What could be more complicated than forbidden love between an African-American woman and a white man during America’s Jim Crow era?
Deborah Ayorinde and David Walmsley in Wedding Band – Lyric Hammersmith Theatre © Mark Senior
Alice Childress’ play ‘Wedding Band – A Love/Hate Story in Black and White’, explores these tensions with dexterity, sensitivity and humour.
Directed by Monique Touko and staged at the Lyric Hammersmith in London until 29 June, the revival of this 1966 play tells the story of Julia (Deborah Ayorinde) and Herman (David Walmsley) in South Carolina during World War I in 1918.
Julia is a seamstress, who loves and is in love with Herman, a baker. Herman loves her back. But he is white and Julia is Black and so their decade-long union can only be informal and clandestine.
Herman’s family disapprove of their relationship, and are on a mission for him to marry someone more ‘appropriate.’
Meanwhile, Julia is waiting for the day that she can wear her wedding dress (already made) and live in holy matrimony with her husband.
Diveen Henry and Deborah Ayorinde in Wedding Band – Lyric Hammersmith Theatre © Mark Senior
But how could that be possible with such stringent laws on interracial mixing in place?
When Herman comes to visit Julia at a new room in a building she shares with other tenants, we see how much the couple cherish each other and their deep-seated desire to enjoy all the benefits of married life are revealed.
“We will grow old together – with the same name,” Julia tells Herman as they both share plans to move to Philadelphia.
Poignant and sweet but highly unlikely in that period in America. And yet we, the audience, still will for the couple to, some day, have their wish. They have the wedding dress, the ring and the cake – all they need is the acceptance of family and a radical change in the law. Simple!
If you’ve ever watched any of Alice’s plays (I’ve watched ‘Trouble In Mind’), you’ll see hallmarks of the playwright’s signature style of projecting hope when there does not appear to be much.
Even Nelson (Patrick Martins), the solider, who comes to visit his mother Lula (Diveen Henry) – a tenant neighbour to Julia – encapsulates that well after Julia shares her high hopes that after war, things will be better for Black folk.
He says: ‘You just got to believe in something, it may as well be that’.
Patrick Martins in Wedding Band – Lyric Hammersmith Theatre © Mark Senior
Alice is known for capturing the lives of ordinary people – particularly of those that would otherwise be sidelined. During her life, (the prolific and award-winning playwright and author died in 1994), she is said to have described her work as a focus on the empowerment of black women, interracial politics, and working-class life.
‘Wedding Band’ is no different.
The play explores attitudes to interracial politics on both sides of the racial divide and we see the reaction from Julia’s neighbours to her having a white boyfriend.
This play does not shy away from reflecting the attitudes and language of the times, and did not fail to illicit gasps when racist language and attempted sexual assault feature during the performance.
We also witness the struggles of being working-class, Black and female from the near-all female cast and what that means about the choices the characters are forced to make.
Through Monique’s direction, (she returns to the Lyric after ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play’ last summer) the play weaves so much into the two-hour-and-forty-minute performance that left me reflecting on how far (or not) we have come more than a century on.
Poppy Gilbert, David Walmsley and Geraldine Alexander in Wedding Band – Lyric Hammersmith Theatre © Mark Senior
But this play is not just about self reflection. There is humour as well from the innocence of the little girls at play to the witty remarks Julia makes. Herman’s racist mum (Geraldine Alexander) showers her rotten thoughts on Julia while also complaining that she is sick as some sort of a defence to her wilful racism – to which Julia says: “not too sick to die”. I can still hear the laughter from the audience now.
And when Lula worries about her son Nelson getting into a fight/trouble and messing up his chances of returning to the army, her plea to him: “go off to war before someone kills you,” seems highly ironic.
‘Wedding Band’ left me with every emotion under the sun from championing love through to frustration, anger and despair.
When the threat of Spanish Flu lurks towards the end of the film, it reminded me of that period of isolation and uncertainty that we all felt when Covid-19 reared its ugly head and left us reflecting on our mortality.
This is probably why the play’s ending, an abstract scene, still leaves me puzzled. Was it a reference to a physical or metaphorical transition from the mortal world to another?
One thing is for sure, Alice’s plays are powerful and enduring and despite there being many decades between when the play was first shown and now, it has not lost any of its zeal. This is definitely one to watch – preferably with a friend.
The words in this review are from Abena Sɛwaa and must not be reproduced without prior permission.
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