Last night Eowyn and I were invited to the opening Night of The Color Purple Tour, currently showing at Norwich Theatre Royal.
Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Alice Walker and adapted for the stage by Pulitzer Prize and Tony award-winner Marsha Norman.
The Color Purple tells the story of courageous heroine Celie, as she journeys through joy, despair, anguish and hope in her own personal awakening to discover her unique voice in the world.
The Color Purple Tour
I had not seen the film starring Whoopi Goldberg, so I did not know what to expect, when you read about the topics it covers, in all honesty it doesn’t sound like it will be an evening to remember, but it absolutely was!
The entire cast were outstanding, so many powerful voices to fill the entire theatre, i’m pretty sure half of them could do it without a mic!
The story is set in the first half of the 20th century, and follows the very traumatic life of Celie (Me’sha Bryan) who endures abuse from her step father, resulting in two children, which are sent away.
She is then forced to marry a man she has to call mister and is treated as a slave more than a wife, he then tries to force himself on her sister Netty (Aaliyah Zhane) which results in the sisters losing contact and Celie believing for years that Netty was dead, which was untrue, just that her husband Albert (Ako Mitchell) had been keeping all the letters hidden.
Sounds pretty depressing doesn’t it? But that’s the beauty of this show, the voices, the characters, the movement and dance, all makes for a fantastic, mesmerising piece of theatre.
As the show progresses, you feel as if you are on the journey with Celie, she transforms from the shy, downtrodden servant, into a fierce woman who knows what she wants, and how she’s going to get it, although it does take her quite a while!
She meets two woman who have a massive influence on her character, Shug Avery (Bree Smith) – an old time flame of Albert, who she develops a relationship with, and her daughter-in-law Sofia (Anelisa Lamola) who spoke her mind and didn’t care what others thought of her, both helped to shape the latter years of Celie’s life and made her realise she was so much more than she thought.
The show spans 40 years, cleverly guiding you, by the use of lighting and year projections onto the staging, which was simple yet effective as it transitioned between a corner store, a prison and the houses they all lived in over the years.
The story touches on so many different topics, that are still somewhat relevant today and its very thought provoking. There was light relief provided by the trio Doris, Jarene and Darlene who interjected with thoughts, opinions and gossip, all in song!
The age recommendation is 14+ due to the nature of the topics, it contains themes of rape, abuse and incest, with overt racism and sexism, and I would agree with the recommendation.
If you are looking for a great evening’s entertainment, then grab your tickets, but be quick, its only at Norwich Theatre until Saturday 5th November.