LEGENDS OF THEM
When Sutara Gayle enters the stage, she immediately has the audience in the palm of her hands. For the next 70 minutes in Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, The Legends of Them makes us privy to the life and times of Lorna Gee, now Sutara Gayle and the legends who made her the lovers rock icon, survivor and legend in her own right.
If there is one way to describe Gayle, you could say she was born for the stage. Confidence doesn’t feel like a fitting word because she supersedes this in her charisma and stage presence. In this biographical one-woman play, through singing, monologuing and sometimes just sitting still, Gayle takes us through the complex journey of her life.
She begins by introducing us to her Nanny Maroon, her mother, her elder sister Cherry and her brother Mooji as the blueprint of her life. We then join her at what seems to be the height of her music career, as “Lorna Gee (the original British-born Brixtonian) where she is accepting an award in front of her idols-made-peers. From this point on, the narrative becomes a disjointed tapestry of all her life events.
We witness a slow and dark descent from reggae star to drug dealer, her journey to understanding her sexuality and battling against her religious upbringing and the idea of disappointing her mother. Impressive musical renditions where she embodies her formidable mother show us Gayle’s vocal range, but also her ability to step into the hearts and souls of “blueprints of her life”.
There is sexual abuse, multiple expulsions from school, the birth of her son and we learn that Gayle’s family were at the centre of a pivotal moment in black British history: Gayle’s sister Cherry was the victim of the police shooting that became the catalyst of the 1985 Brixton Riots. All of these events make her who she is, and she is guided by an ominous voice that sounds like her older brother Mooji, but could be anything between her own self-conscience or her ancestors.
The play is brutally honest, and though dotted with humour at times extremely heartbreaking. On a simple stage made up only of tables and chairs, and a huge soundsystem that looms behind her, Gayle is able to be extremely vulnerable and bear her innermost feelings to the audience, with bravery and dignity.
While Gayle’s performance is captivating, the fragmented nature of the play and its sensitive nature makes it feel there is a gap between the events she lives through, and the play’s final scenes where she seems to make peace with herself and her life. It feels as though there is a lot left sitting in the air. You are happy for Lorna Gee and self-actualisation she seems to find, but there remains the question of how she got there which makes the play feel somewhat incomplete.
The Legends of Them unashamedly shines a light on the injustices faced by the Windrush generation, black women, queer black women who do not fit British society’s cookie cutter mould, and shows an example of such a woman who also dares to be loud and bold about it. Lorna Gee subverts the standards that are forced upon her and lives her life on her own accord. Gayle, with Jo McInnes, creates a play that is not without faults, but is memorable and inspiring.
The Legends of Them is showing at the Royal Court until Saturday 21 December.
★★★★
By Melody Adebisi