Through The Mud Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh 4th November 2023 Review
Through the Mud at The Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh (2-4 November) is a work written by Apphia Campbell, the creator of the hit show Black Is The Color Of My Voice, who is also one of the performers. This work also features some classic blues (including Bessie Smith) and gospel songs as a background setting to the story about the Afro-American experience and the American legal system in a wider context.
In this story, two women, 42 years apart, become involved in their struggle for civil rights. One is the notorious Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron) who, having escaped prison for the alleged murder of a State Trooper, is now still living in Cuba. She is still the most wanted woman on the FBI’s list.
By contrast to this high profile political (some would say revolutionary) activist, we also have the dual story line of a new to college student who finds herself drawn unwittingly into the events of the Black Lives Matter movement.
This is a two person show with Apphia Campbell as Assata and Tinashe Warikandwa as college student Ambrosia. There is no doubt that Apphia Campbell is a powerful presence on stage and this combined with what, to me, was a far stronger and better defined character in Assata did leave the far less politically motivated (in fact not really motivated at all) Ambrosia a difficult task for Tinashe Warikandwa to breathe life into as a character. The further we got into this uninterrupted 75 minute performance though, the more defined Ambrosia became.
Both Apphia and Tinashe were performing multiple roles on stage and these were sometimes across different time-lines so that focus on past or present did blur a little for me at times.
I have to admit that, having no connection to the experience of what being Afro-American in America is like, or even the American social and legal system, I was at times detached a little from this story, sort of looking in through a window, but not feeling that personal empathy that some people will have with the subject matter.
If you go online there is a lot of information about Assata, The Black Panther Movement, and many other events during this period, and later in Ambrosia’s time. As we find out in this work, the truth may not be exactly as many sources claim it to be.
This is what really interested me about this work, not the experiences of Assata and Ambrosia in particular but how one segment of society for whatever reason can be marginalised when the legal system that should protect everyone equally not only allows injustice to happen but actually condones it and supports it.
There is also that question that so desperately needs answering now. What is it, what is that trigger point that turns an up until now law-abiding citizen into a political activist, or any other kind of activist? What is the event in their life that makes them stand up and say “no more, enough is enough”?
Equally disturbing in this work is the system of police officers in America writing tickets (fines) for what seems an endless number of minor at worst, petty at best, offences and how swiftly anyone can be drawn into the legal system with harsh and often life-changing penalties if these tickets are not paid on time.
Through the Mud is a reflection of a broken social society and legal system that, until it is changed, will forever bring about more Assatas and Ambrosias. What will it take to change all of this, that is the far bigger question and there are no solutions offered here.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
In this story, two women, 42 years apart, become involved in their struggle for civil rights. One is the notorious Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron) who, having escaped prison for the alleged murder of a State Trooper, is now still living in Cuba. She is still the most wanted woman on the FBI’s list.
By contrast to this high profile political (some would say revolutionary) activist, we also have the dual story line of a new to college student who finds herself drawn unwittingly into the events of the Black Lives Matter movement.
This is a two person show with Apphia Campbell as Assata and Tinashe Warikandwa as college student Ambrosia. There is no doubt that Apphia Campbell is a powerful presence on stage and this combined with what, to me, was a far stronger and better defined character in Assata did leave the far less politically motivated (in fact not really motivated at all) Ambrosia a difficult task for Tinashe Warikandwa to breathe life into as a character. The further we got into this uninterrupted 75 minute performance though, the more defined Ambrosia became.
Both Apphia and Tinashe were performing multiple roles on stage and these were sometimes across different time-lines so that focus on past or present did blur a little for me at times.
I have to admit that, having no connection to the experience of what being Afro-American in America is like, or even the American social and legal system, I was at times detached a little from this story, sort of looking in through a window, but not feeling that personal empathy that some people will have with the subject matter.
If you go online there is a lot of information about Assata, The Black Panther Movement, and many other events during this period, and later in Ambrosia’s time. As we find out in this work, the truth may not be exactly as many sources claim it to be.
This is what really interested me about this work, not the experiences of Assata and Ambrosia in particular but how one segment of society for whatever reason can be marginalised when the legal system that should protect everyone equally not only allows injustice to happen but actually condones it and supports it.
There is also that question that so desperately needs answering now. What is it, what is that trigger point that turns an up until now law-abiding citizen into a political activist, or any other kind of activist? What is the event in their life that makes them stand up and say “no more, enough is enough”?
Equally disturbing in this work is the system of police officers in America writing tickets (fines) for what seems an endless number of minor at worst, petty at best, offences and how swiftly anyone can be drawn into the legal system with harsh and often life-changing penalties if these tickets are not paid on time.
Through the Mud is a reflection of a broken social society and legal system that, until it is changed, will forever bring about more Assatas and Ambrosias. What will it take to change all of this, that is the far bigger question and there are no solutions offered here.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com