The Wrong They Knew
Directed by Michael Bossisse and Bethany Hamlin
Rayne Theatre
Chickenshed
Star rating: 5
I have been travelling to the wilds of N14 to review Chickenshed shows for twenty years. Almost everything I’ve seen there has been impressive But this time they have, I think, surpassed themselves. The Wrong They Knew is the strongest work I’ve ever seen there.
We’re in the 1950s. Immigrants have arrived from the Caribbean and there is a lot of ugly hostility. I am old enough to remember a lot of this in the later 50s and 1960s and it’s very important to inform young people that things were far, far worse before we had race relations legislation. The raw prejudice was horrifying and that’s what this very moving production highlights – in Chickenshed’s inimitable way. That means breathtakingly slick choreography involving a big, inclusive ensemble cast, diverse in every sense, punctuated by acrobatically smooth architectural shapes. It’s somewhere between physical theatre and ballet. At the same time there’s fabulously atmospheric music with lots of calypso and rap along with a haunting version of “Early One Morning” (which every 1950s school child knew) in the classroom and a menacing reworking of “I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”.
The plot is very clearly inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird. Two children leave food for a reclusive man who, a long time later, rescues them from a dangerous situation. White girl, Madeleine Awol (Tilly Morton – good) is a lonely, abused victim terrified of her father but sexually frustrated. She persuades Theo Rookley (Shiloh Maersk – fine performance), a happily married, disabled black man, to come, against his will, into her home to help her. Her father (Jimmy Adamou – very good indeed) is a brutish lout who then beats her up and accuses Theo of assault. Despite the efforts of the benign, decent lawyer, Isaac Shawcross, Theo is found guilty. If you know To Kill a Mockingbird you’ll know more or less how it pans out although there is a pleasing narrative surprise at the end
Cara McInanny, co-musical director with Phil Haines, plays Iris who is Isaac’s second wife and a loose reworking of Harper Lee’s Calpurnia. She sings beautifully and acts as an anchor for much of what happens on stage. Other music mostly involves Chickenshed’s trademark short solos and lots of dramatic chorus work all of which drives the plot along powerfully.
The Wrong they Knew also visits the joy of Carnival – a concept which arrived in Britian in the 1950s with people from the Caribbean. Then there are tensions with Teddy boys and quite a lot else. I really liked the insertion of real extracts from 1950s news reports, interviews and vox pop comments along with posters, placards, banners and grafitti. And everyone on stage is in some form of 1950s costume – tweed skirts, full skirts, polka dots, ties, formal jackets and much more. The sense of period is spot on. Even the foyer music is calculated to support that. I hadn’t heard “Magic Moments” for a very long time,
Bravo Chickenshed. You certainly live up to your “theatre changing lives” branding. Shocking as the subject matter is The Wrong They Knew is a joy to watch,
