Black Jesus

bAKEHOUSE Theatre once again brings to Sydney a premiere performance that flouts the ‘conventional’ theatre scene in many ways – because Black Jesus is not ‘cosy’ entertainment! Itis raw and angry and challenging. Set in post revolution Zimbabwe, it looks at oppression and revolution through the eyes of the oppressed and the revolutionaries – and what happens when the ‘liberators’ take charge.

Anders Lustgarten’s work – as a playwright and an activist – is highly acclaimed. He is at present under commission to the Royal Court and the National Theatre in England, and his latest play The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgoisie, about the aftermath of revolution in China, is premiering in London at the same time as Black Jesus opens in Sydney. “Both plays,” he writes, “capture the purpose and energy of revolution, but Black Jesus in particular captures what happens when the revolution curdles.”

Lustgarten pulls no punches as he captures that bitterness, resentment, agony, and ugly, naked hostility. Nor does Suzanne Millar in her incredibly tight and confronting production. In the compact space of the Kings Cross Theatre (KXT), the savage brutality of revolutionary warfare and the chilling effects of betrayal and deception are played out up-close and very personal by a very talented and committed cast. There is no escape from harsh accusations that spit from disillusioned lips and glaring eyes; or from the perfidious duplicity of egotistical ambition. No escape from the escalating tension and unrestrained hostility and hate.

All of which thwart young lawyer, Eunice Ncube in her bid for some vestige of justice. Belinda Jombwe-Cotterill is stunningly convincing in this role. Ncube is strong and not easily intimidated despite the chauvinistic arena in which she chooses to fight, and, despite her diminutive stature, Jombwe-Cotterill finds this with glowering intensity as she faces up to angry tirades and devious deceit. Enormous strength radiates from her squared shoulders, straight back, raised chin and the fierce determination in her voice … and her eyes.

Elijah Williams is similarly convincing as Gabriel Chibamu, incarcerated freedom fighter, who has lost faith and trust and hope. Williams is tall and strong and he uses all of his height and potency to depict the intensity of Chibamu’s frustrated rage and fierce, overwhelming disappointment. On the intimate KXT stage, his reach and power are especially effective. At one moment menacing, at another defenceless and discouraged, Williams’ performance is breath-takingly believable.

Jarrod Crellin plays Rob Palmer, who succumbs to the temptation of promotion in the regime of the ‘new oppressors’. Crellin takes Palmer from altruistic liberal, seemingly supportive of Ncube’s mission, to cruel, unashamed self-seeker. The duplicity of this character is economically written and captured tellingly in Crellin’s performance.

So too is the character of Endurance Moyo, played with sneering intensity by Dorian Nkono. Like Williams, Nkono has a strong stage presence that he too uses to full advantage in a space where the audience has little room to escape the intensity of his characterisation. His depiction of Moyo’s slippery smugness and mirthless contempt is very real … and just a little frightening.

Millar has used space and control almost as characters on her minimalist set. A table and two chairs are the only furniture. A tree, intricately painted by Yvette Tziallas in stark white on a dark background, is the only decoration. Just like the play itself, this production is gritty and unvarnished, hard-hitting and confronting, fast-paced and uncompromising.

In Lustgarten’s words: “What makes Black Jesus important is that unlike the vast majority of white fiction about non-white societies, it’s written from the inside  … and it doesn’t judge – everybody is guilty in some way, and everybody is innocent”.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Nick McKinlay