Joy Nesbitt‘s new play, Blood of my Blood, currently playing in the Royal Court Upstairs, is a powerful piece of theatre set on a former plantation, Bullock Creek, at the time of the American Civil War and in the present day.
Young, black and pregnant Tallulah (Jodie Campbell) has travelled from London to distance herself from her daily life, and to connect with her ancestors who were owned as slaves in the very cabin she is now renting. The tree of life in the garden is the means of communication and growth.
The family in the main house are descended from the same slave-owners – Irish immigrants who fled from oppression to better themselves in the economy of the South’s cotton trade.
In the 19th century, Ginnie (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ) is nursing her 5th child. She was born a slave, and while she and her children are spared from working in the fields, she has to pay her own particular price to keep the master, Dr John Good (Patrick Vaill), happy.
Nesbitt displays a clear knowledge of the period, especially when it comes to the history and white revisionist perceptions of the antebellum period. That the house and plantation are now used for parties and weddings – one moment describing a ‘mixed’ marriage is particularly shocking – shows how tone-deaf progress can be.
When Tallulah brings her family Bible and follows the instructions to call up the spirit of her relatives, she risks opening up old wounds and exposing truths that might be best stayed hidden – for some.
We see Ginnie with her friend Bertha (Karene Peter), younger, equally enslaved and exploited. And with Doc, who claims to love her but does so from a position of power, fear and dominance.
There is a delicacy in this production that director Tatenda Shamiso handles well. Characters enter and time periods overlap, sometimes with the same actor straddling two roles. It emphasises the contrast between now and then while highlighting parallel preoccupations.
History can be romanticised and excused at a distance, but not when it heads close to home. When James (Vaill) and Nora (Hannah Morrish), current owners of the big house, discover the family connection with Tallulah, life becomes sharper, and masks are lowered.
The double-castings of Vaill and Morrish – whose well-meaning Nora is in sharp contrast to the haughty Mistress Amanda, who knows her husband’s weaknesses and hates the woman they own and he desires – and Peter, whose modern student Niecey is well aware of the significance of the past, add a depth to the story.
Campbell and Adékọluẹ́jọ feel connected from the start, often occupying the same space but without knowing or understanding it. Their tense ancestral link is emphasised by Natalie Pryce‘s set and costume design, with the audience placed on either side of a house and tree, looking in and watching as outsiders.
Vaill, last seen on the London stage in Oklahoma! and Elektra, is deeply convincing as the man who commands love and respect because of his birth, and the descendant who justifies a shameful past through wealth and position.
Blood of my Blood is a powerful and ambitious play, occasionally funny but always hard-hitting, leaving us with a lot to think about over the 2-hour run-time.
I’m giving this the full 5 stars.
Blood of my Blood continues at Royal Court Upstairs until 7 Nov.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner