The Color Purple

Review by: Paul Towers, 03/7/19

The Color Purple by Marsha Norman
with music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephan Bray 

Directed by Tinuke Craig

A Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome co-production

Curve 28 June to 13 July
Birmingham Hippodrome 16 to 20 July 2019

“T’shan Williams as Celie has a voice to bring the house down”

On the off chance that you have not seen the multi award nominated film The Color Purple is the story of Celie and her appalling abusive childhood where she is raped by her step father (Delroy Brown) at the age of fourteen who then takes away her two resulting children. Celie is given away to a friend of her step father, Albert (Ako Mitchell), who continues the cycle of use and abuse, isolating her from her sole family member, sister Nettie (Danielle Fiamanya). Cowed and used as a skivvy Celie meekly accepts her lot in life til she sees friend Sofia stand up to her husband, giving him the beating he threatened her with.

Having had a lifetime of men using her Celie turns to Shug (Joanna Francis), a travelling jazz singer and starts a lesbian affair with her.

The first half of this musical is a litany of unrelenting domestic abuse and I found it difficult to watch. It seemed that the characters had barely shaken off the oppression of the old slave masters than they were trapped in a similar cycle of abuse by their own kind. The women especially seem to be controlled by both their menfolk and the church.

However, the second half starts to pick up as Celie finally finds her voice, breaks free of Albert’s cruelty and goes to live with Shug and her latest lover in Memphis, far from her roots in Georgia. With freedom she also discovers she has a gift for making pants and returns to open a shop left to her by her step father.

T’shan Williams as Celie has a voice to bring the house down, which she does spectacularly with I’m Here, especially. Much needed comic lightness is provided by Karen Mavundukure as Sofia (the Oprah Winfrey role in the film).

Writing a musical about such awful unrelenting abuse and making it entertaining must have been very difficult but you do come out of the theatre feeling that at least Celie has found peace and is her own woman

The set is very clever, a clapboard background that has various rooms sliding in and out while animations are projected onto it for effect.

This musical, originally produced on Broadway in 2005, is based on the Steven Spielberg film of 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. This in turn was taken from the original 1982 book by Alice Walker.

The Color Purple is at Curve until 13 July when it moves to Birmingham Hippodrome on 16 July. Tickets are still available

Curve http://curveonline.co.uk
First published on Western Gazette