Review: RED VELVET Is An Important Piece Of History That Is Very Relevant To This Company

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 20th November 2015

Independent Theatre has the good fortune of being able to present the Australian premiere of English playwright and actress, Lolita Chakrabarti's play, Red Velvet, written for her husband, Adrian Lester, his performance winning him an Olivier Award for Best Actor in 2012. The central character is Ira Aldridge, an African-American actor who came to England expecting better opportunities than in America, a reasonable assumption in the early 1800s. He was born in New York in 1807, crossed the Atlantic at the age of seventeen and became a respected actor all around England, until he came to London in 1833 to play the role of Othello. The first black person to play the Moor, he was attacked by an outraged press and subjected to the vilest racial abuse in the reviews of his performance.

Shedrick Yarkpai, a Liberian-born Australian, was the first black actor to play Othello in Australia, that performance being for Independent Theatre, and he is back again to play Ira Aldridge. By contrast, Yarkpai received universally very favourable reviews for his Othello. Director, Rob Croser, discovered Yarkpai almost a decade ago and has successfully cast him in numerous, diverse roles over the years. In this production he gives, by far, his best performance so far.

Edmund Kean, a revered actor who had been playing the role at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, collapsed during a performance and was unable to continue. Aldridge was brought in to take over. It was bad timing for him as abolitionists and those whose fortunes relied on slavery were in conflict and the latter group had the money and power to control the press. Having Aldridge in a position commanding the attention of theatregoers and showing, in his work, that the lies about the people taken into slavery being vastly subhuman, would have added fuel to the arguments of those opposed to slavery. He had to be stopped, and these foul reviews did it, even though audiences were actually impressed.

The play opens on an older Ira, arriving at his theatre dressing room in Lodz, Poland, where he is to play King Lear, in white-face make-up. A young and inexperienced reporter, claiming to be at the top of her profession in order to gain an interview with him, asks why he never returned to play in London again when he was such a greatly admired actor all over Europe, and one of the world's best paid by this time. This takes us back to that short period.

The company are concerned over the incapacitation of Edmund Kean, and are discussing what can be done, Edmund's son Charles assuming that he will take over the role of Othello, vacating the role of Iago and everybody else, effectively, moving up one level. The theatre manager, Pierre Laporte, throws a cat among the pigeons when he announces that he has already engaged another actor to fill the role. The cast, particularly Charles, are far from happy. When Ira arrives, and is introduced to the others, their anger at having an outsider join the company in the principal role suddenly multiplies when they see that he is black.

A couple of the cast are more open, and willing to accept this turn of events, while others are still unhappy about it. As Ira offers his suggestions on how to improve the production through the creation of more authentic characters and demonstrates what he means, eventually taking the hands of Ellen Tree, who will play Desdemona, most are shocked and aghast at such familiarity. Charles, however, is livid and vents his fury in a tirade that ends with him walking out on the company, even more angry because Ellen, his fiancé, refuses to go with him. They did marry a few years later.

Eventually, they perform and the dreadful reviews roll in. Aside from the political situation, the abuse could have also been inflamed by his womanising, with both actresses with whom he worked. We see a hint of this beginning with Ellen Tree in this production, and many other women. Like Ellen here, it was common knowledge that white women, single and married, were chasing after him, and his marriage to Margaret, a Yorkshire woman, did not stand in his way.

Pierre has to tell Ira that the management board have demanded that he step down or the production will be cancelled. We end the play, back in Lodz, where we see the effect that his reminiscing on his short time in London, the humiliation, and the detrimental effect on his marriage, has had on Ira. He is close to the end of his life at this time. He died in Lodz in 1867 and was so highly thought of that he was given a state funeral. Whether the prelude and prologue really add anything significant to the play is very debatable, and it does tend to detract from the dramatic ending of the coverage of Ira's time in London.

Croser has a fine cast to work with and, as already mentioned, Yarkpai has outstripped his previous work. He captures Ira's initial self-assurance, and shows that his belief in himself, and assumption that he is always right, is one of the causes of his own downfall. Yarkpai works through all of Ira's emotional upheavals, and stuns the audience into silence towards the end of the play.

As the glamorous and amorous Ellen Tree, Rebecca Plummer subtly shows her attraction to him right from Ira's first appearance. As he explains his views on a more realistic form of acting and demonstrates what he means in a scene between Othello and Desdemona, she reveals that Ellen's interests are deeper than the desire to improve her performance on stage. Once Charles has left and Ellen contrives to be alone with Ira, Plummer allows Ellen to be more open about her attraction. Plummer carefully measures her performance, not letting too much out at once and gradually increasing the sexual tension.

The theatrical entrepreneur, Pierre Laporte, is played with great care by Domenic Panuccio who gives a thoughtful interpretation of the man caught in the middle of a furore and trying to do the right thing by everybody. Pierre's loyalties are tested, his loyalty to the theatre, his loyalty to the company, and his loyalty to his good friend, Ira. Panuccio shows us that Pierre's decision to bring Ira in, to play Othello was intended to satisfy the needs of all three, and he lets us see Pierre's disappointment that things have not worked out, as he tries so very hard to hold it all together as Ira continues to alienate the management and the cast.

The role of the petulant, jealous, and easily angered Charles Kean is portrayed by Independent Theatre regular, Will Cox, in a somewhat different role for him. He makes his character a rather unpleasant man who, like some today, has a sense of entitlement which, when we see Charles showing Ira how to act properly, is not at all warranted. In spite of the depth and importance of this work, there is still a good smattering of comedy, mostly aimed at the institute and culture of theatre itself, or at racism, and Cox knows what to do with comedy.

In the smaller, but no less important roles, David Roach, Isabella Rositano, Jett Zivkovic, Haley Smith, and Noma Mpala, all add committed performances and fully developed characters. At all times, there are performances happening all over the stage, not just by the people who have the dialogue. There are no passengers on this journey.

Croser and Roach have come up with an elegant set, dominated by the rich, dark red, velvet curtains at the rear and complemented by numerous set pieces that can be quickly added and removed for fast set changes that are hardly noticeable and thus have no effect on the pace or emotional levels. This is what set designers should always aim to achieve, and this set is a great example. The costumes, organised by Sandra Davis and Judy Chapman, the lighting, by the wonderful Susan Grey-Gardner who works with several of South Australia's professional companies, and Croser's choice of entr'acte music, mostly selected from Verdi's La Forza Del Destino, are all up to the company's usual standards. It is the complete package that we have come to expect from this group. Opening night was completely sold out, so be sure to book quickly if you want to see this powerful and moving, dramatised piece of theatrical and social history.

Photography: Jacqui Munn

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