Wedding Band starts like a fever dream. A striking set where wire fences are the main character silently waits as the audience sits down. The light is dim, and it stays that way as we are introduced to the characters, slowly filling the space with their walking, their breathing, their sombreness. A room is set up in the middle – we quickly learn that it’s Julia’s room, our main character’s room, a place where intimacy will be created and violated as the play progresses.
Wedding Band was written by playwriter Alice Childress in 1966. Childress was born in 1916 in South Carolina, a founding member of the American Negro Theatre. She was the first African-American woman to see her own play professionally produced in New York. In this revival of Wedding Band, Monique Touko takes her shot at directing an African-American classic, its first time as a major production in the United Kingdom, with great responsibility and courage.
The story follows Julia, a black woman from South Carolina, and is based in 1918, an era defined by the rise of segregation laws and racism in the United States of America. Julia has just moved to a new area and is surrounded by welcoming arms until the words slip out of her mouth that she has had a partner for ten years who she is not married to, and that, that partner is a white man. As he, Herman, comes to visit and is stricken by a burst of sickness that Julia is afraid might kill him, her neighbours and colleagues, as well as Herman’s family, deal with the news and are forced to question their own standards and ideas.
The themes in Wedding Band are not talked about enough, not even in the 21st century. Alice Childress made a great job describing how life was like for black people those first decades after the first world war – a ground-breaking story, with a black woman as its heart – and Monique Touko takes over wonderfully to make that experience accessible for the wide-eyed UK audience with the humour and passion of this production.
There is a feeling of collectiveness that moves from the stage to the audience the whole 2 hours and 40 minutes the show lasts for. Gasps, laughter and crying are heard all throughout it, accompanying the performers until they become a part of the show. The audience is clearly immersed, engaged to their core to what is happening on stage. But that’s not all – Wedding Band at times feels more like a movie than a theatre – a movie that goes by in an instant and leaves you blown away. A movie about power, about love/hate, and about the rage we hold inside.
Wedding Band: A love/hate story in black and white is a powerful show full of powerful performances, a must-watch.
Featured image: Deborah Ayorinde and David Walmsley in Wedding Band – Lyric Hammersmith Theatre (c) Mark Senior.
Box office: 020 8741 6850 www.lyric.co.uk
Review by Eva Mateos Rodriguez
Eva is an eclectic artist specialising in acting, writing and song writing. She has been part of several performances, responses and exhibitions, and is now a student of MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck University.
Read Eva’s latest Review – Katy Baird’s ‘GET OFF’ will make you squirm, cringe, and laugh out loud like never before – Battersea Arts Centre, now on until 25 May – Abundant Art
Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White: A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production, By Alice Childress
Directed by Monique Touko, Set & Costume Design by Paul Wills, Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Design by Cynthia De La Rosa, Lighting Design by Matt Haskins, Sound Design by Elena Peña, Music by Shiloh Coke, Choreography & Movement by Aline David, Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Associate Designer Keisha Paris-Banya, Casting by, Sophie Parrott CDG, Dialect & Voice Coach Joel Trill, Fight &, Intimacy Director Bethan Clark, Assistant Director Mo Korede
