In describing any work of art, one has to necessarily rely on adjectives. From ‘pleasant’ to ‘show- stopping’, performance has its own well-used, coded vocabulary. It’s an unusual descriptor for a theatre work but I would apply ‘authentic’ to Archway 1’s, in association with The Sydney Fringe, A SUNDAY MORNING IN THE SOUTH & BRONZE. This is a show which is true to the voice which created it.
That voice is Georgia Douglas Johnson. A black American writer of the 1920’s, she has been described as writing about blackness. Not just race but the horror at the heart of people who oppress, who kill, who murder because of race.
In this production Johnson’s poetry begins the exploration. Her book of poems, BRONZE, is interpreted by the cast. After a small interval, we meet Sue Jones the protagonist of the short powerful play A SUNDAY MORNING IN THE SOUTH.
Sue is grandmother to Bossie and Tom, a loving family, living in a 1924 shack, in the South. As the Sunday hymns drift in from the church next door, what happens to them is both horrifying and horribly resonant. The third act is a reprise of the second where the contemporaneous aspects are fully driven home. Act 4 is a series of visual images which pull the past unchanging into the present.
The authenticity of this production begins with the wonderful set by Stefan von Reiche. A slatted rear wall made of found wood, a creaky floor and period kitchen down to the enamelled cookware and rope handled bucket. Then the ensemble of seven fill the space to share the poems, all the while peeling and slicing and kneading a meal. The smells waft and the transportation is complete.
These are authentic interpreters. So many women who crowd the small set, so many black women and each speaking in an authentic voice from the past, the south or the present. The one ‘young , gifted and black’ man seems cocooned and safe with these women yet the poems reflect their aspirations for him.
BRONZE was Johnson’s second book of poems and there are 9 sections, 65 poems in the book. Not all of these are presented but there is definite case to be made that Director Rachel Jordan needed to cull more. The beauty of the words washing over like music does not necessarily sustain the audience through the very many short pieces despite the clear, cohesive vision in the choreography and structure.
Still, in a way, it only takes one poem to hit home for the experience to impact. Johnson reached across time to squeeze my heart with Black Woman (originally called Motherhood). In a week when a child’s death was front page news, the voice speaks to an unborn child and a refusal to allow her to be born into this ‘world of cruelty and sin’.
That world is presented with great skill and some terrific acting when A SUNDAY MORNING IN THE SOUTH begins after interval. It’s short. Only 5 pages of text but it packs a punch. The cast are genuine in their emotions and sincere in their relationships. The wonderful music of Mahalia Jackson and Billie Holiday punctuate the play as they did the poems.
The rapport between the characters of Grandma and Liza is a highlight and when we see it again with a modern take, the character of Bossie is charming and full of life.
There is no escaping the play’s strong thematic line. It is hard to hear the words, nigger and mammy and boy and lynching but harder still to sit through Nina Simone’s Strange Fruit while images from then and now bring the audience back to the present.
Georgia Douglas Johnson, who died in 1966, obviously spoke to the cast, creatives and director and her inspiration is there on the stage of Archway 1 and now with me.
A SUNDAY MORNING IN THE SOUTH & BRONZE is playing until the 15th September @ Archway 1, Chapman Road, Bicentennial Park, Annandale. Remaining performances Friday 11th, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September at 8pm. Bookings- http://www.archway1theatre.com.
In a side note, this unique venue is under threat. You can read more about it at- http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=774d06fefe8ada51ecbcf846c&id=0335eee9cd.