THE NIGHT WOMAN
Image credit Kaleb D’Aguilar.
The Night Woman by Julene Robinson
This is the very essence of Black Girl Magic. The Night Women poses the question of what power lies in the darkness. Deyifying Black womanhood and weaving a cord between generations past and present. In this play the Black Woman is a God, calling forth generations with the ‘Holy Water’ that comes from between her thighs and starts revolutions with the war cries of birth. This play is about the war between dark and light and an exploration of what happens when we become disconnected from our roots.
We begin the play immersed in darkness as, Julene Robinsons introduces us to the world of the play, in an almost dystopian tone, timeless and unending. As we sit in the darkness the audience takes the place of a child of the women who came before, being called into the present with echoing voices, chants that break into hymns and a drum beat that has echoes of carnival and samba, with mentions of Yoruba Priestess, point to the diasporic nature of this story. The fantastic sound design by Julene Robinson set the scene that the next 75 minutes would be an exploration of Black womanhood, in all its multifaceted glory. We as an audience were birthed into the show and began our journeys of connecting with those that came before.
We see Julene, take on the role of the women who came before, the women who exist in the darkness, outside of society. The Obeah women. As well as the lost daughter of them all, a young woman desperately seeking guidance from her ancestors, this character reflects Robinson’s interactions with her Jamaican culture and her grandmother- a prolific Obeah woman in her community.
The young woman’s loneliness and disconnection were illuminated by the use of an almost clinical, cold white light. While her ancestors were bathed in warm oranges and yellows as they communed in the darkness.
Julene spoke of her grandmother and the whispers of condemnation that followed her. Julene transformed seamlessly between generations through physicality and voice, creating a grandmother who was recognisable to many in the audience. Her exclamations and character elicited familiar laughter from the audience. The characterisation was aided by the creative use of a cord to illustrate the transition from granddaughter to grandmother, alluding to the umbilical cord that remains, connecting the generations, and weaving their stories together. Although the multi-rolling efforts gave us three distinct, full women, It was difficult to place the eras in which the different women existed, leaving the story with a lack of historical clarity.
The play ends with the final woman who came before, decorated with bright red cords and swelling with a musicality that shows the true power that darkness holds and what happens when you embrace it. Through these women we see the beginning of life and how “Look how the baby black” was a celebration and a crowning for the latest baby in this powerful bloodline. Through the use of direct address, this woman attempts to connect with the audience. The use of the device at times felt muddy as it wasn’t clear what role the audience played for each character. This was followed by a return to darkness to bring us to the end of the play, mirroring the start of the play and tying together the women who live in the darkness. The end was strong but I was left feeling somewhat slighted as the story of the young women we met at the start was not fleshed out, nor completed.
Robinson’s delivery of text was masterful, taking the audience on a journey through space and time. Her use of pace and musicality made simple words feel like incantations calling the audience along to the next part of the journey. This paired with the excellent use of lighting (designed by Stevie Porter) to punctuate the darkness created a truly captivating story. Robinson’s stage design was immediately striking, with a tree of ropes in the middle referencing the dark history of the transatlantic slave trade and its brutal aftermath. Although this tree had its moment toward the end, connecting the Obeah women to nature, it felt somewhat underused throughout the rest of the performance. This was a somewhat common theme as Robinson had a tendency to spend long periods occupying a small section of the stage and not making full use of the intimate space in the Barbican’s Pit.
Although the story was sometimes lost, the message and the power of the play were clear. This play was a rallying cry and you can’t help but leave wanting to find a sense of yourself through those who came before.
★★★★☆
The Night Woman is showing at the Barbican till October 21st.
