Floella Benjamin’s Coming To England @ MAST Mayflower Studios, Southampton
Currently on a UK tour, you can experience the beautiful, lyrical and inspiring story of Floella Benjamin’s family journey to England and how she became a girl and a woman of power and example.
Plus your inner Playschool Baby (if you’re of a certain age) can thrill to actually speaking to your heroine. I and mine did! All the while admiring the exquisite and triumphant Baronness Benjamin’s style! (Up-do with discreet tiara, sparkliest of sparkly gold sequined blouses with a cascading neck bow, deep blue velvet trouser suit…and metallic silver kitten heel boots!) Her voice was deeper than I expected, but I also don’t know what I was expecting since I was a toddler when we last met across a screen.
Whilst I came away feeling that the production is one of the very few which really could benefit from some images and projections (or a few more props), overall, it is a wonderful production. I read and cherished the book — an autobiography from the point of her child self, and the stage version keeps all of that truth here. Whilst it goes Blue Remembered Hills with adults playing children, everything is very much from a child’s perspective, without dumbing down or sugar-coating. None of it feels false or pretentious — the energy that the cast give is off the scale. We also get a wonderful introduction to Trinidadian culture of the post-war years through dance, song, community, church and faith life, carnival, school — and most importantly, family.
As we look and wait for storks, the Benjamin family grows before our eyes — they love and play — and squabble. Church is exciting and joyful, the island friendly, everyone knows everyone else’s business, then there’s the food…School is super strict…and very Anglo-centric. Dardie (Charles Angiama) dreams of playing jazz music — and when Britain the motherland calls, he (like so many) answer the call of welcome to help rebuild and fulfill his dreams. This means separating the family, as first Dardie goes, then Marmie (Maryla Abraham) follows with the two youngest Benjamins, leaving the two older sisters and two older brothers to go to foster parents.
Unafraid of emotional punch, we encounter a cruel aunty and uncle as the children are worked, starved and mistreated for 15 months — until liberation comes. And a joyous riotous boat trip to England — which is not the embracing, gold-paved, classy motherland promoted and anticipated. It’s drab, cold, broken and battered, decrepit after taking so much to defeat the Nazis and bizarrely convinced of its superiority, inspite of all of this. Determined to thrive not just survive, the Benjamins squash together in one room — of love. Floella (Jolene Robinson) encounters racism, prejudice and discrimination for the first time at school as the vilely snobbish and classist teacher forces her by public shaming to change her accent. Add into the mix pupil/peer/random bloke in the street comments about her hair, skin colour and going home which mount up until she can’t take it any more and bursts into tears. However, Marmie motivates Floella to stay strong, to educate herself, to show people who she really is — for their hate and disklike is their problem, not hers.
Whilst I couldn’t help but clap when she silenced a scornful mouth by ramming their lollipop into it, this wasn’t the lesson I was to take away. In a divine intervention moment, a voice in Floella’s head challenges her about what she’s doing in fighting back — who is she trying to be and show herself to me. Instead Floella realises that their problem with the colour of her skin is their problem and that her smile is her super power.
In a lovely moment of comeuppance, a horrible grey middle class couple try to get the police to remove the Benjamin family from their neighbourhood. They are lawfully going about their business, viewing a house they plan to buy. In a really refreshing touch, the policeman they’ve summoned respects Mrs Benjamin, listens to her, allows her to speak and admonishes the grey ones for wasting police time with their prejudiced nonsense. He honours a black family lawfully and peaceably going about their business.
Unwanted, shunned, ignored and openly treated badly (such as trying to flood their home), the Benjamins determine to stay and contribute, to belong. Plus they want to access the delights of middle class neighbourhoods such as better schools — and better jumble sales! Most of all this is Baronness Benjamin’s loving tribute to the care and encouragement of her parents; her incredibly nurturing mother, and artistic father who got her singing, dancing and actors. More than all of this, its about a deeply loving family who want the best for all their children and push back against all the limitations and labels people try to pull them down with. There’s no room for victimhood here — instead there’s abundance to be enjoyed and life to be lived, a very carnival spirit.
Nicely utilising advice from the time, in grey BBC Chumney-Warner intervention, the Benjamins learn how to be British and find out about the blandness and coldness of British architecture and weather. Many of the British people they encounter are dull and grey, boring. The policeman is the first kind character. Not shown are the equally badly treated Italian family, who become their friends as people move out or try to push the family out. He’s the first respectful white person we meet in the play.
Coming on stage to call for diversity nirvana, we’re all urged to dream big — and to see and welcome, not to close off. The tears and isolation of the child Floella at all the unkindness heaped on her cut to the heart — but Marmie restores her hope and faith by encouraging her to keep looking to the light, the puddings amidst the wearisome.
Using fairly simple staging, we’re heartily encouraged to use our imaginations — blocked steps become the ship, the family home, a prize giving stage. Dance, calypso and gospel are deployed to give us a sense of the riotous floating community of parentless children and joyful adults; Trinidadian church worship is beautifully presented. Seen always from the child’s point of view, we almost burst (along with child Floella) as we peep at the adults dancing and can’t believe it. We also really feel it deeply when the children are treated cruelly by adults — or by other children.
Staged within a TV set surround, beautiful flowers or battered bombed out Britain sets come in from the wings of the stage. London is conjured up by a tube sign for London Waterloo. Whilst I appreciate that they don’t want this to become a distanced period piece, a setting back drop or two would have helped. Particularly when they go Mary Poppins and singing, dancing mac’d Cockneys start talking about all the places you can see — and tap dancing! Some of the time we do rely on the characters telling us where a prop or image could help — whether a backdrop image, puppets, hats, a bit of costuming. The same thing happens at the end when Marmie learns to drive and takes the family off on all kinds of day trips — again some souvenirs, models or anything visual would have helped.
However, this is a minor quibble as part fairy tale, part musical and all heart, the production’s storytelling is accomplished. Loved seeing Baronness Benjamin on stage at the end, and even meeting her family, Keith her husband of 54 years was there and I think, her daughter. Even the Director Denzel Westley Anderson was in the audience and got his well-deserved moment of praise. I’m not sure that the MAST stage served them well as they looked squashed at points, and parts of the static set blocked the view of the cast for the audience. Thankfully they didn’t stay still — or to the side, for very long!
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