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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre : Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Weeding Cane. - Tour. Playwright - Sonia Hughes. Director - Wyllie Longmore. Designer – Juliet Ellis. Lighting – Richard Owen. Costume – Tracy Dunk. Double Bass and Composer – Jim Parris. Company - Weeding Cane in assoc with Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, England. Cast - here . 2006 Tour Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at Edinburgh Traverse Theatre on 29 March 2006. Run Time - 55 mins no Interval. Reviewer - Thelma Good. Beautiful speech rhythms. Based on harsh emotional truths of separation and reunion, Weeding Cane by Sonia Hughes highlights the incredible distances between cultures, and how their differences can distance people that were once so close. We see Joy, a Caribbean girl left with her grandmother as her mother emigrates to England. Joy despairs at their parting but grows used to living with her Nen Nen, and is soon settled into a life of weeding cane. Only when Nen Nen dies is Joy brought to England, where she cannot grasp the complications of the bathroom, her mother’s pride for her washing machine, and her new brother and sister’s embarrassment at being near her. It is a fantastic script, using a strong Caribbean dialect and beautiful speech rhythms, so much so that when the emotion builds you don’t need to hear what is being said in order to understand. This is aided by the acting ability of Carla Henry as Joy, who adapts herself well to the rather impressionistic speech and movement sections. Juliet Ellis sucessfully handles being both Nen Nen and Mama though her accent did slip occasionally into a strange Geordie twang. The interaction between mother and daughter is very focused and the lack of other characters draws you deep into their relationship, allowing even a native English girl a strange empathy with Joy. Theatre in the round makes for a close atmosphere, though it is mostly performed to the centre section so sit there if you can. A circular stage celebrates the never-ending circle of life, and is useful to represent journeys and the passage of time. Though not essential to making the peice work the live music compliments the movement sections. Costume and props move in and out of the scenes very smoothly, effectively used to represent different times, situations, and elements of cultural difference, particularly Joy’s high heels, which are never off her feet in England, but are nowhere to be seen at home. Unfortunately the ending falls a little flat, the conclusion is not made clear and the audience were uncertain when exactly it had finished. But it is otherwise a beautiful play and thoroughly recommended. © Sarah Redhead 29 March 2006 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast - Joy – Carla Henry, Mama/Nen Nen – Juliet Ellis. 2006 Tour Details of Weeding Cane's production of Weeding Cane . Tour begins 8 - 25 Feb at Royal Exchange Theatre, Mancester 0161 833 9833. 27 Feb at Eastwood Theatre NG16 01115 9419. 28 Feb Magnus School NG24 01115 9419. 2 & 3 March Lancaster, Nuffield Theatre 01524 594 151. 6 & 7 March Bradford Theatre In The Mill 01274 233 200. 8 - 11 March at Leicester Haymarket 0870 330 3131. 14 & 15 March at Liverpool Unity Theatre 0151 709 4988. 16 & 18 March York Theatre Royal 01904 623 568. 29 March - 1 April at 7:30pm Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404. 4 - 8 April at 7:45pm London Oval House Theatre 020 7582 7680. Tour ends. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. |
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