Nine Night review: Remarkable debut captures the humour of everyday life

1/21
Henry Hitchings1 May 2018

Right now there’s probably no funnier performance in town than Cecilia Noble as Aunt Maggie, the clucking matriarch in Natasha Gordon’s richly enjoyable family drama. The play takes its name from the Caribbean tradition of an extended wake after a bereavement, and in this case the recently departed soul is Maggie’s cousin Gloria, a Londoner whose roots lay in Jamaica.

Maggie is determined to get the occasion just right, and Noble is superb at capturing her mix of piety, homespun wisdom and stinging directness. All the events take place in Gloria’s home, and as her body lingers upstairs, other family members arrive to fill the property with dancing, music, food and poetry. Yet as their stories unfurl like streams of bright ribbon, it’s chastening to realise quite how much is left unspoken.

Gloria’s three children are vividly realised in Roy Alexander Weise ’s brisk production. Franc Ashman’s Lorraine has a lovely wounded dignity, while Oliver Alvin-Wilson’s Robert is a pushy entrepreneur (whose go-ahead attitude is tested when he volunteers to cook some chicken wings). Michelle Greenidge brings a flamboyant energy to their half-sister Trudy, who arrives from Jamaica with a stash of delicacies and a treasury of awkward truths.

But ultimately this is Gordon’s triumph. Previously an actor with a solid record of TV and stage credits, she makes a remarkable debut as a writer. Although her subjects are very familiar ones — love, loss, hope, guilt and betrayal — she has a finely tuned ear for the humour of everyday life. At first the play seems straightforward and soapy, but it transforms into an eloquent vision of what it means to be haunted by the past, all the more potent given the current political clamour around Windrush.

Until May 26

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