and the audience sits round like poolside watchers. The slosh and swish of water seems in some ways a strange accompaniment to the story of a girl who could run like the wind, but it adds poignancy (when her running shoes float, abandoned on the dark surface) and a dangerous sensuality (to a late night party).
Ony Uhiara is excellent as the athletic but barren Oya, Ashley Walters (formerly of So Solid Crew) is on convincingly swaggering form as Shango, the young man she can’t resist, and once again McCraney shows that his is a distinctive voice well worth listening to.
Young Vic, The Cut – The Brothers Size – Maria Theatre, £17.50. In the Red And Brown Water – Main Stage, £22.50. Until November 8.
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