Peter Viney's Blog

By Anne Odeke
Directed by Robert Benfield
Designed by Hayley Grindle
Composer Simon Slater

Shakespeare’s Globe
Thursday 3rd October 2024
19.30

CAST
Matthew Ashforde – Mr Bacon, ensemble
Nigel Barrett – Colonel Harris, Mr Romford Recorder, Ensemble
John Cummins – Edward VII, Cousin Arthur, Councillor Perry (Folkestone), Vicar, ensemble
Alison Halstead – BATWA, Councillor Reginald (Southend), ensemble
Lizzie Hopley – Mrs Bugle, Councillor Cecil (Southend), ensemble
Tyreke Leslie – Mayor Pepper (Folkestone), Councillor Bernard (Southend), Debt Collector 2, Joanna’s dad, Mr Hornchurch, herald
Sophie Mercell – Nun, Mr Southend Standard, ensemble
Syakira Moeladi – Councillor Bertie(Folkestone), Mr Dagenham Daily, Debt Collector 1, Councillor Geoffrey Southend), Courtier, Elise (Miss Belgium)
Jamie-Rose Monk – Mrs Bacon, Peaches (Miss USA), Councillor Ralph (Southend)
Anne Odeke – Joanna, Princess Dinobolu
Eloise Secker – Violet, Joanna’s mum, Councillor Clive (Southend), ensemble
Simon Startin– Mayor Ingram, Councilloe Thomas (Folkestone), ensembl
Yasmin Taheri– Harriet, Councillor Robert (Southend), ensemble
Janai Bartlett, Kyla Semper- Eve, ensemble

MUSIC
Ashley Blasse – banjo, guitar
Yusef Narcin – bass trombone, tuna
Louise Duggan – percussion
Melanie Henry- saxophone, clarinet

The play was originally a one woman show by Anne Odeke in 2022. It’s set in 1908 when Princess Dinobolu of Senegal became the first black woman to enter a British beauty pageant, and that was in Southend-On-Sea. Anne Odeke still takes the lead role of Joanna, a maid who pretends to be the princess from Senegal. While the historical “princess” existed, no one knew anything about her subsequently nor proved she was a princess.

Anne Odeke was inspired to invent the back story. The title conjures up the collocation of ‘Essex girl’ but that actually has no connection to the story. For those reading outside the UK, the ‘Essex girl’ was the equivalent of US ‘blonde’ jokes. Both are replacement targets for what were originally regional and / or racist jokes, based on the alleged stupidity of another group. Essex girl jokes add the edge of sexual availability. (e.g. How does an Essex girl (US blonde) turn on the light after sex? She opens the car door.) Anyway, while using the title, the story is not about that in the slightest.

The reviews are from sunny June. It took a rest, as Globe productions do, and here we are in October where beaches have less appeal. It’s Thursday evening. We were surprised to be the first table for evening meal at the Swan restaurant. When we left only two other tables were occupied.

We had a sit outside to watch the world, and went in about a quarter of an hour before the start. 21 people and a hearing dog. By 19.30, there were 60 standing with £5 to £10 tickets. Thirty in the lower galleries. There would have been a few more directly above us. The Globe can hold 1570, with 700 standing, so they were 640 short in the pit. We have seen insufficient numbers when they did The Winter’s Tale with the Sicilia scenes in the Wanamaker Playhouse, then we trekked through to a Bohemia in the Globe. It failed disastrously. The tiny audience in the vast space of the Globe (the audience being the Wanamaker full capacity) wrecked any sense of connection.

I suspect it was a mistake to take the play into autumn performances. They are constrained to do so because it’s playing in repertory with The Taming of The Shrew with most of the same cast. It’s a summer show. This wet summer would only add to the joke of the attractions of Southend-on-Sea. Here is a June evening photo. What a contrast!

In brief. We have the rivalry between the seaside resorts of Folkestone in Kent and Southend in Essex. Folkestone has the idea of holding a beauty pageant. Both Joanna and Mr Bacon, who owns the Kursall entertainment complex (zoo, fairground rides, theatre, shops) in Southend, go to find out what’s going on. They meet.

Southend decides to do one too and go one further by making it international. The programme notes are very good indeed, and actually Great Yarmouth had the earlier 1908 pageant. Odeke thought traditional Essex / Kent rivalry would be funnier, but it’s pretty esoteric.

Joanna is a maid servant who wants to enter. She and Mr Bacon hit on the publicity stunt of her posing as an exotic Senegalese princess.

Two major male roles are Matthew Ashforde as Mr Bacon, and Simon Startin as Mayor Ingram of Southend. He has a gammy leg limp and introduces himself as ‘Mayor Ingram’ every time which sounds American rather than British usage.

Everyone except Ann Odeke as Joanna and Matthew Ashforde as Mr. Bacon has multiple roles. Even Matthew Ashforde has to change costumes for the many ensemble pieces. Look at the cast list. The councillors and photographers don’t need names at all. We never hear them, and the appearances are fleeting. Everyone is given a name in the play text.

The colourful costumes are the star of the show. It is an odd mix. Seaside end of the pier singalong show meets pantomime stereotype characters, surrounding a solo performer / narrator, but then with serious references to race and colour – words like negro, half-caste, pygmy, thick lipped, flat nosed. The pygmy character (Alison Halstead) is easily the star turn in the rest of the cast. He is in a travelling show with Colonel Harris and dresses up in a grass skirt and walks like an ape and pretends not to be able to speak English. It’s an act.

The name is Batwa. Joanna identifies with his plight only to discover that he’s so urbane that he takes lemon in his tea in bone china cups. Batwa argues that Joanna is not black, but ‘yellow’ because she is a half-caste.

That took me back. I remember arguments between African Wilberforce scholarship students at Hull, with the American black students. A friend from Sierra Leone said they looked far more white to him. The two groups did not get on. One aspect is when the Southend councillors discuss a colour bar for the proposed beauty pageant, and spew forth racist comments, two are played by black actors. In the setting, it’s not an issue. You accept that for a few minutes they are white and racist.

The singalongs didn’t get sung along. Too few people. Act one with Dirty Bertie aka King Edward VII ends with a flag waving last night of the proms Rule Britannia. I can imagine with 700 in the pit it would have been marvellous, with only 60 in the pit it’s a really damp squib, more a sodden wet squib. Beside The Seaside and God Save the King should be easy singalongs too. They weren’t. The only proper original comedy song is Dirty Bertie sung by the king and chorus.

John Cummins is a hilarious Edward VII in stockings and suspenders on initial appearance, though suggesting the king was a would-be date rapist after plying Joanna (as Senegalese princess) with whisky and shoving his hand up her skirt is a little strong. Then he flounces off in a tantrum when she declines.

Yes, Edward VII had mistresses. The Lily Langtry hotel in Bournemouth was the house where she was installed, and in the 1970s and 80s at least they did Edwardian set banquets with everyone seated at the same time and servers (and some customers) in costume. We used to take ELT student parties there.

One section shows the folly of mixing in a sudden offhand serious bit, when the King mentions his second cousin, King Leopold II of Belgium and the Congo.

Edward VII: I might be rich and powerful, but I’m not mad. The Belgians can keep that. King Leopold’s nothing but a genocidal maniac. The stories coming out of that country are nothing less than horrific: mutilation, starvation, raids, enslavement of men, women – and children, interesting enough.

All true, and a great crime against humanity. And it all came out in 1908, the year this play is set in. They cut off the hands of men, women and children so as to make them a permanent burden on their families and villages. The estimate of the number who died in the Congo under Leopold II ranges from 1 million to 15 million. But does this work as a flippant aside? No, it doesn’t. And why ‘interesting enough’ after enslaving children? It also reminded us that this was the theme of Martin McDonagh’s A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter play at The Bridge, which also featured a central Congolese Pygmy character.

The other side of beauty contests, the meat market side, is brought out by Harriet. She is maid to Mayor Ingram (Simon Startin). His pretty daughter Violet wants to enter the contest and will as Miss England. Harriet is right-on and a suffragette who denounces make-up, and will denounce the contest. Harriet also makes erudite and intelligent asides from her position as servant.

Jhn Cummins (Folkestone) and Tyreke Leslie (Southend-On-Sea) as councillors.

The contest will be decided by audience applause. This is pre Clappometer. I loved Miss Germany in dress and beard. At this point you accept that any of them can play anyone regardless of gender or colour. They make that work.

Deja vu. We did this sort of beauty contest in our pantomime Robin Hood in 1976, also using audience applause. The pantomime dame was Miss England and won (being the star comic turn). The others were Miss Switzerland, Miss Mexico and … Miss Iran, gorgeous in a low cut dress. You can’t believe that now. We had interview lines on the contestants wanting world peace and an end to poverty and universal human happiness. All of our three said the same line. That seems natural. A missed opportunity here.

Of course Joanna gets most applause in reality. But then says she’s lost, makes a speech about silence and embraces Eve, a young black girl, who will be the future and hopefully a better one. I’m not convinced the sudden switch to sentimental worked.

The cast had worked their socks off to make it work in a near empty space. They never let energy flag. The audience responded. We all worked our socks off too with deserved massive applause for their efforts. A tremendous noise from such a small number of us.

It’s hard to judge. I would rate Anne Odeke more highly as a personality than as an accomplished actor. She is a touch too shouty, but she knows how to work an audience. Her writing is full of Essex accent … nuffink, suffink, ain’t. I felt the script was on shaky ground when she wanted characters like Mrs Bugle to speak RP and it came out as over-the-top pantomime posh. Acting is ‘broad.’

I can see it as four stars to a packed and responsive house. Costume design was 5 star for me. Programme essays too. In spite of their very hard work, the actual overall experience in the extremely sparse audience on this night was only two stars. There will have been dress rehearsals with that many around. So I’ll balance it at three. Is this the fault of the artistic director? Shakespeare fills the theatre. New material manifestly doesn’t, unless, like Nell Gwynne it is reasonably near the period. Isn’t the clue in the name? Shakespeare’s Globe.

***

PROGRAMME

The best one this year. Historical essay, writer’s interview, poems on being a black woman in Britain. Really good.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
five star
All That Dazzles *****
four star
Rachel Halliburton, The Times ****
Broadway World ****
London Theatre Review – ****
Theatre & Tonic ****
three star
Rachael Healey, The Guardian ***
Kirsten Grant, The Telegraph ***
Maygan Forbes, What’s On Stage ***
Dave Fargnoli – The Stage ***
Maryam Phillpot, Reviews Hub *** 1/2
Anya Ryan,. Time Out ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

ANNE ODEKE
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe 2023 (Hippolyta)
The Winter’s Tale, RSC 2021 (Autolycus)

NIGEL BARRETT
Julius Caesar, RSC 2023 (Julius Caesar)

JOHN CUMMINS
The Alchemist by Ben Jonson, RSC 2016
Don Quixote, RSC 2016
King John, RSC 2019

ALISON HALSTEAD
The Provoked Wife, RSC 2019
Venice Preserved, RSC 2019

LIZZIE HOPLEY
The White Devil, RSC 2014
The Roaring Girl, RSC 2014
Arden of Faversham, RSC 2014

SIMON STARTIN
The Tempest, RSC 2023
Ralegh: The Treason Trial, Winchester 2018

JAMIE-ROSE MONK
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Bridge, 2019 (Snug)

ELOISE SECKER
All’s Well That Ends Well, RSC 2023
Richard III, RSC 2023
The Rover, RSC 2016
The Two Noble Kinsmen, RSC 2016