Director: Bijan Sheibani
Reviewer: Helen Chapman
This superb production of ‘The Brother Size’ by Tarell Alvin McCraney was performed at Birmingham’s Repertory Theatre. This play has travelled around the country visiting theatres all over in the UK. It was first performed in the United States, before coming to our shores earlier this year.
Although the basic script and some choreography remained the same, the new cast – Daniel Francis (Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, RSC); Tunji Kasim (Big White Fog, Almeida Theatre and The Cracks in My Skin, Manchester Royal Exchange Studio); and Anthony Welsh (who makes his professional debut in the show), brought their own flavour to this moving bit of theatre.
This emotive play is the story of how two brothers, who grow up alone in Louisina, struggle to start life afresh after the younger brother, Oshoosi, returns from a stint in jail. Ogun Size, the older of the two brothers, who has worked hard all his life, and constantly looks out for his brother, tries to protect Oshoosi from an ex-cell mate who, by the very gift of choice, is threatening to take his freedom away from him.
This Brechtian style play is not one that you can get carried away in. The excellent use of spoken stage directions not only helps the audience understand the scene better, but means that the audience feel like an integral part of the everyday life decisions that have to be made by the brothers.
The bare set, with only a chalk circle to outline the boundary, and the stark lack of props, meant that the actors had to perform skilfully throughout the play. The actors, of which there were only three, used their whole bodies brilliantly in the depicting of their different characters.
After the tuning one may have to do to pick up the very deep south American accent, and after the initial shock of the large amount of swearing used, the harsh realities that are being portrayed by these 3 young Americans are plain to see. The use of lighting and sound in this production help to bring the space alive. There was a harmony to this play like no other. The characters created their own rhythms that worked excellently with the sounds coming from drums at the back of the stage. This was a play with beat, even the very lines the actors spoke had rhythm.
This is an incredibly poignant play, a play that will make you think long after you have left the comfort of the theatre chairs.
Although the basic script and some choreography remained the same, the new cast – Daniel Francis (Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, RSC); Tunji Kasim (Big White Fog, Almeida Theatre and The Cracks in My Skin, Manchester Royal Exchange Studio); and Anthony Welsh (who makes his professional debut in the show), brought their own flavour to this moving bit of theatre.
This emotive play is the story of how two brothers, who grow up alone in Louisina, struggle to start life afresh after the younger brother, Oshoosi, returns from a stint in jail. Ogun Size, the older of the two brothers, who has worked hard all his life, and constantly looks out for his brother, tries to protect Oshoosi from an ex-cell mate who, by the very gift of choice, is threatening to take his freedom away from him.
This Brechtian style play is not one that you can get carried away in. The excellent use of spoken stage directions not only helps the audience understand the scene better, but means that the audience feel like an integral part of the everyday life decisions that have to be made by the brothers.
The bare set, with only a chalk circle to outline the boundary, and the stark lack of props, meant that the actors had to perform skilfully throughout the play. The actors, of which there were only three, used their whole bodies brilliantly in the depicting of their different characters.
After the tuning one may have to do to pick up the very deep south American accent, and after the initial shock of the large amount of swearing used, the harsh realities that are being portrayed by these 3 young Americans are plain to see. The use of lighting and sound in this production help to bring the space alive. There was a harmony to this play like no other. The characters created their own rhythms that worked excellently with the sounds coming from drums at the back of the stage. This was a play with beat, even the very lines the actors spoke had rhythm.
This is an incredibly poignant play, a play that will make you think long after you have left the comfort of the theatre chairs.
Posts
