“A plantation Airbnb?” says a character in Joy Nesbitt’s tight, challenging, timezone-hopping debut play about the legacy of slavery, neatly summing up the idea at its core.
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character → say → core
Which is: how, exactly, do we deal with the past?
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we → deal → past
An excellent cast under the direction of Tatenda Shamiso – winner of the Standard’s 2023 Emerging Talent Award – help us over the script’s occasional infelicities.
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cast → help → infelicities
In South Carolina in 1862, just as the Civil War is about to turn, we see enslaved Ginnie (the always-impressive Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́) happily accepting the attentions of her “massah” Doc Good (an intense Patrick Vaill).
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Ginnie → turn → massah
If she doesn’t exactly return his “love”, she seems to enjoy their lovemaking and appreciate the favours and the five babies it has brought her.
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it → return → her
Meanwhile in the present day Ginnie’s descendant Talulah has rented her cabin from Good’s heirs, a history lecturer and his pregnant wife uneasily monetising the tainted inheritance of the plantation.
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Talulah → rent → plantation
Herself a philosophy graduate and part-time astrologer, Talulah hopes to summon her ancestor and ask her advice on bringing her own unplanned child into the world.
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Talulah → hop → world
This premise, and this collection of traits in one character, are somewhat hard to swallow but Jodie Campbell brings wry conviction to Talulah’s contradictions.
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Campbell → swallow → contradictions
And besides, don’t we all know someone who’s apparently entirely rational but who also believes in tarot or fairies?
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who → know → tarot
The twist comes when the Goods realise Talulah shares their surname.
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Talulah → come → surname
Indeed, through Doc imposing himself on Ginnie – even if she apparently welcomes his attentions, he holds her life in his hands - they are fifth cousins.
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they → impose → hands
At this point I should say that this play dealing with the endless ramifications of hideous historic wrongs is also very funny.
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play → say → wrongs
In the present day scenes Vaill plays Doc’s five-times great grandson, James, and this jittery academic’s reaction to his consanguinity with Talulah is a treat to watch.
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reaction → play → Talulah
Insisting he’s “not MAGA” he ties himself up in forehead-thumping knots over the idea that she’s secretly seeking reparations.
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she → insist → reparations
Earlier, James has given a slick justification of how his persecuted Irish forebears came to be “landowners… and by proxy slaveowners”.
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forebears → give → proxy
Basically, he suggests it would have been rude of them not to partake in the socio-economic norms of the time.
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it → suggest → time
There’s a hint that mental illness got passed down the Good bloodline, along with everything else.
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illness → ’ → everything
One of her earliest guests in the slave hut immediately threw up, and Amanda joined in as she is a “sympathetic vomiter – also an over-sharer!”
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she → throw → hut
She describes the antebellum era as “complicated” and professes that she was troubled when a “mixed” couple had a Gone With the Wind themed wedding at the plantation.
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couple → describe → plantation
Later, in a chilling scene, Morrish plays Doc’s wife Nora, also pregnant, visiting Ginnie and giving vent to the hatred she feels to Ginnie’s children who work in her house.
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who → play → house
Karene Peter continues Nesbitt’s neat juxtapositions.
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Peter → continue → juxtapositions
In the past scenes she’s the enslaved Bertha, exhorting Ginnie to prepare for emancipation.
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she → ’ → emancipation
In the present she’s Niecey, studying “culinary anthropology” under James and working on events at the plantation.
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she → ’ → plantation
We need it.
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We → need → it
After the strained weakness of the setup, the mid-section of this play bristles with ideas and hard questions.
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section → bristle → ideas
Nesbitt’s writing falters again towards the end before finding a solid resolution.
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writing → falter → resolution
Shamiso’s production is energetic and vivid – there’s a lovely moment where Ginnie and Talulah connect and then lose each other – although slightly marred by the sightlines of designer Natalie Pryce’s skeletal hut.
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Ginnie → ’ → hut
It’s the actors who really make it work.
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it → ’ → ?
Vaill, himself a winner of a 2022 Standard award for his performance in Oklahoma!, exudes barely-contained volatility.
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Vaill → exude → volatility
Campbell, Peter and Morrish give fine, succinct characterisations.
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Campbell → give → characterisations
As culinary anthropologist Niecey might say, there’s plenty of food for thought here, and lots to get your teeth into.
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Niecey → say → teeth
The Aporia
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