Karen Mavundukure in The Color Purple at Leicester Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome. Picture: Manuel Harlan
The Color Purple continues at Leicester Curve until 13 July 2019, then 16-20 July at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
The Color Purple is a good shade on any audience, and this Leicester Curve gathering is no different. Alice Walker’s landmark tale of abuse, incest, race and sexuality is as relevant today as it was in 1982, and it feels like the timing for this regional premiere couldn’t be better – as politics and philosophy shudder outside, we sing together within, and banish silence.
Though less explicit than its source-novel, Brenda Allee Russell, Willis and Stephen Bray’s musical is still true to form, following Celie, a black woman in the 1900s journeying towards agency and self-acceptance despite omnipresent brutality spanning a lifetime.
It’s immediately apparent that we’re in safe hands. Tinuke Craig’s ensemble roars into view through the stalls, effortlessly cohesive, and bursting with Sunday-Best exuberance and some irrepressibly bold and angular choreography from Mark Smith.
Don’t be lulled into a backseat though – this exhilarating and complex score could so easily become a showcase for performative acrobatics, but restraint is beautifully at play here, and as quickly as it began, our chorus has dropped the veil and left Celie to her own wounded stillness.
T’Shan Williams delivers that curious mix of submission and survival well, carrying with Celie a bright-eyed curiosity and lust for each new opportunity, despite the abuse heaped upon her. Her role, in less experienced hands, could easily become maudlin, or vocally show-hard but she treats it with great dignity, and it’s all the more rewarding to watch her soar later on.
The standout of the show though is undoubtedly Karen Mavundukure as Sofia. Not only is her treatment joyfully riotous, but her compassion for the character is watertight. Where some may be tempted to turn the joke inward at Sofia’s own expense, it is her pride that glows at the core of her performance and allows her to deliver the best moment of the show with absolute mastery – a true joy to watch.
Our trio of gossip-girls likewise bring the house down (Danielle Kassaraté, Landi Oshinowo, Rosemary Annabella Nkrumah) – not only for their comic sensibilities, but for their commitment to the nuances of the score. Every scene with their narration is a delight.
Alex Lowde’s set contains a great alchemy of epic scale and claustrophobia. Small wooden rooms set into the backdrop demonstrate the cabin fever and lack of agency all the characters are trapped within. The projections, however, feel less successful, and too shallow a visual narrative to add much.
Speaking of claustrophobia – Ako Mitchell delivers a beautifully complex portrait of an abuser coming to understand himself. Not only does he have an incredible instrument, his choices are so full of colour and intensity it’s impossible to turn away, even when discomfort is rife.
It’s not unusual to see this show bring an audience to its feet but this company has brought their hearts to the stage and it’s a well-deserved and defiant thunder they receive.
Aura Simon
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