Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Kudzai Sitima, Donna Berlin, Fode Simbo, Seun Shate, Jade Yourell, Emily Burnett, Romayne Andrews.
We either don’t know enough about our own history, or if we do we selectively tune in to the moments which make us feel a false sense of pride, the stirring of the heart as it clings to a despairing sense of nationalism that is both futile and dishonest; we forget the moments that led to change and only the act itself, and never mind the hardship, the disgrace of our words that went before, hiding behind the celebrations of equality gained as if we somehow played a part.
Chinonyerem Odimba’s Princess & The Hustler pricks the conscious bubble in which we occasionally decide to wear, the tiara of self-importance as we dress up how we view our selves as a nation, over stating the clothes we strut around in, the pageant of deluded lies we seek to utter and the betrayal of our thoughts when pushed. Through the eyes of a small ten-year-old black girl who dreams of being crowned Miss Weston-Super-Mare and the background to the Bristol Bus Strikes of 1963, Princess & The Hustler reminds us of all we have gained by becoming more than just a cold country on the edge of Europe.
There have been more than a few remarkable performances on the Playhouse Theatre stage over the last decade, but few have arguably captured the intensity of Donna Berlin’s remarkable insight into the bravery of dealing with the surprise return of a husband back into her life after many years away, the pent up frustration, of the anger, regret and the rush of feelings of memory that come along with the territory of being a single mother, especially in a country that was still suffering from a sense of self-importance and a hangover of morals laid down from the Victorian era.
Donna Berlin’s performance, a single look to Kudzai Sitima and Fode Simbo as her children Princess and Junior laying down a stringent but loving law of manners, a symbol of what motherhood can mean, was uplifting and a timely reminder of what we have missed, a firm hand with the gentleness to let children grow safely.
The Bristol Bus Strikes might not evoke the same historic thought that is placed in the mementoes events that took place just a decade before across the Atlantic, but they were still a turning point on the way we view equality in the U.K., that we have still such a long way to go, a journey that must not derailed because of the on-going political dogma that surrounds us in the 21st Century.
Chinonyerem Odimba’s Princess & The Hustler is engaging, committed to its point and narrative, and delightfully staged, a moment of rare beauty crowned.
Ian D. Hall