Review: The Women of Llanrumney (Stratford East)
- Dan Sinclair
- Mar 26
- 3 min read
Review by Dan Sinclair
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Back in June 2020, the statue of Edward Colston, a Bristol-born slave trader, was pushed into Bristol Harbour. It caused a right-wing media storm and further pushed the discussion of our colonial history into the mainstream. Growing up as a white teenager in the countryside, I was completely ignorant of this local history, and again, Azuka Oforka’s debut play forces us to look at the barbaric history and trauma that stems from these sleepy seaside towns. In a co-production with the Sherman Theatre,
her award-winning play comes to London for a run at Stratford East.
We open on the Llanrumney estate, a Rum plantation in Jamaica, owned by the descendants of Captain Henry Morgan: a slaver, privateer and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. He looms large over the play, his oil painting being harshly lit throughout. Annie, the housemaster, is setting the table for first breakfast with Cerys, a heavily pregnant woman who has moved from the fields into the big house. Word has spread to Cerys that Annie is in fact her mother - but before we can resolve any family drama, in stomps Elisabeth Morgan, the lady of the house. She regails the night before and slams back rum, hair of the dog I suppose. Fungal rot has taken over the latest crop of sugar cane, and although she has suitors across the island, she has not a penny to her name. Rebellion is in the air, the plantation and all its ‘assets’ are on the line, and the stage is set.
Oforka’s play takes the surprising shape of a restoration comedy, complete with a lavish set, slapstick, general flopping and to-and-fro-ing over male suitors. This, however, is merely the veneer on top of a much darker piece of drama. The second Lady Morgan leaves the stage, this distraction and all the gags disappear with her. We are left with a searing two-hander between Annie and her daughter Cerys, who, over the play, tries to convince her mother to join the coming rebellion. These scenes tend to drift into long chunks of exposition as a way to give voice to the horrors and evil enacted by the overseers and plantation owners.
At the head of the story is housemaster Annie, played brilliantly by Suzanne Packer. She is a tricky one to crack; to rise to the precarious position of housemaster, she has lied, backstabbed and created an impenetrable wall to protect her life. Packer manages to keep this defence up whilst showing us the cracks behind it, growing as the play goes on. Shvorne Marks as her daughter, Cerys, acts as an almost otherworldly voice in the play; she cuts through the restoration comedy fluff and speaks to truth. Matthew Gravelle covers the three male roles in the house. Alongside dialect coach Aundrea Fudge, he seamlessly blends into a British toff, Irish lad and the island-born Mr Taylor. As The Woman of Llanrumney, Nia Roberts’s Elisabeth is a standout character. Almost constantly smashed, she is vulgar, repulsive and generally vile.
There lies the biggest surprise in Oforka’s text and Patricia Logue’s direction, it is undeniably funny. The best moments are not to be found in the overt comedy of Elisabeth’s farcical plot, but instead between Annie and Elisabeth. Perhaps the funniest moment is when Shvorne Marks simply eats a French Fancy (not sponsored by Mr Kipling). Between Cerys and Elisabeth, we get all the highs and lows. Sticking to this restoration format did at times leave me cold, it lacked the unexpected, something to make me sit forward. A deliberately dated style, whilst a clever repurposing, did sadly leave a lot of the dialogue and plot feeling, well… dated.
Azuka Oforka’s play picked up The Stage’s Debut Award for Best Writer back in September 2024, and it is absolutely a smart piece of work, equal parts humorous and brutal. The three women of Llanrumney (and Matthew Gravelle) give impressive performances in a co-production that marks an exciting point in Lisa Spirling’s first season as Artistic Director at Stratford East. The Women of Llanrumney moves the step beyond blue plaques, oil paintings in countryhouses and stages, with unflinching nerve, our colonial history for all to see.
The Women of Llanrumney is playing at the Stratford East until 12th April
Photos by Chuko Cribb
